The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

A Hospital in the Winter Palace. 1915-1917

On 10 March 2006 an exhibition opened in the Foyer of the Hermitage Theatre devoted to the history of the "field hospital for lower military ranks" which existed in the Winter Palace during World War I.

A large hospital unit with surgical facilities and room for 1000 patients was organized with the permission of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. It occupied all of the state rooms of the Palace. The opening of the hospital took place on 10 October 1915 and it was disbanded on 28 October 1917.

The materials presented in the exhibition (photographs, documents, memoirs) are, with few exceptions, originals and date from the time when the hospital existed. This archive was collected over many years and made it possible to recreate the history of the hospital and to offer a real exhibition.

Supplemental materials from the Department of History of Russian Culture and the Department of Numismatics of the State Hermitage relating to this period round out the exhibition and give it additional weight.

At the exhibition

The exhibition catalogue