A rare official badge of the Tsarskoe Selo Bicentenary Exhibition of 1911 has joined our museum collection thanks to the donation from Stanislav Romanchuk of St Petersburg.

The exhibition commemorating Tsarskoe Selo's 200-year period of 1710–1910 was held under the highest patronage of Emperor Nicholas II during 10 August to 5 October 1911.

The badge was designed by the engineer Semyon Sidorchuk as a homage to Vasily Stasov's neoclassical To-my-Dear-Comrages-in-Arms Gate in the Catherine Palace. It was produced by St Petersburg's Dmitry Osipov Medal and Commemorative Factory as a gilded version for experts (100 pieces), a silver version for participants (575 pcs), an oxidised version for Exhibition Committee members (75 pcs), and a painted green version for Exhibition workers (250 pcs). The donated oxidised copper badge is of the most limited version.

The Tsarskoe Selo Bicentenary Exhibition of 1911 was a momentous event. Its memorabilia in our museum collection include: three desktop medals of engraved silver, gilded bronze and patinated bronze; a silver jeton; a poster, a programme, postcards, photographs, awardee lists, etc.