MOSCOW, Oct 13, Anastasia Silkina.The Moscow Kremlin Museums presented the exhibition project “Legends of the Kremlin: Russian Romanticism and the Armory,” which debunks the myths surrounding the attribution of the famous treasury. When did the «children's armor of Dmitry Donskoy», the bone throne and Monomakh's hat actually appear — in the material .
Heavy are you, Monomakh's cap: the history of the second coronation set
Emperor Alexander I established the Armory Chamber as a museum in 1806. Then they just began to lay the foundations for studying the collection. Many things received fictitious attributions, said Elena Gagarina, General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums.
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“After the Napoleonic Wars, there is a rise in Russian national consciousness, the study of history, its romanticization,” Gagarina explained. — Things that had long been kept in the Armory Chamber during this period received new meaning and new attributions, often romantic. Many monuments are «designated» witnesses of certain historical events since the Baptism of Rus'.»
In the exhibition hall of the Assumption Belfry, visitors are greeted by a bone throne. In the 19th century, it was perceived as a gift presented by the Greek ambassador to Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich on the occasion of his marriage to Sophia Paleologus.
Later, Tsar Ivan the Terrible became its fictitious owner — as if a sculpture confirms this The work of Mark Antokolsky is right there.
Modern scientists say that the object could have been created during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich with the participation of Western European masters, that is, much later than his crowned predecessors from the Rurik family lived. 
The history of the Monomakh cap of the second outfit is noteworthy. For a long time it was believed that this was the “crown of Grand Duchess Olga,” who took it from Constantinople (Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, now Istanbul). Or the crown, which “was used by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich on smaller occasions.”
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“Russian tsars were always crowned with the cap of Monomakh. But in 1682, two young tsars ascended the throne at once: Ivan Alekseevich and Pyotr Alekseevich, the future Peter I. To do this, it was necessary to urgently make a copy of Monomakh’s hat, which is called the “second outfit” because it is the second most important,” said the curator exhibitions Fedor Panfilov.
The first weapons researchers also tried to correlate objects from the Kremlin collection with terms from the chronicles. This often led to errors, and some unique works, generated by the imagination of a gunsmith, turned into “typical” for a Russian warrior of the 17th century.
This happened with the tarch shield. In fact, such an object weighed about eight kilograms and was inconvenient in battle.
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Romantics actively searched for artifacts that belonged to national heroes. This is how legends arose that the helmet made for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich belonged to Prince Alexander Nevsky. Children's armor of the 17th century — to the young Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389), and the baidana with inscriptions on the rings became the chain mail of Martha the Posadnitsa, defender of the Novgorod freemen at the end of the 15th century.
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“The fact is that Karamzin’s story “Martha the Posadnitsa” was extremely popular,” explained Sergei Orlenko, head of the weapons sector. — Legends were born themselves. Somewhere in Siberia, a Cossack banner was found in a church, and it had already reached Moscow as the “banner of Ermak.”
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The Age of Romanticism: myth-making out of ignorance
Exhibition in the exhibition hall of the Patriarchal Palace immerses you in the very era of romanticism. Guests see a portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in a stylized Russian dress, a portrait of the poet Vasily Zhukovsky by Orest Kiprensky, a carpet from the living room in Peterhof, a service.
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Here, on the walls and in the display cases, are portraits and works of the “fathers” of some legends — archaeographer Alexei Malinovsky and artist-researcher Fyodor Solntsev. Scientists of that time created myths not with the aim of misleading anyone, but out of ignorance, modern historians are sure.
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"For the era of romanticism, creatively supplementing history, adding more vivid details to it is a completely normal phenomenon. History was just taking shape as a science, and, of course, I wanted more ancient names. This is how we received many legends that are still alive,” said Panfilov.
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In total, the exhibition includes more than 130 items, which were also shared by the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Historical Museum, the Russian Museum, Tsarskoye Selo, the State Tretyakov Gallery and other institutions .
You can find out how fiction and reality are intertwined in the history of the Kremlin assembly until January 14.