On August 26, 2026, the State Historical Museum hosted the grand opening of the exhibition "Names of Russian Diplomacy. Yemelyan Ukraintsev", dedicated to the 385th anniversary of the birth of the head of the Embassy Order, Yevgeny Ukraintsev, the 340th anniversary of the reunification of the Kiev Metropolitanate with the Russian Orthodox Church and the 330th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Navy.
The event is being held on the initiative of the Russian Foreign Ministry as part of a joint program with the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) to perpetuate the memory of the heads of the Russian Foreign Ministry from different eras with the assistance of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA), the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, the Rosarchive, the Navy and the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The DECR Chairman conveyed greetings and blessings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to the audience. In his speech, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk stressed that the reunification of the Kiev Metropolitanate with the Russian Orthodox Church was an important historical event that restored historical justice and served to strengthen the unity of our Church and the community of the peoples of Russia.
At the same time, an important contribution to the cause of church unification was made by an outstanding Russian diplomat, the head of the Embassy Order, Yemelyan Ignatievich Ukraintsev, whose 385th birthday is celebrated in 2026. In 1684, this statesman successfully negotiated the appointment of Metropolitan Gideon (Svyatopolk-Chetvertinsky) of Kiev and the further return of the Kiev metropolitanate to the jurisdiction of the united Russian Church.
These events more than three hundred years ago resonate with modernity, the DECR head emphasized: the importance of preserving the community of Orthodoxy in the space of historical Russia, the unity of the peoples who emerged from the Dnieper Baptismal font, do not lose their relevance in our days. Today, canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine is being persecuted by the authorities and nationalist forces, but the hierarchs, clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are courageously resisting the schism imposed from the outside.
Metropolitan Anthony touched upon another theme of the event – the 330th anniversary of the founding of the Navy, which ensures foreign trade and the protection of the country's interests. But historically, the Russian navy also served the mission and spread of Orthodoxy in the Far East and Alaska, which contributed to the preaching of the Orthodox faith further on the American continent.
The exhibition features unique exhibits from the 17th and 18th centuries, including a precious gold mitre made in 1685 in the workshops of the Moscow Kremlin Armory and presented by Peter I to Metropolitan Gideon IV of Kiev; a 1686 letter from Patriarch Dionysius IV of Constantinople on the transfer of the Kiev Metropolitanate under the authority of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire 1700, which secured the city of Azov with part of the coast of the Sea of Azov to Russia, as well as silver medals "In memory of the capture of Azov, 1696" and "In memory of the establishment of the fleet in Russia, 1696".