I am true to the holy fraternity!

Gala events took place in honor of the 200th Anniversary of the Imperial Tsarskoselsky Lyceum in St. Petersburg andTsarskoe Selo, which were visited by numerous guests, including Lyceum students'descendents.The Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also came to the celebration. He laid flowers on the poet A. S. Pushkin monument and said,"The state has always paid special attention

to this place and to the memory of Pushkin. It is not accidental that the museum of Alexander Sergeevich was opened here on the initiative of future Lyceum students and professors. If we can say that we are grateful for remembering Pushkin, it would be, first of all, our thanks to those people, who worked in this museum. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to those who work here nowadays, the personnel of the museum".

The Imperial Alexandrovsky Lyceum was opened on October 19,1811, as a school of training of youths "especially destined forthe important departments of the state service".This privileged educational institution brought up a lot of remarkable people, outstanding writers, servicemen, diplomats, statesmen — Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Gorchakov, Ivan Pushchin,Wilhelm Kuechelbeker, Jacob Grot, Michael Saltykov-Shchedrinand many others.

During the celebration of the anniversary in the Lyceum the bust of the remarkable statesman Michael Speransky was unveiled. Speransky was the person, thanks to whom this educational institution was founded.

Unique items were presented at the exhibition in the Lyceum: Messages of greeting in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Ly-ceum, signed by the emperor Nickolas II and the empress Maria Fedorovna, Pushkin's autographs on the poems, dedicated to the Lyceum friends of the poet.