St. George's crosses of 4 degrees were established as the highest award, which was awarded to representatives of the lower ranks in the army of the Russian Empire. It was awarded only for personal courage shown on the battlefield. Despite the fact that this award is already more than two hundred years old, it did not immediately receive its current name - the St. George Cross. It appeared only in 1913 with the approval of the updated regulations on the Order of St. George.
History of occurrence
In mid-February 1807, the Highest Manifesto was published, which established the Insignia of the Military Order. It was he who would later be renamed the St. George Cross. In 1833, under Emperor Nicholas I, a need arose for the adoption of a new statute of the Order of St. George. It contained several innovations regarding the awarding of crosses to soldiers. For example, now the commanders-in-chief of the armies, as well ascommanders of individual corps. This simplification of the procedure greatly facilitated the award process itself, and also practically eliminated all sorts of bureaucratic delays.
The next innovation is the maximum increase in the salary of soldiers and non-commissioned officers, as well as the right to wear a cross along with the St. George's bow. This difference preceded the appearance of the division of the award into several degrees.
The first awards, which appeared in 1807, were not numbered. This oversight began to be corrected only after two years, when they decided to compile lists of all gentlemen. For this, the awards were temporarily withdrawn and numbered. Therefore, it is precisely known that there were 9937 copies. Thanks to this, even now you can find out who was awarded this or that St. George Cross (4th degree). By the number and type of font, it is easy to determine the period to which the award belongs. In World War I, the number of crosses awarded exceeded 1 million, so the reverse of later medallions on the upper beam bears the designation 1/M.
Short description
St. George's crosses of 4 degrees appeared only in March 1856, when further changes were made to the regulations on the Order of St. George. Initially, the 1st and 2nd degrees were made of gold, and the other two were made of silver. According to the statute, the awards must occur sequentially. In addition, for each of the degrees, its own special numbering was developed, and for visual distinction they addedalso a bow made from St. George's ribbon.
After numerous awards to soldiers for valiant service in the Turkish War of 1877-1878, the stamps that were previously used by the Mint for minting, it was decided to update. To this end, the medalist A. A. Grilikhes made some changes to the images on the crosses. It was then that these insignia acquired the appearance that was preserved until the 1917 revolution. An impression of the figure of St. George on the updated medallions has become much more expressive.
Privileges
The new statute of 1913, among other things, provided for a lifetime allowance. So, those awarded with the St. George Cross of the 4th degree received 36 rubles, and the first - already 120. At the same time, the owners of several awards were paid an increase or pension as for the highest distinction. Cavaliers of the St. George Cross of the 4th degree, and those simply awarded this distinction, had a number of privileges, for example, it was forbidden to use corporal punishment against them.
Production Features
Already in April 1914, St. George's crosses of 4 degrees of a new sample appeared. The Mint received an order for them in the autumn of 1913. They were intended for presentation to members of military expeditions and border guards. Since July 1914, when the First World War began, the mint began to mint much more crosses. To speed up the process, even those medallions that remained from the Japanese war were first used. Only during the first year they sent to the armyabout 1.5 thousand crosses of the first, more than 3 thousand - the second, 26 thousand - the third and the largest number of the fourth - 170 thousand copies.
Due to the sharply increased demand for St. George's crosses made of precious metals and the difficult economic situation in the country in the spring of 1915, it was decided to slightly reduce the standard of gold used for these purposes, so the highest degrees of military awards began to be made from a special alloy. In its composition, it contained only 60% pure gold.
Starting from October 1916, expensive metals were completely removed from the alloy used in the manufacture of all Russian awards without exception. From now on, St. George's crosses of the 4th degree were already minted only from cupronickel and tompak, and on its rays were the letters: BM is white metal, and ZhM is yellow. Just before the revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government allowed this award to be presented to both soldiers and officers, while the latter also had a laurel branch pinned to the ribbon.
