St George crosses 4 degrees were established asthe highest award honored by representatives of the lower ranks in the army of the Russian Empire. She was awarded only for personal courage on the battlefield. Despite the fact that this award is already more than two hundred years old, it didn’t receive its present name, the Cross of St. George, immediately. It appeared only in 1913 with the approval of the updated provision on the Order of St. George.
In mid-February 1807 came outThe highest manifesto, which established the insignia of the Military Order. It was subsequently renamed the George Cross. In 1833, under Emperor Nicholas I, the need arose for the adoption of a new statute of the Order of St. George. It contained several innovations relating to the awards of soldiers soldier crosses. For example, now the commanders-in-chief of armies, as well as military commanders of individual corps could represent the award. Such a simplification of the procedure greatly facilitated the process of awarding itself, as well as virtually eliminated all bureaucratic delays.
The next innovation is the maximum increase tothe salaries of soldiers and non-commissioned officers, as well as the right to bear the cross with the St. George's bow. Such a difference preceded the appearance of the division of the reward by several degrees.
The first awards that appeared in 1807 were notnumbered. This misstep began to be corrected only after two years, when they decided to make lists of all the gentlemen. For this, the rewards were temporarily seized and numbered. Therefore, it is exactly known that there were 9937 copies. Thanks to this, it is now possible to find out who was given 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 relates. The number of crosses handed over to the First World War exceeded 1 million, therefore the designation 1 / M is on the reverse of the later medallions on the upper beam.
St George crosses 4 degrees appeared only inMarch 1856, when the regulations on the Order of St. George were made regular changes. Initially, degrees 1 and 2 were made of gold, while the other two were made of silver. According to the statute, the award should be consistent. In addition, for each of the degrees a special numbering was developed, and a bow made of St. George ribbon was also added for visual distinction.
After numerous awards soldiers forFor the gallant service in the Turkish War of 1877–1878, the stamps that were previously used by the Mint for minting were decided to be updated. For this, the medalist A. A. Griliches made some changes in the images on the crosses. It was then that these insignia acquired that appearance, which was preserved until the 1917 revolution. The imprint of the figure of St. George on the updated medallions has become much more expressive.
New Statute of 1913, among other thingsprovided for a lifetime pay. Thus, the 4 degrees awarded by the St. George Cross 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 sign of distinction. Cavaliers of the Cross of St. George of the 4th degree, and even the distinctions awarded with this sign had a number of privileges, for example, it was forbidden to use corporal punishment against them.
Already in April 1914 St. George appeared4 degree crosses of the new sample. The order for them to the Mint arrived in the fall of 1913. They were intended for delivery to participants of military expeditions and border guards. Since July 1914, when the First World War began, the Mint began to mint significantly more crosses. To speed up the process, at first they used even those medallions that remained from the Japanese war. Only in the first year about 1,5 thousand crosses of the first were sent to the army, 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 forSt. George's crosses made of precious metals and the difficult economic situation in the country in the spring of 1915, it was decided to somewhat reduce the sample of gold used for these purposes, so the highest degrees of military awards were made from a special alloy. In its composition, it contained only 60% pure gold.
Since October 1916, expensive metalsand completely removed from the alloy used in the manufacture of all without exception of Russian awards. From now on, St. George's crosses of 4 degrees were minted only from nickel silver and tombac, and on its rays were letters: BM is a white metal, and iron is yellow. Before the revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government allowed both soldiers and officers to present this award, while the latter also had a laurel branch attached to the tape.
