On November 26 (December 7), 1769, the Imperial Military Order of St. George the Victorious, the Great Martyr, was established by decree of Empress Catherine II. The Order included four classes and was awarded to officers exclusively for military merit. The insignia were worn on a silk ribbon “with three black and two yellow stripes.”
On February 13 (25), 1807, the manifesto of Emperor Alexander I established the Insignia of the Military Order as an award for the lower military ranks for “undaunted bravery”. On the front side, in the central medallion, was an image of St. George the Victorious on horseback striking the serpent with a spear. After the end of the Crimean War, four classes were introduced by imperial decree. The insignia were worn on the St. George’s ribbon on the chest and were made of gold (for the first and second classes) and silver (for the third and fourth classes).
In 1913, the Insignia of the Military Order was officially renamed the Cross of St. George, and the recipients became cavaliers of St. George. At the same time, the color of the ribbon was changed from yellow to orange. During the First World War, approximately 1,200,000 lower ranks of the Russian Imperial Army received the Cross of St. George, 4th class.
The cross under No. 757865 presented in the museum belonged to a private of the 3rdTurkestan Rifle Regiment Sergey Georgievich Murzak (1892 — after 1917), who was born in the village of Kugureshty of the Kotyuzhansky Volost of the Soroksky Uyezd of the Bessarabia Governorate. The award was presented to Murzak on November 13, 1916 on behalf of the Imperial Sovereign and personally by Lieutenant General, Adjutant General, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich for distinction in the battle on July 21, 1916 near the village of Rudka Mirinskaya, “when, during the offensive and capture of heavily fortified positions occupied by the enemy, he [Murzak] encouraged his comrades by exemplifying bravery and courage and calling on them to follow him.”
Subsequently, in a battle near the village of Antonovo on December 12, 1916, private Murzak received a shrapnel wound to the hips and legs without bone damage and at the beginning of 1917 was being treated in a hospital in Voronezh.
The Order of St. George and the Cross of St. George
were reinstated in the Russian Federation as state awards.
