State symbols and awards of the Russian Empire

Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov , full holder of the Order of St. George. In the portrait is the Badge of the Order of St. George of the 1st degree (cross) on the St. George ribbon (behind the hilt of a sword) and its quadrangular star (2nd from above).

In the Middle Ages, the word order meant a paramilitary non-governmental organization, whose members bore signs of belonging to this organization. Later, such signs of various degrees began to be awarded to statesmen whose merits made them worthy (in the opinion of the monarch) of entry into the order of those awarded with royal mercy. That's why they said: a sign to the order of such and such, a star to the order of such and such. In modern times, the concept of the order began to designate the actual badges. In the first 100 years of its existence, the star for the highest order of St. Andrew the First-Called was cloth and was sewn on a caftan, and only in the 19th century began to be made of silver.

• The first order of the Russian Empire “The Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called ” was established by Tsar Peter I in 1698 “ in retribution and rewarding with one for fidelity, courage and rendered merit to us and to our own country . The first order was the highest award of the Russian state for major government and military officials.
• The second order, which became the highest award for the ladies, was also established by Peter I in 1713 in honor of his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna. Peter awarded this order only his wife, subsequent awards occurred after his death. Formally, the female Order of St. Catherine was in second place in the hierarchy of awards, he was awarded the wives of major statesmen and military leaders for socially useful activities, taking into account the merits of their husbands.
• The third order was established in 1725 by Empress Catherine I , immediately after the death of Peter I. The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky became an award one step lower than the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, to distinguish not the highest ranks of the state.

In 1769, another empress, Catherine II , introduced the “Military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George” , which became the most respected because of its status. This order was assigned regardless of the officer’s rank for military exploits: “ Neither the high breed, nor the wounds received before the enemy, give the right to be granted this order: but it is given to those who not only corrected their position in everything by oath, honor and duty to their own, but moreover they distinguished themselves by a special courageous deed, or they gave wise and useful advice for our military service ... ”The officers were proud of the Order of St. George 4th class like no other, since he was mined by his own blood and was recognized possession of personal courage awarded.

Catherine II also established the fifth order in 1782 , on the 20th anniversary of her reign. The Imperial Order of the Holy Equal -to-the- Apostles Prince Vladimir in 4 degrees became a more democratic award, which allowed to cover a wide range of public servants and the lower officers.

The son of Catherine II, Emperor Paul I , in 1797 included in the system of Russian awards the Holstein Order of St. Anna (the youngest in the hierarchy of Russian orders until 1831) and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem , thereby extending the effect of the Order of Malta to the entire territory of the Russian Empire ( Alexander I later excluded this order from the awards of the Empire). Paul I reformed and streamlined the award system, established the Chapter of the Imperial Orders. Moreover, during his reign, awards of the orders of St. George and St. Vladimir were not made, although the Order of St. George remained officially among the awards of Russia. After the death of Paul I, both orders were restored in full rights.

After Poland was included in the Russian Empire, Emperor Nicholas I found it useful to include Polish orders in the system of Russian state awards since 1831 : the Order of the White Eagle , the Order of St. Stanislav and temporarily “For Military Valor” (Virtuti Militari). The last order was awarded to the participants in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1831; awards were made only for a few years.

In the 18th century, stars for orders were made sewn. A star with fabric inserts was embroidered on a leather backing with thick silver or gilded thread. From the beginning of the 19th century, metallic stars began to appear, usually from silver and less often from gold, which replaced embroidered stars only by the middle of the 19th century. To decorate the stars and signs used diamonds or the so-called "diamonds" , that is, faceted pebbles of rock crystal. There are stars in which the owner replaced part of the diamonds with “diamonds”; probably due to material difficulties.

Until 1826, receiving a Russian order of any degree gave the awarded person the right to hereditary nobility (it was not a sufficient condition, but a good reason). Since 1845, those awarded only the orders of St. Vladimir and St. George of any degree received the rights of hereditary nobility , while other orders required the award of the highest 1st degree. By a decree of May 28, 1900, those awarded the 4th degree of the Order of St. Vladimir received rights only of their personal nobility.

Despite the fact that Peter I developed a huge number of flags during his life (various versions of the St. Andrew’s flag, the standards of the “Tsar of Moscow and the Emperor of All Russia”, variants of the guys, etc.), the state flag of the Russian Empire was never installed.

In 1858, during the reign of Emperor Alexander II, the chairman of the heraldic chamber of the Russian Empire, Baron Kene, drew the attention of the sovereign to the fact that the colors of the national flag of Russia did not match the colors of the national coat of arms (which went against the rules of German heraldry ). Despite the fact that in reality the colors of the Russian flag corresponded to the colors of the central, most ancient image of the state emblem of the empire, namely the emblem of Moscow, Baron Kene managed to convince the emperor of the need to create a new flag .

It is possible that the decision to accept the black-yellow-white flag as the state flag of the Russian Empire influenced by the fact that another empire of that time - the Austrian - used a similar flag, which was a black-and-yellow cloth (colors of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation of the 15th – 19th centuries ) ^[3] .

By the decree of Alexander II of June 11, 1858, a black-yellow-white “flag of the coat of arms” was introduced: “Description of the Highest approved pattern of the arrangement of the coat of arms of the empire on banners, flags and other items used for decoration on special occasions. The arrangement of these flowers is horizontal, the upper stripe is black, the middle is yellow (or gold), and the bottom is white (or silver). The first stripes correspond to a black state eagle in a yellow field, and a cockade of these two colors was founded by Emperor Paul I , while banners and other ornaments of these flowers were used already during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna . The lower strip is white or silver corresponds to the cockade of Peter the Great and Empress Catherine II ; Emperor Alexander I , after the capture of Paris in 1814 , connected the regular coat of arms with the ancient Peter the Great, which corresponds to the white or silver horseman (St. George) in the Moscow coat of arms. " The decree was approved by the Senate on the report of the Minister of the Imperial Court, Count W. Adlerberg ^[4] .

However, Russian society did not accept this new symbol of state power. : in the Russian minds, black and yellow colors were associated with Austria and the Habsburg house that ruled there. In the empire, there were two flags in parallel: black-yellow-white - national “ de jure ” and white-blue-red - national “ de facto ”, and the preferences of the population were universally given to the latter .

Emperor Alexander III , a Slavophile , during the coronation drew attention to the contrast in Moscow: the Kremlin was decorated and the whole procession was dressed in white-yellow-black, and white-blue-red colors prevailed in the city . A commission of authoritative persons was appointed under the chairmanship of Adjutant General Admiral K. N. Posiet . The Commission issued the following decision: “The white-blue-red flag, established by the Emperor Peter the Great, has almost 200 years ago. Heraldic data are also noted in it: the Moscow coat of arms depicts a white horseman in a blue cloak on a red field. Flags in the navy also confirm these colors: the 1st line is marked in red, the 2nd line is blue and the 3rd is a white flag with the St. Andrew’s cross in the roof . The counter and vice admiral flags, respectively, have red and blue stripes; finally, the gyus is composed of colors: white, blue and red. On the other hand, white-yellow-black colors have neither historical nor heraldic foundations. ” - Based on the decision of the commission of Admiral Posiet, the national flag was highly approved white-blue-red ^[5] .

On April 28, 1883 ( May 7, 1883, this decision was included in the Collection of Legalizations of the Russian Empire) Alexander III issued the “Order on Flags for Decorating Buildings on Special Occasions”, requiring the use of a white-blue-red flag exclusively ^[6] . Black-yellow-white from that moment was considered the dynastic flag of the reigning house of the Romanovs . According to other evidence, contrary to this statement, the white-blue-red flag is highest affirmed by Emperor Alexander III only "for commercial vessels" ^[7] .

The last Russian emperor Nicholas II in 1896 ^[8] finally assigned the status of the national flag of the Russian Empire to the white-blue-red flag ^[9] .

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, an additional imperial flag “for use in private life” was introduced to raise the patriotism of the population by a special circular of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It differed from the state flag of the empire by a yellow square with a black two-headed eagle (a composition corresponding to the palace standard of the emperor). The eagle was depicted without the title coat of arms on the wings, the square overlapped the white and about a quarter of the blue stripes of the flag. However, this flag is not widespread; contrary to widespread misconception, it was never the state flag of the Russian Empire. The new flag was not introduced as mandatory, its use was only "allowed". The symbolism of the flag emphasized the unity of the king with the people.

The large state emblem of the Russian Empire ( 1882 ) was as follows: “in a golden shield is a black two-headed eagle , crowned with two imperial crowns, above which is the same, but in large form, crown, with two fluttering ends of the ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew .

State eagle holds a golden scepter and power . On the eagle’s chest there is a Moscow coat of arms: in the shield scarlet with gold edges, the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George , in silver armament and azure hair (mantle), on a silver, covered with a crimson fabric with gold fringe, a horse that defeats a golden, with green wings, a golden dragon, with the eight-pointed cross at the top, a spear.

The shield is crowned with the helmet of the Holy Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky . Bait black with gold. Around the shield is the chain of the Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called; on the sides of the image are the saints Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel .

Golden canopy, crowned by the imperial crown , dotted with Russian eagles and lined with ermine. On it is a scarlet inscription: “ God bless us!” “Above the canopy, a recognizing state banner , with an eight-pointed cross on a pole. The canvas of the state banner is golden; on it is an image of the middle national coat of arms, but without the surrounding nine shields. ”

Before the Nikolaev era, in Russia they used the anthem "God Save the King" (God save the King) with the Russian text of Zhukovsky.

In 1833, Prince Alexei Fedorovich Lvov accompanied Nicholas I during his visit to Austria and Prussia , where the emperor was everywhere greeted with the sounds of the English march. The tsar listened to the melody of monarchist solidarity without enthusiasm and, upon his return, instructed Lvov, as the musician closest to him, to compose a new anthem.

Listening to the first anthem takes place on December 18, 1833, opposite the Winter Palace , in the hall of the Imperial Chapel. The anthem was performed several times in a row. Only six lines of text and 16 measures of melody easily fell into the soul, it was easily remembered by absolutely everyone. Shocked, with tears in his eyes, Nicholas I walks up to Alexei Fedorovich Lvov and tells him: “This is incomparable.”

God save the king

Strong, sovereign,

Reign for glory

To the glory of us!

Reign in fear to enemies

The Tsar is Orthodox.

God King

Save the king!

The new Russian anthem became so popular that at the end of the XIX century. the words of one of the hymns of the American Episcopal Church were put on his melody. In a slightly modified arrangement, this church hymn is still performed in the USA ^[10] .