Order of St. George - what is it

All of us at school on history passed a theme which was devoted to the military order for military distinctions - the Order of St. George. It was the only military order that was awarded to people solely for their services to the homeland in terms of military operations.

The Order of St. George has four degrees. Awards were issued inconsistently. That is, if a person received the Order of St. George of the fourth degree, it is not a fact that next time he will receive the order of the third degree. It is likely that he will be awarded a second or first degree. The fact is that Catherine II rewarded for the quality of combat merit before the motherland, and not for quantity.

As already mentioned, the Order of St. George does not imply a consistent rewarding of a person. But be sure to take into account that it was very difficult to obtain any degree of recognition. The statute states that in order to obtain a third or fourth degree of merit, first you need to collect all the evidence of the heroic deed, and also describe in detail the whole process. After that, the application was submitted to the monarch, and he already decided whether the person was worthy of such a reward, or not.

Also it should be said that the Order of St. George has the highest degrees of awarding - this is the first and second. The statute clearly states, for which orders are given, as well as for what merits. I would like to note that the monarch personally congratulated himself on this recognition, and the order was also presented at his own discretion.

In order to obtain the first and second degree of the award, a person needed to win a war, or an important battle, respectively. That is why the Order of St. George does not have many people who have the highest degree of reward.

I would definitely like to note that the statute of the order says that the number of people who can be awarded is not limited. Thus, any military man of any rank could receive an order of any degree according to his combat and military merits.

The Order of St. George was absolutely free. That is, the cavaliers did not make any financial contributions. But, nevertheless, they received a monetary reward in the form of an annual pension. That is, the country helped its heroes, and also cared about them. It is also noteworthy that the knight of the Order was granted the right to hereditary nobility. Of course, this is only if the person did not have it before.

In the end, I would like to say that the full cavaliers of the Order are not that many. In total, there are four of them in the Russian Empire. For those who do not know, the full knights of the Order of St. George are those people who received the order of all four degrees. It's very prestigious, and these people are real heroes. Among them, Prince Smolensky, as well as Kutuzov. Just remember the merits of these people before our homeland, and you will understand that they are really worthy of this award, as well as its highest degree. Therefore, we all should respect these people and be grateful for their services, because who knows what would be with us now, if not for them.