Cross of Saint George

Cross of Saint George
Imperial Cross of Saint George IV class
Awarded by  Russian Federation
Type	Military Decoration
Eligibility	Soldiers, sailors, sergeants, petty officers, warrant officers and junior officers.
Awarded for	Distinction in Combat
Status	Active
Statistics
Established	1807; Re-established 1992
Precedence
Next (higher)	Order of Parental Glory
Next (lower)	Decoration "For Beneficence"
Ribbon of the Imperial Cross of Saint George 1st Class

The Cross of Saint George (Russian: Георгиевский Крест) is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was initially established by Imperial Russia where it was officially known as the Decoration of the Military Order of Saint George between 1807 and 1913. The Cross of Saint George was reinstated into the Russian awards system in 1992.

Established in the February 1807 decree of Emperor Alexander I, it was intended as a reward for "undaunted courage" by the lower ranks (soldiers, sailors and NCOs) of the military. Article four of the decree ordered the decoration to hang from the same ribbon as the Order of Saint George. There was only a single class with no restriction as to the number of awards per person.

The first soldier to be awarded the Cross of Saint George was a cavalry non-commissioned officer named Yegor Ivanovich Mitrokhin. He received the award for distinction in the battle against the French at Friedland on 2 June 1807.

Numbering of the crosses on the reverse began in January 1809, conversely, a register of the awards was also started that same year. By this time, approximately 10,000 crosses had already been awarded. By the beginning of the War of 1812, 16,833 crosses had been produced by the mint. Statistics of awards over the first years is detailed below:

An 1856 royal decree divided the decoration into four classes. A person initially received the fourth class and would subsequently be promoted to higher classes for further acts of bravery; one who received all four classes was called a "Full Cavalier of Saint George". The first and second classes were made of gold, the third and fourth were made of silver. The numbering on the reverse began anew for each class of the decoration.

A 1913 royal decree officialized the name "Cross of Saint George" and the numbering began anew. In 1915, due to war shortages, the first and second class decorations were made of lower grade gold (60 percent gold, 39.5 percent silver, 0.5 percent copper). The third and fourth class decorations were produced in the same 99 percent silver. There were 26,950 first class crosses (№ 5531 to № 32,840) and 52,900 second class crosses (№ 65,030 to № 12,131) produced in low-grade gold. Approximate number of St. George Crosses awarded from 1914 to 1917: