The establishment of the Order of Virtuti Militari is linked to the Polish-Russian battles of 1792. At that time, Prince Jozef Poniatowski, commanding the Polish army, presented the king with the need to "establish a military decoration."
After the battle of Zieleniec (June 18, 1792), he received from the king 20 oval medals made of gold, with the inscription Virtuti Militari (martial virtue) to honor the most meritorious soldiers.
These were the first orders of the Virtuti Militari, awarded even before its statute was established, which was not until August 1792.
The order evolved from an oval medal into the cross form, which is well known today. It was awarded during the period of both the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland, with the last awards, before 1919, occurring at the end of 1831.
The subject of this auction is a depreciated by the Russians, "mocking" form of the Virtuti Militari order, no longer a Polish military decoration, but a Russian commemorative badge. A badge that was all the more intended to hurt Polish honor and humiliate Poles after the fall of the Uprising. Tsar Nicholas I honored soldiers with it for suppressing the November Uprising.
The badge was called the "Polish Mark of Honor 1831," or translated from Russian, "Polish Badge of Honor for War Merit."
With reference to the Order of Virtuti Militari, the order cross was reduced in size, and the date 1792 on the back was replaced by 1831. The order ribbon was also changed.
It is not a Polish decoration, but only modeled on a Polish one, and is closely connected with Polish history, hence worthy of interest also from the perspective of Polish collections.
Preserved original ribbon, applied according to Russian fashion to a metal plate.
Silver, dimensions: 33 x 29 mm.
