Imperial Russia´s volunteer´s cross AKA. Ополченский крест

[Ilja Heimonen]

Here i have an beatiful pieace of an volunteer´s cross, somewhere around 1881-1894 during the reign of Alexander the third. It was given out to volunteers who signed up for the imperial army. I acquired this piece for 30 euro recently from an auction. In the cross it says the following words: "за веру, за царя, за отечество" in old russian. which can be translated to "For faith, For the Tsar, for fatherhood / motherhood/ motherland", don´t really know how to say очечество in english so something about motherhood / motherland. In pretty decent condition aside from missing 1 pin from behind. In early times soldiers used to wear it on their hat but later it was more popular to wear it on your uniform. This cross was established somewhere around the time when Napoleon invaded Imperial Russia in 1812. It was used until the fall of Imperial Russia and the rise of the Soviet Union in 1917. In this cross it is Alexander the third´s initial in the middle of the cross (A3) so somewhere around 1881-1894. 

 

The one i own is the one with the white background. The one with the wooden table background has the initial A2, so Alexander the second in the middle. 

 

There are also different versions of it for example i remember there is one where they don´t mention faith. It was made for muslim volunteer´s since they didn´t follow the orthodox belief, but i haven´t personally seen one myself. Would love to! 

 

 

Edited July 10 by Ilja Heimonen

[Ilja Heimonen]

My bad the other cross seems to be N2 in the middle, standing for Nikolai the second...

 

 

Edited July 10 by Ilja Heimonen