RUSSIAN EMPIRE (UNTIL 1917) / Российская империя (до 1917) - Polish Decoration for War Merit (also called Order "Virtuti Militari")6th model (with year "1831" on the reverse – 1832), 5th-grade cross, 33.5 x 28.9 mm, with uncorrect ribbon piece. RRU 123; ZK2 3180.
G.V.F.
Польский орден военного достоинства (известен также как орден Виртути Милитари)Крест 6 типа (с годом "1831" на реверсе – 1832), 5 степени, 33.5 x 28.9 мм, на неуставной ленте. RRU 123; ZK2 3180.
Состояние лучше чем очень хорошее
Originally instituted in 1792 as a two-class medal "Virtuti Militari" by the Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732–1798), it was transformed into the five-class "Order of the Military Cross" the same year. The classes instituted at the time (Grand Cross, Commander, Knight, Golden and Silver Cross) are existing up to the present. Abolished in 1794, re-established in 1807, the order continued to exist also during the Kingdom of Poland in personal union with the Russian Empire.
After the insurrection of November 1830, the Sejm (the Polish Parliament) decided on January 29, 1831, that furtheron the order should not be conferred by the King-Emperor, but by the Polish Government; upon recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish troops in the 1st and 2nd class, and by the Commander-in-Chief himself in the 3rd, 4th and 5th class. General Jan Zygmunt Skrzynecki (1786–1860), Commander-in-Chief of the Polish insurrection army, introduced a proposal scheme for his troops, giving officers and men themselves the possibility of choosing among them the ones to receive the order. This democratic system made the order very popular, a symbol for the insurrection and the following Polish-Russian War.
After the victorious end of the war the Kingdom of Poland was integrated into the Russian Empire. Emperor Nicholas I Pawlovich (1796–1855) with Ucas of January 12, 1832, integrated the order into the Russian system as "Polish Decoration for War Merit", with a changed reverse centre, showing now the year "1831" (6th model).
In order to humiliate the defeated Polish military forces, the decorations were now conferred upon the victorious Russian officers and men, the 5th grade to the latter in a huge amount. Therefore some Polish historians and collectors consider this 6th model not part of the Polish Order "Virtuti Militari". After this demonstrative act of humiliation the order was no more conferred until the erection of the Republic of Poland after the First World War.