Order of Saint Apostolic and Grand Duke Vladimir

The Order of Saint Vladimir (Russian: Орден Святого Владимира) was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II (r. 1762–1796) in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus’. The order had four degrees and was awarded for continuous civil and military service. People who had been awarded with the St.Vladimir Order for military merits bore it with a special fold on the ribbon – “with a bow”. There was a certain hierarchy of Russian Orders. According to this, the St. Vladimir Order, 1st Class was the second one (the first – St. George Order) by its significance. According to the Russian Law about the Nobility, people who were awarded with the St. Vladimir Order (each class) had had the rights of hereditary nobility until the Emperor’s Decree of 1900 was issued. After this only three first classes of the Order gave such a right. 

Major Walter Court Hyde, DSO