The Order of Alexander Nevsky is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful Soviet awards. It was established in July 1942 at the same time as the Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov. These three orders opened a series of "military leadership" awards, they were awarded only to the commanders of formations, subunits and units. This did not prevent the Order of Alexander Nevsky from becoming one of the most beloved and revered in the Red Army. The Order of Alexander Nevsky was the "junior" in a series of orders that were to be awarded to commanders. Unlike the orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov, he did not have degrees.
When approving the new award, it was assumed that it would be awarded to unit commanders from regiment to platoon. But later the highest level of awarding was raised to the brigade and division commander. The awarding of the Order of Alexander Nevsky was carried out on the basis of the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces for personal courage and courage that were shown in battles, for choosing the right moment to attack the enemy and inflicting a tangible defeat on his troops with minimal losses for his troops. Also, the order was awarded for the excellent performance of the assigned combat mission, the correct organization of interaction with other units and subunits for the partial or complete destruction of the superior forces of the enemy. When awarding, great attention was paid directly to the competent and skillful leadership of the troops, the result of which was the maximum possible preservation of the entrusted personnel and military equipment.
The history of the appearance of the Order of Alexander Nevsky dates back to March 1942. At this time, the Technical Committee of the Main Quartermaster Directorate of the spacecraft received instructions from Joseph Stalin to prepare drafts of new orders intended for rewarding Soviet commanders. New combat awards projects were developed in just a day. Of all the sketches of the order presented to his court, Stalin selected the work of the young architect I. S. Telyatnikov. The complexity of the work on the order was as follows. Lifetime portraits of the Russian prince Alexander Nevsky simply did not exist. Therefore, Telyatnikov had to use the image of the Soviet artist Nikolai Cherkasov to portray the profile of Alexander Nevsky, who before the war played the role of the prince in the film of the same name. Initially, the order of Alexander Nevsky was supposed to be made solid-stamped, which was aimed at reducing the cost of the production process. But the author of the order convinced Stalin that the order should be made in teams, since in this form it looked original and more beautiful. The first copies of the order were indeed assembled from several parts, however, starting in 1943, the insignia of the order began to be made solid-stamped.
The Order of Alexander Nevsky was a five-pointed star covered with ruby-red enamel, located against the background of a regular decagonal plate, on the surface of which rays diverging to the sides were located. The edges of the five-pointed star had gilded rims. In the very center of the order there was a bust image of Prince Alexander Nevsky, the profile was made on a round shield, along the circumference of which was the inscription "Alexander Nevsky". The round shield was bordered by a gilded laurel wreath. At the bottom of the order was a small shield with a gilded hammer and sickle. A gilded sword, spear, quiver with arrows and a bow peeped out from behind a large round shield.
The Order of Alexander Nevsky was made of pure silver. Silver in the order was 37, 056 ± 1, 387 g, and the total weight of the award was 40, 8 ± 1, 7 g. The size of the order badge between the end of the five-pointed red star and the opposite top of the ten-pointed figure was 50 mm. The distance from the center of the award to the top of any of the rays of the five-pointed red star was 26-27 mm. On the reverse side of the award there was a special threaded pin with a nut, which was intended for attaching the order to the uniform (or other clothing). The ribbon for the order was moire and had a blue color. In the middle of the ribbon, there was a longitudinal red stripe 5 mm wide; the total width of the ribbon was 24 mm.
The Order of Alexander Nevsky No. 1 was awarded to Senior Lieutenant (later Lieutenant Colonel) IN Ruban, who commanded a Marine Corps battalion from the 154th Marine Rifle Brigade. He was presented with an award for successfully repelling the attack of an entire German regiment, supported by tanks. This battle took place in August 1942 in the area of the Don bend. Senior Lieutenant Ruban divided his battalion into 3 groups. Using one of the groups as bait, he lured a large force of the Nazis into an ambush, after which the two remaining battalion groups attacked the Germans from different directions. As a result of the battle, Ruban's battalion managed to destroy 7 enemy tanks and more than 200 German soldiers.
In rare cases, people who did not have an officer rank became the owners of the Order of Alexander Nevsky, since in the conditions of active hostilities and a lack of officers, platoons, and sometimes companies, were commanded by foremen and sergeants. The statute of the order did not contradict this, since it provided for the awarding of the commanders of the Red Army, and not just the officers. Very rarely, but there were cases when even privates became a Knight of the Order of Alexander Nevsky, who, in especially difficult moments of battle, assumed the functions of leading a unit.
There were also representatives of the fair sex among the awardees. For example, the Order of Alexander Nevsky was awarded to M. V. Smirnova, guard captain (later major), squadron commander of the 46th Taman Guards Orders of the Red Banner and Suvorov III degree aviation regiment. It was a regiment of night bombers, equipped with the famous Po-2 light aircraft. In addition, during the war years, 1473 military units were awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky. Among the units awarded with the order was the French air regiment "Normandy-Niemen".
In total, over the years of the war, 70 foreign citizens were nominated to the Order of Alexander Nevsky, including three officers from the Normandie-Niemen regiment: Joseph Risso, Leon Cafo and Pierre Pouyad. Colonel Pierre Pouillade was awarded for the fact that in one of the air battles in August 1944, the aircraft of his regiment made 100 sorties, shooting down 29 German aircraft and destroying about 50 aircraft on the ground. At the same time, the regiment itself did not lose any of its cars. In these battles, Pierre Pouillade personally destroyed 8 enemy aircraft.
Chevalier of the Order of Alexander Nevsky Colonel Rybchenko Anempodist Demidovich
The Order of Alexander Nevsky could be awarded several times. The highest number of awards was three. Thus, three orders of Alexander Nevsky were awarded to the commander of the 536th anti-tank artillery regiment Lieutenant Colonel I. G. Borisenko and the commander of the 818th artillery regiment of the 223rd Infantry Division Lieutenant Colonel N. L. Nevsky. During the war, the bulk of the orders were awarded to officers ranging from lieutenant to major, who held the position of platoon or battalion commander. The awarding of the Order of Alexander Nevsky to commanders of regiments, brigades, not to mention divisions (ranks older than major) were rare. This was due to the fact that senior officers and generals were awarded with military leadership awards of a higher rank (Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov). Over the years of the war, more than 40 thousand people were awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
The order of Alexander Nevsky did not stop being issued with the end of the Great Patriotic War. For the skillful command of units, as well as the initiative shown during the suppression of the rebellion in Hungary in 1956, a sufficient number of officers of the Soviet Army were presented for the award. The veterans of the Great Patriotic War, who, for reasons beyond their control, could not receive this order at one time, were awarded the award until the 60th anniversary of the Victory (May 2005). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Order of Alexander Nevsky was not excluded from the list of Russian awards, but in 2010 the appearance of the order was significantly changed. The badge of the modern order, which was approved in 2010, reproduces the design of the pre-revolutionary award (Order of St. Alexander Nevsky).
