The medal "In memory of the Crimean War of 1853-1856."

The exposition of the Museum of Local Lore contains a small but very interesting collection of phaleristics. Two medals from this collection are devoted to the events of the Crimean War (1853-1856), the consequences of which led to great changes in the life of Russia in the 60-70s of the 19th century.

The medal "In Memory of the Crimean War of 1853-1856" was established on the 26th of August, 1856 on the day of the coronation of Alexander II. It had two varieties - from light and dark bronze. In total more than 1,700,000 medals of both types were minted at the St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg mints.

On the obverse of the medal are the monograms of the emperors Nicholas I and Alexander II, crowned with crowns and shaded by the rays of the “all-seeing eye” above its. Below under the monograms, along the side of the medal, are the dates: “1853-1854-1855-1856”. On the back side there is a horizontal inscription in five lines: “In God we trust and will not be afraid of it”.

The light bronze medals on the George and St. Andrew ribbons were awarded to all military officials who took direct part in hostilities, state militia and small russian cossack regiments and sisters of mercy who performed their duties in combat positions. Dark bronze medals were worn on the Vladimir and Ann ribbons by all military officials who were in active service, merchants and honorary citizens who provided financial support to the state during the war and hereditary nobles.

Awarding medals lasted until the 26th of August, 1859. During this time the statute of the medal was supplemented and clarified. Subsequently the right to receive the medal spread to foreigners who were in the Russian service and the Catholic clergy.