Post-Soviet Resurgence

With the collapse of the USSR in 1991 came a general re-evaluation of Russian history, including the Imperial past and its symbols. The Romanov Family and the period of Tsarist rule was increasingly seen by certain elements of Russian society and government leaders not as the anachronistic holdover denigrated by the Bolsheviks and the USSR, but instead as a model of national power to be emulated. St. George once again became celebrated as the symbol of Moscow, and with its universally-approved association with the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, the ribbon of St. George found itself with many advocates.

By 2000, the Order of St. George and the ribbon-hung medal of Imperial times had been reinstated as a Russian military honor, while the orange and black ribbon itself had become endemic in Russian society as a symbol of military victory and patriotism. It was festooned on pictures of soldiers who died in World War II (the ‘Great Patriotic War’ in Russia) during Victory Day processions of the ‘Eternal Battalion’ (bessmertnyi polk) movement each year on May 9. Not only in Russia, but in many post-Soviet states, the red-and-orange ribbon was worn with pride on May 9, as former Soviet citizens continued to take pride in the USSR’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. In Russia, moreover, the ribbon and the resurgent Order of St. George was becoming to represent the country’s growing economic and military power – and its increasingly assertive foreign military presence. For advocates of a strong Russian state, pride in the military was seen as one pillar of support, helping to overcome the sense of failure that had accompanied late Soviet and early-post-Soviet conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya.