Order of Suvorov - History

History

The Order of Suvorov was originally a Soviet award established on July 29, 1942 (during World War II) by decision of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was created to reward senior army personnel for exceptional leadership in combat operations. The Order of Suvorov was divided into three different classes: 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class. Georgi Zhukov became the first recipient of the Order of Suvorov 1st class on January 28, 1943.

The Order 1st class was awarded to army commanders for exceptional leadership of combat operations. The Order Order 2nd class was awarded to corps, division, and brigade commanders for a decisive victory over a numerically superior enemy. The Order 3rd class was awarded to regimental commanders, their chiefs of staff, and battalion and company commanders for outstanding leadership leading to a combat victory. Despite its official award criteria, both the first and second classes of the Order were sometimes awarded to defense industry executives, as well as to designers of various weapons and military equipment.

Following the 1991 dissolution of the USSR, the Order of Suvorov was retained unchanged by Decision of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation 2557-I of March 20, 1992 but it was not awarded in this form. The all encompassing Presidential Decree 1099 of September 7, 2010 that modernised and reorganised the entire Russian awards system away from its Soviet past changed the statute of the Order to a ribbon mounted single class Order.