Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov)

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Imperial Russian Order of St.Stanislas, Grand Cross (about 1860)

The Order of Saint Stanislaus (Polish: Order św. Stanisława, Russian: Орденъ св. Станислава), also spelled Stanislas , was an order in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The order existed between 1765 and 1917 as an order of Imperial Russia. This page describes the order that is still awarded by the head of the Imperial House of Romanov.

There are three or four orders of Saint Stanislaus today, whose members tend to be in disagreement.

[edit] History of the Order of Saint Stanislaus

Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski, King of Poland established the Order of the Knights of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr on May 7, 1765 to honour the service to the King. After the partition of Poland it was renewed in the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. Since 1815 in the Polish (Congress) Kingdom, the order, originally in a single class, was retained and divided into four classes. After the downfall of the November Uprising, the order was added to the awards system of the Russian Empire in 1832, where it remained until 1917. It was often awarded to the very policemen that suppressed Polish independence, democracy and culture and the order became very unpopular. In 1918 Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic, the unpopular order was not renewed and replaced by the Order of Polonia Restituta.