St. George’s Ribbon, a symbol of difference or unity

The St. George’s Ribbon, a symbol of the Great Patriotic War, has turned into a symbol of Russia. However, backers of the new Ukrainian government have called it the Colorado Ribbon due to its colour similarity with the bug. The same image of the ribbon can be seen in Baltic states.

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky believes that “the historical ribbon has united people. In the years of the Great Patriotic War, under quite harsh ideological rules, the St. George colours restored succession of the Russian Army. The statute of the Glory Order was almost a full reproduction of the statute of the St. George Cross, the “chevalier of order” notion was brought back. There used to be the “chevalier of the cross” status. And the official permission for commanders of the Red Army to wear both the St. George Crosses and decorations were given. It was unification of our history, unification of all kinds of political forces. This is what allowed us to achieve victory. Construction of memorials of monumental art dedicated to heroes of the First World War is going under the St. George colours this year. In the years of the First World War, the most massive conferment with St. George Crosses for soldiers happened. By the way, Budyonny and Chapayev were chevaliers of all four ranks and were very proud of them.”

Russia Today Director General Dmitry Kiselyov says that, if in 2005, the St. George Ribbon “was a symbol of past victories, a symbol of merit of our fathers and grandfathers, today, it is a symbol of new Russia, our commitment to our native values.”

Kisilyov assumes that the St. George Ribbon is turning into a symbol of differences: “People with St. George Ribbons are during today (and this is not an image), they see reliance and the ribbon and the symbol of their future in this ribbon. For them, it is not just a memory, it is hope for a well-deserved life style in the future… If you see a person with the St. George Ribbon on the car, on an antenna, on a bag, it means that you can rely on the person, you can trust the person. The ribbon expands the radius of trust in our society. Sociologists have the notion of trust radius, which is either small or big. I think that our goal is to improve the level of trust in our society.”