ANNIHILATION OF THE MUTINOUS STRELITZ

JUDIN, Samuel: Russia, 1698, Bronze, 66 mm
Obv: Peter The Great (r)    PETRVS. ALEXII. FILIVS. D. G. TZAR. ET. MAGNVS. DVX. TOTIVS. RVSSIAE.
Rev: Hercules with club holding torch to slain hydra    SALVS. PVBLICA. FIRMATA.
Exergue:  PERDUELLIBUS. DELETES MDCXCVIII
Signed: under bust in Cyrillic ? / on lentil in Cyrillic?
Ref: Iverson, plate II, no. 1; Tiregale, p. 7;  Europese Penningen, p. 323, bis III,e

The Strelitz were a band of Russian household troops originally raised by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the 16th century. They numbered 40,000 to 50,000 infantry and formed the greater part of the Russian armies in the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. They were fierce and brave in war but ill-disciplined and almost ungovernable in peace. As their mutinies were frequent and dangerous, in 1682 Peter the Great decided to abolish them. In 1698 under Peter's general Patrick Gordon they were finally destroyed as a military force, the event commemorated by this medal. The remnants of the group fell into the hands of the tsar and were barbarously tortured and put to death.

LINK to Collection of Medals from Imperial Russia (Yale University)

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