JUDIN, Samuel: Russia, 1698, Bronze, 66 mm
Obv: Peter The Great (r) PETRVS. ALEXII. FILIVS. D. G. TZAR. ET. MAGNVS. DVX. TOTIVS. RVSSIAE. (Peter, Son of Alexey, by the Grace of God, Tsar and Grand Duke of All Russia)
Rev: Hercules with club holding torch to necks and cut-off heads of slain hydra SALVS. PVBLICA. FIRMATA. (The Well-being of a Society Has Got Stronger...)
Exergue: PERDUELLIBUS. DELETES MDCXCVIII (After Extermination of the Rebels. 1698)
Signed: Samoyla Yudin in Cyrillic / on ground line: Cut by Samoyla Yudin in Cyrillic
Ref: Iverson, plate II, no. 1; Tiregale, p. 7; Diakov I, 29/9.1;  Europese Penningen, p. 323, bis III,e; Weiss BW416

The Streltzi (Strelzy) were a band of Russian household troops originally raised by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the 16^th century. They numbered 40,000 to 50,000 infantry and formed the greater part of the Russian armies in the wars of the 16^th and 17^th 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.