Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov)

The Order of Saint Stanislaus (Polish: Order św. Stanisława, Russian: Орденъ Св. Станислава), also spelled Stanislas, was an order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The order existed since 1765 as Polish and since 1831 as an order of Imperial Russia. This page describes the order that is still awarded by the head of the Imperial House of Romanov.

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. As it was often awarded to the very policemen who suppressed Polish independence, democracy, and culture, the order became very unpopular in Poland. When in 1918 Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic, the order was not renewed and was instead replaced by the Order of Polonia Restituta.

One of the claimants to the headship of the Romanov Family, Grand-Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, has awarded several crosses of the Order of Saint Stanislaus as a dynastic order of knighthood.