For some time now, Bruno had been avoiding visiting the Tsar. But as he continued to prove himself in battle on behalf of the Tsar, the man continued to insist on meeting with him. There was only one reason for this. The Tsar wanted to properly reward Bruno for his efforts.
The war was being fought on multiple fronts and had seen extensive casualties of over half a million on both sides. Bruno was responsible for victories in two major campaigns.
There was the Ingria Campaign, which started with the Siege of Saint Petersburg—a Russian victory only due to Bruno’s arrival with the Iron Brigade—and the Volga Campaign, which again was a victory attributed to Bruno and his Iron Division, first with the Siege of Tsaritsyn, then with the extermination of Bolshevik forces throughout the region.
His contributions to the war effort were extensive, and by all means, he had earned multiple awards—all of which the Tsar had been desperately trying to pin to his chest, if only to appear as if he was actually doing something in the media.
But such concerns could wait until peacetime. Right now, it was war, and frankly, Bruno did not want to waste precious time on these affairs until after he had rooted out and eliminated the two remaining leaders of the Bolshevik revolution, who were hiding from him at the moment.
However, what Bruno wanted was secondary to what the Tsar wanted. And because of this, Bruno found himself being yelled at by the Kaiser, whose words essentially boiled down to: “Stop being a bitch and accept your medals!”
As a result, Bruno found himself on a train to Siberia, where the Tsar was unofficially hiding until the war concluded. Bruno was not necessarily aware of what awards he would be granted, but considering his position as a foreign general, volunteering to fight on behalf of the Tsar, he had a pretty good idea of at least one.
Of course, nothing could prepare Bruno for what he would receive in recognition of his service to the Russian Empire and the House of Romanov. Bruno entered the palace where the Tsar was hiding, dressed in a freshly cleaned and pressed military uniform.
However, it was not the uniform of the Iron Division he was wearing. Rather weirdly—or at least from Bruno’s perspective—the Tsar had prepared a uniform of the Imperial Russian Army for him. In hindsight, this should have been an indicator of just how prestigious the awards he was about to receive were.
But Bruno honestly thought this was a mere stunt for the media. Nevertheless, he accepted the Tsar’s “request” and wore the Russian uniform to the grand ceremony held in his honor.
The House of Romanov, in its entirety, stood proudly before Bruno, who was flanked on all sides by an elaborately dressed Russian honor guard. Along with the honor guard, there were several Russian generals and admirals of note in the background, all staring at Bruno with various gazes.
Some saw Bruno as a hero of the Russian Empire and its people. Others saw him as a foreign general who could become a powerful enemy in the future. But regardless of their opinions, they remained completely silent as a Russian colonel stepped forward with a case that he handed to the Tsar.
The case contained six distinctive honors of varying grades, all of which Bruno recognized as a learned man of history—one who had a bit of an obsession in his past life with monarchies, especially those of Europe prior to their collapse at the end of the Great War.
Many of these honors granted Bruno the right to own land in the Russian Empire, as well as noble status. This meant that Bruno would not only be a noble of the German Empire, but also of the Russian Empire. He stared at the Tsar, trying desperately to remain stoic and conceal his disbelief.
Perhaps the Tsar had recognized Bruno’s talents and decided to grant him such honors to keep him close to Russia and the House of Romanov, rather than risk him becoming an adversary they could not handle.
Or perhaps it was a mere act of foolishness on his part, not understanding the full significance of what he was doing. Tsar Nicholas II was, after all, well quoted in history as stating he was not prepared to become a monarch when he first ascended to the throne.
Either way, these were honors Bruno could not reject. At the furthest end was the least significant award: the Order of Saint Stanislaus, 3rd Class. The Order of Saint Stanislaus was originally a Polish award granted by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but was later adopted by the House of Romanov as a dynastic award given to distinguished civilians and soldiers as a means of granting them nobility.
The variant Bruno received was the lowest form, being a simple medal pinned to the chest. However, it bore two swords, signifying that it was awarded for combat purposes.
The next award was the Order of Saint Anna, also of the 3rd Class. Like the previous award, it had four classes, with the lowest being a mere button rather than a medal. Bruno’s variant also had two crossed swords to signify military valor in combat.
Following this was the Order of Saint Vladimir. Like the previous two, this award conferred the rank of nobility, though that had only been the case before 1900. After that, only the 1st Class conferred personal nobility, not hereditary nobility like the other two awards.
For the record, Bruno did not receive the 1st Class of the Order of Saint Vladimir, making this point moot. Instead, he received the 4th Class, another medal to be pinned to his chest alongside the others he had earned for military valor in various wars and campaigns.
Like the previous two medals, this one had swords added to it as a sign of military distinction in wartime. While the next award was the most prestigious in terms of the grade in which he was awarded, it was still second in overall significance.
Bruno was astonished when the Tsar wrapped a crimson velvet sash around his body and pinned a breast star below the row of medals he had already received. This was the first of such an award Bruno had been granted in this life. The sash had a medal at the end of it, which Bruno recognized as the military variant of the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky.
This order was usually reserved for top military officers for distinction in combat and victories in defense of the Russian Motherland. It was also awarded to politicians for exceptional feats in similar areas.
Because of this, it was seldom awarded to anyone below the rank of lieutenant-general or an equal political status, which, for the record, was the same rank Bruno held in the German army.
It was only now that Bruno began to fully understand the depth of the meaning behind the uniform that he wore. Bruno had become one of the few foreign individuals to be granted the Honorary title of Field Marshal.
To put this in perspective, Field Marshal was the highest rank in the Russian Armed Forces. But they were not alone in this regard. Several other major powers held a similar rank. Such as the German and Austro-Hungarian Generalfeldmarschall, as well as the British Field Marshal.
This rank was the equivalent of being a Five-Star General in the American Army. And obviously held significant power and weight behind its title. Of course, the Russian Tsar could grant this rank to foreigners as well, such as Bruno in this case.
Usually it was awarded to foreign monarchs like the Kaiser of the German Empire, and the Archduke of Austria. Yet there were a few men of history who had gained it without royal blood in their veins. And Bruno was one of these proud few.
This award was so distinctive that it only came in one degree, and Bruno was astonished by the fact that he had been granted such a thing. But not as much as he was by the next two awards, which sat comfortably in a velvet case.
The next two awards were actually the same order, just of different classes. They were the most exceptional honors granted by the Russian Empire for military excellence. Bruno was finally awarded the Order of Saint George, both in the Fourth Class and the Second Class.
The Order of Saint George was given to senior military officials for exceptional performance on the battlefield. The higher the class, the greater the achievement. For example, the First Class was awarded to kings or generals who had won wars in defense of the Russian Motherland.
The Second Class, on the other hand, was awarded to generals who had won major campaigns. Considering that Bruno had won two major campaigns for the Russian Empire in Ingria and Volga—both of which were strategically significant regions that, if lost, could have proved disastrous for the Tsar and his forces—it was only fitting that Bruno was awarded a Second Class Order of Saint George, in addition to a lower class, to properly recognize his contributions to the survival of the House of Romanov and the Russian Empire.
The Second Class of the Order was awarded with a breast star, though rather than a sash like the First Class, it came in the form of a ribbon around the neck. The reason the Tsar chose to award Bruno the Fourth Class rather than the Third Class was purely for aesthetics, as the Third Class was similar to the Second Class, only smaller and without a breast star.
For the sake of appearance, Tsar Nicholas II didn’t want Bruno to have two nearly identical medals hanging from his neck, so he gave him the lowest class as well, which came in the form of a medal that sat above all other medals he had received from the Tsar, the Emperor of Japan, and the German army.
Bruno honestly felt awkward staring down at the military honors he had been awarded, as he was now among the most highly decorated generals of his rank in the world. Yet, all his greatest awards had been granted in the service of foreign empires and their monarchs.
The only medal the German Empire had awarded him so far was one commemorating the German involvement in the Boxer Campaign, which had been issued to every German soldier who had participated in the brief conflict.
But in his defense, the German Empire had not fought a meaningful war since 1871 and would not do so again until 1914. Regardless, with eight medals pinned across his chest, two breast stars, a sash, and a ribbon around his neck, Bruno couldn’t help but feel that by the end of his military career, he would look like one of those North Korean generals that the internet had made fun of in his past life for their ridiculous number of medals—most of which were earned during peacetime.
