‘St. Nicholas with the Sword and the City’ is an iconographic version of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker’. His representation has often been painted on icons since the 16th century, when the miraculous appearance of St. Nicholas in the sky saved the city of Mozhaisk from Tatar-Mongol invasion. The first life-size representation of St. Nicholas was carved on the gates of the Mozhaisk Cathedral to commemorate the miracle. Since then, contrary to the canon, the Saint has been represented on icons full-size.

In this version, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is shown with widely spread arms, in one hand he is holding a sword, and in the other one, a cathedral fortress. The first of such icons was located on the St. Nicholas Gates of the Moscow Kremlin. During the 1917 Revolution, the gates were badly hit by gunfire. Bullets riddled the image of St. Nicholas, however, the face of the Saint remained intact. Moscovites believed that was a miracle and a proof of the Saint’s chosenness. Since that time, another popular name appeared: ‘St. Nicholas the Wounded’.

That representation has caught on so well, that icon painters started to represent St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with traces of bullets and shell fragments, trying to faithfully copy the original. A lot of copies of the icon (duplicates) appeared, and the White Guard started to use the icon as a symbol of combating the Bolsheviks.

One of such duplicates was presented to the White Guard general Alexander Kolchak in Perm in February 1919. Later, when Kolchak arrived in Omsk, the icon was deposited for safe-keeping in a local cathedral. It was that duplicate, of which an unknown folk artisan made the second duplicate that survived.