The Russo-Japanese War that lasted from January 27, 1904 to August 23, 1905 was a military conflict between Russia and Japan for control of Manchuria and Korea.

In old portraits, paintings, book illustrations or photographs, one can notice that the depicted officers sometimes wear army hats with metal ribbons or shields with various inscriptions, for example — “For Distinction”.

Initially, such an award looked like a metal shield decorated with eagle heads at the ends. The inscription “For Distinction” was stamped on the shield. This badge of honor was attached in front of the upper part of the kiver (shako — a type of military headdress). Combat units that did not have their own award banners (artillery, jaeger, and engineering troops) were to be presented with such awards.

There were quite a considerable number of similar insignia, for example, the badges “For Distinction in the Turkish War of 1877–1878” and “For Gorni Dubnik on October 12, 1877”. 23 regiments and artillery brigades received collective insignia to be worn on hats for the Caucasian War, 37 units — for the Crimean War, and 15 units — for campaigns in Central Asia. For participation in these campaigns, award badges were also presented to the Guards regiments.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, 59 different regiments, artillery brigades and Cossack batteries were also awarded special insignia. In ceremonial military uniform, metal ribbons were combined with the Saint Andrew’s Star or a double-headed eagle.

In 1899, eagles with ribbons were introduced to be worn on the caps of Russian artillery and infantry regiments located on the territory of the southern districts. With the dress uniform, officers of Dragoon regiments of the Caucasian Cavalry Division wore them on hats.

In addition to various brass metal ribbons attached to military headdresses, other insignia for entire regiments were also present in the uniform of the lower ranks, for example, award badges in the form of St. George’s buttonholes. In the Navy, sailors of heroic crews were bestowed special St. George ribbons for sailor caps with the names of ships featured on them.