Issued as part of Russia's mid-1990s commemorative program honoring medieval princes and Orthodox saints, this coin marks the anniversary cycle surrounding Alexander Nevsky, the 13th-century Novgorodian prince whose defeats of Swedish forces at the Neva River in 1240 and the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus in 1242 became cornerstones of Russian national mythology. The Soviet-era canonization of Nevsky as a secular hero — most aggressively promoted through Eisenstein's 1938 film, made explicitly to steel the public against Nazi Germany — gave him an ideological afterlife well beyond his religious veneration.
The 1995 issue lands precisely at the 755th anniversary of the Battle of the Neva.
Issued as part of Russia's mid-1990s commemorative program honoring medieval princes and Orthodox saints, this coin marks the anniversary cycle surrounding Alexander Nevsky, the 13th-century Novgorodian prince whose defeats of Swedish forces at the Neva River in 1240 and the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus in 1242 became cornerstones of Russian national mythology. The Soviet-era canonization of Nevsky as a secular hero — most aggressively promoted through Eisenstein's 1938 film, made explicitly to steel the public against Nazi Germany — gave him an ideological afterlife well beyond his religious veneration.
The 1995 issue lands precisely at the 755th anniversary of the Battle of the Neva.