RUSSIA Don Cossack Army badge in yellow gold (585) and silver 84 zolotniks (875 thousandths / min.800) and polychrome enamel. With its plate and knob. Saint Petersburg, 1912-1917. Goldsmith: Vladimir DYNAKOV. Repoinçonné à la Coquille et au Cygne. H. 5.1 x L. 3.5 cm. Gross weight: 31.9 g. Slight wear and chips to the enamel. Provenance: - Captain Alexander Leonidovich Zrajevsky (Ukraine, Kherson province, 1897 - Meudon, 1981) - Then by descent. History: An officer in the Imperial Russian Army, Alexandre Leonidovitch Zrajevsky (1897-1981) trained at the Odessa Military School, graduating with honors in 1916. Enlisted on the front in the First World War, he served with the 243ᵉ Kholmsky infantry regiment, where he was wounded in action in August 1916. From June 1918, he joined the Volunteer Army and was assigned to the 1st Officers' Regiment of General Markov's Regiment, an elite unit of the White Movement, composed mainly of former imperial officers and emblematic of the anti-Bolshevik struggle. He served in combat units, successively in mounted reconnaissance, in signals, then in a cavalry unit, participating directly in military operations until the evacuation of Crimea. Promoted to captain in 1919, he remained loyal to the regiment during exile. After internment at Gallipoli in 1920, then redeployment to Bulgaria, he settled in France, where he continued to command a unit of the Markov regiment within the organizations of exiled Russian veterans. He died in Meudon, near Paris, in 1981.