Megan

Nice selection, Ilya. Thank you for sharing...

Just the so-called 'Old Contemptible' bar for those who were involved from the onset... like my grandfather!

Not an official one, no. The UK had originally intended to issue bars to the British War Medal for various actions but changed their minds and didn't - probably for cost reasons.

Welcome to the happy throng! I don't think I can add much to the recommendations above. A lot of the early stuff has gone now. A.G. Bates had a wonderful site at https://soviet-awards.com/ - the images seem to have vanished, although the text remains. Go back a few years on the Wayback Machine and at least some of the images remain. This link is to 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190329165023/http://soviet-awards.com/ ... it hadn't been updated recently. Really going back in time, there's also https://web.archive.org/web/20010518173448/http://members.aol.com/sovietuk/ - a site that has translated a lot of statutes for different awards into English - we're back to 2001 here! If you read Russian, another early site that's now gone is https://web.archive.org/web/20020330125740/http://www.mondvor.iptelecom.net.ua/ this dates back to 2002. (Hint here if you don't read Russian, Google translate and the Wayback Machine don't work well together but if you use the Firefox browser, it has a built-in translator which will work with archived sites - it's not as good as Google, but you'll usually get the gist of what has been written!).

A good-looking piece and excellent condition... but the one nobody wanted to receive as it meant some loved one wasn't coming home.

Interesting, I've not seen the 100th Anniversary of the Constitution cross before... must add it to the Bavarian section of my website and start searching for images... at least I now know what I am looking for 🤓

Yes, it does look a bit sharper.

That's beautiful. Welcome aboard Yang Chuyu.

Fine beastie...

Good and appropriate that King Charles III will be presenting the first batch personally.

Great explanation showing us just what to look for - thank you!

... and when I looked, I found a series of minor variations in the insignia with dates, but no change at or around 1985 so whatever was changed wasn't the actual medal!

Ooooh, nice! That collection is coming on nicely.

Originally instituted on 17 December 1972, and awarded for services towards the strengthening of friendships between the USSR and other socialist states, and contributions to the development of the USSR and its constituent states. Everywhere I can reach from here (Russian as well as English) mention an amendment of the statues in 1985 but none of them say what the amendments actually involved! Will have a look in a detailed book I have when I get back into my corner...

It makes me want to visit Thessaloniki! Sorry, been very busy of late, must get organised and post some Greek stuff for you. Reading Week at the University so maybe a bit more time 🤞 The orders are reasonably easy to find, it's the other stuff that gets messy, particulary with the way they oscillated between monarchy and republic... and let recipients continue wearing what they got under one regime even when it changed!