Belaruski

Unfortunately it could be from any country or era. If it helps the hammer and sickle did not become the official symbol of the Red Army until 1922. But it was also used by Communists elsewhere, both officialy and unofficialy. Any other markings?

For example!

Gaston, Ebay is probably the best place, but you need to be clever in your searches! Most people do NOT want modern Belarusian awards, and thus most people don't sell them as such. And will put Russian or Soviet in the title. It is illegal to sell issued pieces, and the unissued ones are a bit of a legal loophole which probably will be tightened up. The un-enamelled ones are simply unfinished and as such I wouldn't really want one, but again ebay! The beauty of Belarusian awards is their direct Soviet heritage, they commemorate Soviet dates, and feature red stars, and even Soviet flags. Also they are relatively cheap and of good quality. The history isn't there yet, but if Mcain becomes President it may be

I'm not sure how that got so grubby unless someone was trying to make it look like a Soviet era award. There also exists a version without enamel, which some claim to be a second class version. This is not the case and is simply a design variant, probably due to the fact that so many of these awards available on the market are unissued. I have an issued one with a number, which is nice and rare, but I probably ought not to post the number as it's illegal to sell them. I'm not sure how it works for gifts. Anyway, here's mine! p.s. the number is below 5000. With a total population of only 10,000,000 and recent negative birth rates that would tally.

Can we see the back? Just out of curiosity!

It seems odd to make a blade like that when metal was scarce. Surely some kind of simple spike would have been more logical.

oops! sorry

I've got something of a Brest fortress collection in its own right too. On the shelf with the busts you can see a silver Belarusian ruble with the Brest Hero Fortress memorial on it.

Not a common medal, and here's one on ebay should anyone want one (Christian perhaps ) <a href="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RUSSIAN-USSR-MEDAL-60yrs-VICTORY-IN-WWII-STALIN-SCARCE_W0QQitemZ260197208457QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4724QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZ ViewItem" target="_blank">http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RUSSIAN-USSR-MEDAL-6...1QQcmdZViewItem</a>

In the frame, http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtop...st&p=186762

Felix, Vlad, Enver, Ernie and Joe.

Very nice Sergey. All of these early backpacks are nice, and I know how hard they are to find too! Here's my M38.

The Albanian Star is a very good price. They will only go up in price!

Just picked this up recently. I'm presuming it's not an Umalatova award, but something akin to one. Certainly not official! Note the 'General purpose ribbon'.

A nice anniversary badge for 75 years of the 49th Air force Electronic Warfare Regiment. A nice 2 piece badge with the old Soviet signals emblem, and bright enamel.

Ed, I think I would need more than these to go off. I have even seen original uniforms with fake stamps, don't be worried about sharing the pictures, I'll show you a fake I bought if it helps!

True, Belarus is actually the only country left in the world that has an official holiday for October Revolution day.

Heres a 2007 Belarusian poster commemorating the Komsomol

Revolution day is still a national holiday in Belarus! This year the assemly of Communist and Workers parties was held in Minsk. I'm keeping my eyes open for the commemorative medal!

Ths cannot be addressed without crossing over into a political debate, but I bet this would not have happened before certain 'Orange' events..

This one is plated in what appears to be gold, but what the base metal is, is unknown. The reverse is blank, however issued ones would have a serial number only. Info in English can be found here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Belarus

This arrived today, Despite semantic arguments about Socialist definitions, it is awarded for socialist deeds, so there you go! 'Hero of Belarus'

Some units applied a red star, some just the outline (a skeletal star), but they were not universal. And yes, many are appplied 'retrospectively'. To answer the question about collector following, I think all Soviet pre war and wartime helmets have a very good following. The 1936 pattern is particularly desirable.

new one.. (sorry the pictures are quite big..)

Nice medals! As comparison here are 2 Belarusian eqivalents. The first one is now obsolete, being replaced by the higher quality one below.