TacHel

OK... Phew... Greg... Sorry for yet another hard left turn...

Say what? :(

Commemorative Breast Badge "Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov" Instituted on 31 January 2008 by ministerial Order 40. Awarded to military and civilian personnel of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, for great personal contribution to the development of military music and who have served in (worked for) the Armed Forces for at least 10 years. May also be awarded to other citizens of Russia for assistance in the tasks assigned to the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces. Note: I will replace this small picture with a detailed scan as soon as I receive this latest acquisition.

Award document for the above award. (Official stamp is that of the Armed Forces)

Commemorative Breast Badge "100 Years of Major-General Boris Alexandrov" (Alexander's son) Instituted on 6 October 2005 by ministerial Order 425. Awarded to military and civilian personnel of the Armed Forces for great personal contributions to the development of musical culture in the Armed Forces, as well as to others, for assistance in the tasks entrusted to the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia.

Award document for the above medal. (Ministerial emblem on the cover, ministry plainly identified on the inside, things to look for when checking for authenticity and to ensure it is in fact an official award)

Medal "Major-General Alexander Alexandrov" Instituted on 2 August 2005 by ministerial Order 317. Awarded to members of the armed forces, civilian personnel of the Armed Forces, veterans of the Armed Forces who are in the reserves or retired, as well as other citizens of the Russian Federation and foreign citizens for great personal contribution to the creation and promotion of Russian patriotic military music and the development of military music culture. (Note: this is one of the rarest medals in the MoD inventory, I still can't believe I found one. If you find one for yourself, don't hesitate, you might wait a long time before finding another one!)

Never thought I'd manage to grab one but I got one!!! Ain't she sweet looking!?!?!

I remember being told that my Wiki site was "the best book never published" on the subject... Your web site would be the "Encyclopedia Britannica of Faleristics" should it ever be put to print... Definitely a multi-volume hard cover series. Greg, sorry for hijacking your thread there bud... :whistle:

That is an AWESOME pic!:jumping:

Megan... How on Earth is that possible when they outnumber the official ones by 10 to 1 and official ones alone are almost too numerous to catalog properly? I have found and ID'd over 100 breast badges from the Defense Ministry alone that are awards... MVD medals are now a nightmare because the makers and orgs are now slapping MVD Russia on the back... Military formations are allowed to produce and wear commemoratives on their uniforms... Ministerial sub departments are dishing out their own also... I have to concentrate on official stuff... Or clone myself... That won't happen, my wife couldn't stand 2 of me...:P

You got it right. The major problem in enforcing the rules is that the biggest culprits are the generals! Just for fun, do a Google image search on http://www.google.ru/ and type in Генерал (general). Just about every good picture you'll find of a general wearing is gongs will show the odd Umalatova or some other "public award" dangling among the official stuff. Enough to make you weep. Even the Russians on the forums I'm a member of can't believe the crap going on and openly complain about it.

Thanks... Last year I've enrolled in 2 particularly helpful Russian faleristics forums where the guys actually know their stuff. Full of serious collectors and what really helps, many serving members of the RF armed forces, MVD and Courier Service. They've given me new insight and many new links. I've also been in contact with a member of the Heraldic Council under the President of Russia. Even he can't keep up with all the new stuff coming out. The Russians have so many uniformed ministries and departments, all with their own awards that it's a veritable nightmare trying to keep up. Personally, I'm mostly interested in military awards, but almost every ministry has troops!! The Defense Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Ministry for Emergency Situations, the Federal Security Service, the Federal Protective Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Federal Courier Service... Enough to go nuts. I hope I get to live to a ripe old 3 digit age... I'll need that much time to sort it all out.

Just FYI... Here are "some" of the many many Russian organizations dishing out medals: -VOOV Combat Brotherhood; -Soldiers Internationalists; -Communist Party of the Russian Federation; -Committee on Public Awards; -Moscow Committee of War Veterans; -Umalatovas; -Cossacks; -United Veterans of Airborne Troops; -Russian Committee of War Veterans and Military Service; -Russian Awards Committee;, -Chernobyl Union of Russia; -Organization of the Collective Security Treaty; -Umpteenth religious organizations; -KGB/FSB Jubilee Committee; -Some makers are actually now popping out their own for any anniversary event you can imagine... My biggest challenge of the past few years has been to separate official ODMs of the RF from these other "items"... It is no easy task! Especially now that military units are dishing out their own divisional/fleet/squadron/etc commemorative medals that are actually allowed on their uniforms! And many generals receiving medals from these orgs are actually pinning them to their uniforms to improve their "racks". Hopefully somebody will soon enforce the regulations against this.

After 2 full years of searching for a silver Caucasus cross and not finding a single one, I went on multiple Russian "faleristika" forums to find out what the problem was... I learned this... Only the Moscow Mint made the silver crosses, all other makers choosing to make the gold version. End result = 10 times more gold crosses than silver ones when exactly the opposite ratio was required. This means that MANY soldiers and non-coms ended up getting the gold version (for officers and WOs) simply due to an acute shortage of silver ones. DUH!:rolleyes:

Yeah... Valid points... I guess the post Stalinist purges and trials were essentially to whitewash the major political decisions (repressions/deportations/border line genocides) and events (horrors) that actually forged them into what they were at the time. Way too many people remained in power after 91 that had already held high offices under a different system. It might've ensured a semi-peaceful transition, but it has long lasting effects. Still... Not quite sure I'll ever get used to it.

Great medals. I'm still quite surprised at the high quality of many non governmental (unofficial) awards in modern Russia. Some are so nice I purchased them even knowing full well they were unofficial. I must however share my feelings with you on the communist medals... They literally freak me out! To me, seeing the communist party not only being allowed to exist in post Soviet Russia but even to the point of still issuing decorations is akin to the NSDAP being allowed to go on and issue swastika bearing awards in post 1945 Germany. I simply don't get it!:speechless:

If you're interested in the URLs of a few reputable French ODM dealers, just PM me. I have a dozen of them, prices are reasonable.

Tim, this medal not being rare nor having much value, on top of being unofficial... I very much doubt anybody is making and selling repros. I think it is simply an extremely cheap model. And I think you were right in returning it, not for the reason I just stated but as a matter of principal, the seller misrepresented the merchandise.

Oh brother... She's really gone off the deep end now...:speechless:

The only two I can help you with are the 2 fourragères (lanyards) They are unit awards. The red one is the "Fourragère de la Légion d'Honneur": worn by members of a unit that was awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) 6, 7 or 8 times. You'll often see them with "olives" in the colours of the 1914-18 or 1939-45 CdG ribbon if the total number of awards were split between the 2 conflicts. It can also come with an olive in the colour of the ribbon of de CdG TOE if the unit received it 6, 7 or 8 times. The grey and pink one the Fourragère de la Croix de Guerre des Théâtres d'Opérations Extérieures (CdG TOE): worn by members of a unit awarded 2 or 3 CdG TOE. You can find all the info on these at the web site FRANCE PHALÉRISTIQUE, but it's entirely in French. Below are pics to show you what I mean by "olives". The fourragère in the colours of the Médaille Militaire (yellow and green) is for 4 or 5 awards of the CdG, you can see the 2 olives in the different colours of the WW1 and WW2 CdG ribbons denoting the total number of awards was cumulative from both wars. The red fourragère below is for 6, 7 or 8 awards of the CdG TOE as denoted by the olive in the colours of its ribbon.

Very nice items Bob! Thanks for sharing! I was unaware that a commemorative breast badge had been bestowed to the Norwegians. Very interesting indeed.

Speak of the Devil, look at what's up for bids on eBay

OK, got an ID for you. All my Russian contacts are 100% unanimous on this one... It's a repro of the badge mounted on the helmets of motorcycle escorts from the Kremlin.

SUPERB!:jumping: