TacHel

Great set with awesome pictures! A real family treasure!

You're doing pretty good, you're only missing 4 more to have the lot:

Медаль "60 лет Победы" - Medal for 60 Years of Victory.

Памятная медаль "65 лет разгрома немецко-фашистских войск под Москвой" - Commemorative Medal "65 Years of the Defeat of Nazi Troops near Moscow".

Знак "Партийная Доблесть" КПРФ - Badge "Party Valor" CPRF.

Знак "За Заслуги перед Партией" - Badge "For Merit to the Party".

Great video, think I'll post it in the Russian Federation section since it touches both time periods.

Here's one that doesn't fit really anywhere, the 100 Year Anniversary of Zhukov's Birthday:

That's because it isn't a Soviet medal, it's a decoration of the Russian Federation.

Awarded to soldiers of Army Air Defense Forces that possess at minimum a first class training qualification, for exemplary performance in military duties on air defense alert crews: for firing solutions while employed in command and control alert crews for at least 5 years; for support and logistical tasks while attached to alert crews for at least 6 years. Commanders of air defense units that rate as "excellent" may also be awarded the badge.

Note: although I found the write up for award prerequisites, I was unable to find the order of institution of this award. Colleagues tell me it came out in the 80s but could not be more specific. Does anybody have more info?

Instituted in 1985. Awarded to the most distinguished, highly disciplined military and civilian personnel of the Navy who participated in long-range cruises on vessels of the Navy, provided that the missions were successful.

For all vessels, distance requirements for award, transition from one ocean to another; for vessels of under 1000 tons, a 30 day cruise with a distance of at least 500 miles from departure point; for vessels of over 1000 tons, a 45 day cruise depending on home port, Northern Fleet - the limits of the Norwegian Sea, Pacific fleet – 3000 miles from point of origin, Black Sea Fleet and the Novorossiysk Naval district - outside of the Aegean Sea, Baltic fleet - beyond the North Sea. Specifically for submarines, a cruise with no docking amounting to more than half of the full autonomy of the vessel.

This is actually a Russian Federation Commemorative Breast Badge for their logistical forces of the Defense Ministry.

Commemorative Breast Badge "300 Years of the Rear of the Armed Forces".

Instituted on 8 November 1999 by ministerial order 523. Awarded to military personnel, civilian staff and veterans of the Rear Services (Logistics) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, for distinction in the performance of official duties, special assignments, activities aimed at strengthening the Rear Services of the Armed Forces and who served (worked) in the Armed Forces 20 years or more.

OK... Phew...

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

"Worse since the stroke..."

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:

All the more reason to document these beasties...

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.