Ed_Haynes

L 18 -- The Central Electricity Combinat

L 15 -- The State Champion Young Worker

L 12 -- The Outstanding Worker of the Energy Sector

L 10 -- The Champion of Technical Utilization, Ministry of Energy and Mining

N 19 -- 50 Years of the Great Construction (1926-76)

M 18 -- The Seller of the State Department Store

M 17 -- State Department Store

M 16 -- State Department Store

M 28 -- The Outstanding Worker of Radio

I can't imagine a fez, or anything looking so much like a fez as that strange navy hat does, being worn under the republic.

Marvelous photo!!!

Thanks, Christophe! Having been in Moscow for the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the war this summer, it puts things into perspective.

If the research ever comes back from these, it will definately get forwarded on to you!

Thanks, but, being as late as it is, I have little hope (after just being hit three brick walls on recent labor groups).

Thanks, Dave. I had totally forgotten it had been here before. All those mental Swiss-cheese-holes, you know.

Inside.

So . . . who was Anna???

Finally, in the same booklet:

Order of the October Revolution, # 63908, V2, awarded 1973

Order of Lenin, # 454167, T6V2, awarded 1976

Inside.

The following year, 1972, brought her second Order of the Red Banner of Labor, # 723615.

Inside.

Then, in 1971, her Order of the Badge of Honor, # 618531.

Inside.

Her first, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, # 521176, awarded 1966.

A nice new fully documented group, but so late that it is highly likely to defy any research. Still:

Anna Seregeevna Mikitenko

1- Order of Lenin, # 454167, T6V2, awarded 1976

2- Order of the October Revolution, # 63908, V2, awarded 1973

3- Order of the Red Banner of Labor, # 521176, awarded 1966

4- Order of the Red Banner of Labor, # 723615, awarded 1972

5- Order of the Badge of Honor, # 618531, awarded 1971

No photos anywhere.

Who is/was she?

Wow. Marvelous material! Thanks Dave!!

It as important to understand issues of context and procedure as addressed in your essay as to understand the Russian texts in our efforts to make sense of these awards and their arcival sources.

Thanks again!!

Implicit in what has been said before is a very simple point: In this, the Age of eBay, there are many accumulators of various "stuff" out there (including medals) who can feed their habit (1) without having any knowledge all, (2) gleefully happy with poor-quality images, (3) thinking they are getting "rare things" (because the seller said so) for "cheap", and (4) quickly and easily.

OK many of these fakes would not fool a goat (though others are very good), but what I worry about is what it does to a naive virginal collector who starts out on eBay, gets well and truly eBayed, drops a lot of cash on dreck, and who then gets driven away from the phaleristic "hobby" into collecting . . . oh, I don't know . . . bicycle chains.

There are far too many hair-thinning gray heads at any OMSA meeting and so few young collectors. Maybe fakes from eBay drive them away?

Hi Eric,

Let me take my best shot at surveying the evolution of our knowdge on these. Most of this evolution, by the way, can be traced in this very thread.

1- Battushig published his excellent book showing separate "gilt", "silver", and "bronze" badges. Not quite "classes" and, while he avoided that word consciously, most read "classes" into this organization. (He now admits he was uncomfortable with these three types even at the time.)

2- As we looked at serial number ranges, there was no distinction between the "gilt" and "silver" and the "bronze" was just a single production run (different manufacturer?) of maybe 300 badges in the middle of a coherent "gilt/silver" series.

3- As we looked most closely at the badges that had come to live with us, we saw clearly that there was a range of manufacturing standards and quality but that there was no real difference between "gilt" and "silver" badges (explaining why it was sometimes almost impossible to place particular specimens as either/or.

4- As we looked at award certificates we noted that no distinction as to the metal was being made.

5- Last summer, as I said above:

After protracted consultation among Battushig, Jan, and myself in Ulanbaatar, we have reached the conclusion that we are looking at but two varieties of these badges. There is a silver mirror reverse badge with engraved serial number (current A 51.1 and A 51.2) that is so lightly gilded on the obverse that the gilt easily wears off or even simply evaporates entirely. There is also a silvered bronze flatback version with stamped serial number (current A 51.3), although here, too, the coating is fairly transient and is often badly worn or gone alltogether. Thus, rather than there being three "classes", as it might seem from the current classification, we have a single-class badge in two (chronological?) varieties.

6- My notes on current observed serial number ranges have not evolved beyond what is shown a few posts above, though I must admit I have not been seeking new datapoints out aggressively.

Battushig's book is an extraordinary first step and is something anyone with even the slightest interest in Mongolia or Mongolian awards must have. But it is only a first step. What has been done collectively on this forum (though it does seem regrettably dead lately and I often despair) has expanded our knowledge beyond Battushig in many areas and there is still much more to learn.

Most dealers are uninterested in knowledge of any sort except to derive a name (however fraudulent) to stick on a piece they have for sale. Likewise, most dealers don't read this forum, at all or carefully. Is that good or bad?

Hope this helps in some way?