Chuck In Oregon

Nope. Interesting guess, though.

... And here are a couple more pictures.

I hope you can read the inscription. It is "Корпускому комисару Ансе М.Я. 1937г.", or a 1937 presentation cigarette case to Corps Commissar Anse. If you look for a minute, you can also see a stylized MA. If the latch opens on the right, then the MA would be on the front and the inscription on the back. There isn't anything special about the inside except that the straps that hold the cigarettes in are intact. Who knows, maybe they have been replaced along the way. The hinges are in perfect condition, no damage and they work well. There is an "800" next to the latch on both sides, and a hallmark that looks like maybe a beehive. However, on closer inspection I'd have to say that it is merely silver plated. I think I would have preferred to dig a little deeper and given him the real silver rather than risk having a corps commissar irritated at me. 1937 was a real bad time for that. I bought a couple of things from his family. I'll post his jeton next. Chuck

Well, actually I don't why he's smiling, but I do know who he is, and I'll show you the official letter to prove it, once someone gets it right. Yeah, the happy little guy in the center. I don't know who the other guys are, though. Good luck. Chuck

Here is Comrade Nasledukhov's embossed 1968 invitation to the 19th Kalinin Region Communist Party conference, held at the Sickle and Hammer Culture Palace in Moscow. The stamp on the back entitled him to a balcony seat. I don't know if that was good or bad. <<Chuck, how do you manage to get your hands on all of these items?>> I lived in Tbilisi for 31 months and there just wasn't much of anything legal to do there for fun. I prowled the one flea market constantly and I often bought boxes of documents, just to go through them in my spare time in order to have something to do. I became known as the weird American who would buy almost anything. Later on I became friends with some big-time collectors who helped me out a lot, and still do. <<I would have suggested the plastic sleeves used for pictures >> Yes, that would have been a good idea, but such things just aren't available there. Lamination was. Anyway, I kind of like them like this. People can pick them up and examine them with further damaging them. Chuck

Yuri Gagarin became, as every (Russian) school-kid knows, the first man in space on April 12, 1961. If you were a senior-enough Communist Party official, like Comrade Ivan Nasledukhov here, you got a formal invitation to the celebration parade in Red Square on April 14. This is one of those invitations. The reverse is blank except for a blue-pencil notation of the date, 4-12-61. You had to present your ID papers in order to be seated in the reviewing stands. This was in poor condition when I came across it, in a box with some otherwise mostly uninteresting documents. It was very soft and had no strength at all. I knew I wanted to preserve it and I decided to have it laminated. I know that is anathema to many collectors, but I didn't have to ask anyone. Chuck

Here are three Imperial length of service badges, one civil and two military, two for twenty years and one for forty. All are the same general construction, a one-piece obverse clipped to a plate reverse (one plate is not solid) with a pin attached and the ribbon between. I think two of the plates are silver, one brass, but I'm disinclined to take one apart to find out for sure. Each obverse has traces (actually, the military twenty has almost all) of gilt, so they were once golden. The pins are proofed silver and they were also gilted. Only the military 40-Year badge is also hallmarked, and then only on the pin. The hallmark is struck at the edge of the pin and somewhat obscured, but it looks like ПА. Chuck

I think the badge on the right is the 1901 25th Anniversary Badge of the Volunteer Fireman's Society. I'm having trouble with the word Двинское, which might be a derivative of the word for motor/engine/moving/advancing. The saying/motto could be something like For the Advancement of the Volunteer Fireman's Society. At the bottom is In Memory of the Jubilee. The one on the left is probably a member's badge in one of the fireman's societies. The letter Р could stand for Русский, or Russian. The letter П probably stands for Пожарник, Fireman, and the O is likely for Обшество, or Society. Just guesses from a beginner student. Chuck

* * * * * Hey ... FRACHNIK? I think it does mean a miniature award intended to be worn on other than a uniform. HOWEVER ... I don't have an authority for that. Most of my collecting has been in the nation of Georgia and with Georgian friends and collectors. Frachnik is a term they always used to describe those miniatures, and I just picked it up. Like many diminuitives, the word isn't in my Russian dictionary. However, it does show the word Фрачн/ый -- adj. of фрак, then фрак -- tail-coat, tails. I can just barely get my mind around using the word to describe a miniature award, something to be worn on formal wear, i.e. "Tails". Until this post, I never gave it a single thought. It could just be a colloquialism, I suppose. I hope it doesn't turn out to mean "reclining chair" or something like that. Really, I learned this word from them and I've used it for several years. This is the first time anyone ever said "Just what the heck does that mean?" Good question. Chuck

* * * * * Hello Sal I'm pretty new here, and I always have trouble telling when someone is asking a question in jest or is really serious. I'm also a beginning-level student of Russian. Just in case you were serious in asking the above, you could do a lot worse than http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/ . There are a bunch of conversational Russian sites on the web, but this one is more or less devoted to Russian grammar. Sentence formation is pretty loose in ordinary usage. You can mimic English in subject-verb-predicate formation, but it will not sound like ordinary Russian usage. It's the six cases that really give meaning to Russian. And there are no articles, which takes some getting used to. Only three tenses, though, which kind of evens things out. Try googling "Russian grammar". There are a LOT of useful sites. Check out several of them. I enjoy learning, speaking and even writing Russian to the extent I can, which is rudimentary. I hope you decide to study it. I just thought that since no one had answered your question yet, I would give it a try. Chuck

* * * * * I think the И. У. may stand for Имперский Университет, or Imperial University. So, maybe the Imperial University of St. Vladimir graduation badge of Mr. V. Z. Krasovski? Just my two cents, and worth every penny. Chuck

* * * * * Well, I'm not positive, but may I suggest "Местная Власти", or "Local Authority"? Chuck

Here are the officer and enlisted versions side by side for comparison. Chuck

I have never been sure of what role the Local Troops performed. I suspect they may have been "on call", something like our Reserves or National Guard, but I have never read anything authoritative about them. This is my example of an officer's version of the 100-Year Jubilee Badge of Local Troops. On this version you can see the red enamel and that the wreath and crown portion is silver-plated bronze. I can see traces of gilt on the eagle, so it was once golden, making this a very striking badge, indeed. The letters MB appear to be solid gold. This badge has no proof or hallmarks. Chuck

What a terrific piece. One of the nicest I have ever seen, that's for sure. Two questions, though. What identifies this as a St. Pete badge and what name are you looking for? Is it the meaning of the initials? Congratulations on finding such a superb piece. I assure you, I have never been offered such a treasure. Chuck

* * * * * George, thank you for that very interesting response. I'm going to copy that page and put it in with my references. Obviously, I need to buy that book. Do you know where I can get it? I have found a book dealer in Poland from whom I intend to order some books on awards and uniforms. If he works out OK, I'll let everyone know. That picture shows an all-silver badge except for the gold helmet. Mine has a silver cross but the rest of the parts are gold. If there were only two variants, then by process of elimination mine must be what Avers calls the gold variant. Now that is the kind of friendly help that will make this forum useful and help it/us to grow. Chuck

* * * * * Yes, it's disgraceful, I admit it. I have 5-6 uniforms or tunics, at least one of which is all but unknown in the west (OKA), and I don't display any of them. As for shaskas and swords, I've got 6-8 of them just lying around or standing in corners, including the presentation example to an officer in the Dagestani Irregular Cavalry who later became a famous White leader. Don't hate me. What I really need to do is concentrate on my own areas of particular interest and trade or sell the rest. One of these days ... Chuck

Avers 3 shows this as item 538 on page 102, and dates it 1897. It merely calls it The Society of the Blue Cross and lists it under "Fire Fighting Badges". It shows two varities, a gold version and a silver-and-gold version. Mine must be the latter.

An 1870 example of this badge is shown in Avers 3, page 87, item 432. Avers lists both a silver and a bronze variety. I believe mine may be a later variation. Either that, or my maker had a finer touch. Note, for instance, the difference in the edges of the leaves versus that in Avers. It has three parts. The wreath and ribbon are one part and that part is both proofed silver and hallmarked. The hallmark is the cyrillic letters for FG, in a neat block form. That may be Fedor Grigorovich Gorbunov, who was a silver master in the period 1895 - 1908. I'm going to guess that the letters are gilted silver. The eagle appears, to my untrained eye, to be silver-plated bronze, as does the screwback. The plate is a dipped bronze. The latter three items are not marked at all. Chuck

You know, White Russian wouldn't be out of the question. Most Georgians believe that Georgia, not the Crimea, was the last major stronghold of White Russian resistance. We know that there was significant White resistance in the Northern Caucasus until at least 1923, even though Tbilisi itself fell in 1921. In fact, I have an attributed presentation shaska related to that resistance. Even though they are unrelated, I should probably display the uniform and that shaska together. As it is now, I don't display either. Chuck

It took me a minute to recognize the stylized bridge, but I'd say they mostly stayed with the theme. Curious that they substituted the globe for the blue sky in the earlier badges. I wonder what the significance of the ribbon is or if it has any meaning besides not clashing with the award. Chuck

* * * * * Good question, Gerd. In the absence of a crown, I sort of assumed that mine was a private society, to the extent such a thing existed. As opposed to, say, the Imperial Society of the Red Cross, with its emperor's crown on everything, proclaiming an official sanction and endorsement. Or, more to the point, as opposed to George's firemen's society badges. Chuck

* * * * * This is exactly the way it came out of the closet, nothing added or taken off, and it is still on the same hanger. I know next to nothing about uniforms or uniform regulations. In fact, I hope to learn something from people like you about this one. Yes, that is a chevron, and I don't know anything about that, either. I don't offer this as proof of anything, just as something that might stimulate some enlightening comments and conversation. Chuck

EXCELLENT topic. Here is the badge of the Blue Cross Firemen's Society. Well, I'm pretty sure that was the name of the society. This is my only Imperial fireman's badge. The cross itself is silver, and proofed. The tools, anchor and helmet are solid gold, and the anchor is proofed. The screwback is silver and proofed. I can find no hallmark anywhere. I really like this forum so far. There is a lot to be learned here and I value that very highly. And the company seems first rate as well. Enjoy. Chuck

<<Did the Tsarist forces EVER wear ribbon bars? I thought they wore full size or nothing. >> <<I do not think Tsarist russia wore ribbon bars. They are 1 inch across each.>> Will these pictures shed any light on this topic? I am not a uniform guy. They have always been too bulky to pack right to bring home and they take up too much room in the closet I store my few old uniforms in. However ... When I was asked last year, would I like to see an old uniform, I almost just said no. Then I thought, why not? I almost fell over when these old people pulled this one out of their closet at home. It had been hanging in one or another of their closets since the revolution, I think. There was really no thinking involved when they asked me if this was something I might like to buy. I even brought home the 19th century wooden clothes hanger it was hung on. Chuck