Chuck In Oregon

... And here is a studio portrait of Comrade Kipiani, standing and armed with what appears to be a Luger. I believe the Broomhandle Mauser was the standard-issue Cheka weapon of the day, when they were available. Perhaps officers were allowed to, or had to, provide their own sidearm.

I love period photos, especially attributed ones. Note that while neither wears a medal, badge or other device, each is displaying a wristwatch, worn over his shirt sleeve. I have seen that before. Watches must have been signs of status -- not to mention useful tools if you are a state security officer -- and you couldn't hide status under a sleeve, could you? Of course, status in the Cheka could and would get many officers murdered.

The 10-Year Jubilee Badge of Club Dynamo also came with this small group. Lord knows, there are a lot of Club Dynamo badges, probably hundreds of them over the years. However, this is the only example of this early variant that I have come across. It is silver, in three parts, two rivets, three colors of enamel and the X appears to be solid gold. It has an MMD hallmark.

Regards to all,

Chuck

... And here is the reverse (I hope you can read the number) and the back of the document.

I have been quite fortunate in finding some early Chekist items in my travels. I believe that this badge is uncatalogued and unknown in the west. I hope that the number on the reverse, "N 41", is visible in the photo. On its face, this is the 1932 10-Year Jubilee Badge of the Trans-Caucasus Cheka-GPU. Likely very, very few survive today.

The document, dated Oct. 30, 1932, refers to it as an Excellence Badge for 10 Years of the ChK-GPU ZCFSR, awarded to Comrade Ilia Georgievich Kipiani, chief of the Trans-Caucasus Region Border Guard Special Service. (NB: I welcome better translations than my own, so feel free.) It is specifically numbered to the badge, N 41. Kipiani is a fairly common Georgian name, typically from the Migrelian region that also gave us L. Beria. They could hardly not have been acquainted.

Although numbered, the badge has no hallmark. That is not unusual. Early badges from the Soviet Trans-Caucasus Region and Soviet Georgia were often commissioned and made in Tbilisi. Tbilisi has been an art and jewelry center for centuries.

Photo and reverse to follow.

Chuck

Hi Rusty

Yes, I agree. I have a bag full of nothing but later-era tourism badges using the same compass theme. But I had never before seen this one. It may be the progenitor. At least, I've not seen an earlier variant.

Chuck

Oooooooooooooooohyeayuh.

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OK, my first laugh of the day. Thank you.

I've got a LOT of documents, including some early Chekist documents, even complete pre-war major criminal files. They're hard to do justice to, and they'll take some time, but I'll see what I can do.

Chuck

Not that I've been looking for them, but in 14 years of collecting this stuff that's the first Otlichnik document I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing it!!!

Dave

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Hi Dave

It's nice to see some familiar faces on this forum. If you haven't seen those documents, then they must be unusual. I know it's the only one I've ever seen.

Does anyone else have any of these Otlichnik documents? If you do, I'd like to see them.

Speaking of documents, are they welcome and of interest on this forum? I mean, documents without accompanying hardware or that never had accompanying hardware.

Chuck

... And sure enough, paid-up dues for Jan - Dec, 1931. But not beyond. Hmmm.

... And here is the reverse of the badge and the inside front of the booklet. As best I can tell, it extolls the virtues of proletarian tourism on the left and identifies the honored tourist on the right.

Tourism is one thing that I seldom associate with the USSR. And as for tourism during the depths of the Depression? One could even speculate that people who could afford to travele for pleasure, on their own kopek, might even be guilty of the crime of unearned income. That crime was good for 15 years in the gulags and could get the offender a 9mm salute.

But noooo! (Thank you, John Belushi.) Here is a badge for the "All-Soviet Benevolent Society for Proletarian Tourism and Travel" and its accompanying 1931 booklet. My Russian leaves much to be desired, so please feel free to correct my translations.

The booklet is very cheap plain brown cardboard, simply printed and folded over with four double pages stapled inside. The membership is signed off and the stamp signifies that the 30-kopek dues for 1931 were paid. As I recall, dues stamps for later organizations were not always organization-specific. In this case, however, the badge, the stamp on the cover of the booklet and the dues stamp all match. There does not appear to be a design in the star on the cover.

On the inside back cover there is the six-step code of the honored tourist. As I roughly translate the final sentence, it says "Promote (lit. assist) the Communist Party and the culture of the Revolution and socialist workers."

An old friend thinks he might want this one, so I thought I would post it while I still have it. Enjoy.

Chuck

Here's a badge you don't often see. It is for a delegate to the 17th Conference of the Communist Party in 1934. The reason you don't see them? Most of delegates were murdered during The Terror. In fact, I suspect that they were the prime early targets of The Terror just because they might have been tainted with the brush of Menshevik "rotten liberalism" while attending the conference. Stalin was there, too, of course. He conveniently exempted himself from suspicion.

According to David King in The Commissar Vanishes, "There had been 1,961 delegates at this congress. No fewer than 1,108 of them were liquidated."

How did they get anyone to attend the 18th?

Chuck

... and here's the reverse and the inside of the document.

I think I'm gonna like it here.

Chuck

I completely forgot that I have another example of the Georgian variant, and this one comes with the document.

Chuck

The 1953 award date coincides nicely with the previous 20 January 1947 regulations, which would have bestowed a Valiant Labor Medal (in its own Medals Book) circa 1948 for 15 years railways service.

If there are documents to non-Railways personnl it would be great to see who (State Security aside) might have gotten them. We learn, in the void of reliable secondary references, by showing each other our primary materials!

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Regarding the medal box, this group did come with a red medal box, too. I just didn't mention it. The three badges are mounted to the inside of the box and the RBL and ID book were inside. No Valiant Labor, though.

Chuck

Never seen the documents, ever!

You know, I have a couple dozen of the WW II excellence badges and I have seen a hundred or more offered for sale "in the wild" and countless others on retail sites. This is the only document for a military excellence badge that I have ever come across. I guess they're out there. They must be, here's the proof. But darn if I ever see them. Anyone else?

Chuck

Didn't know the MVD were into bridge building????

Hi Danny

Yes, that surprised me, too, but we know that they were involved in some way in nearly everything. I can only speculate that the nature and extent of the highway system was a state secret and somehow the MVD was involved from that angle. Purely a guess, of course. There is a bridge prominent in all three badges, but the badges are for roadbuilding, not just for bridges.

I was very pleased to find these two Soviet badges, with documents, both from the same recipient. I never found any other examples of either one and only the one Georgian variant.

Chuck

... and the Georgian variant, an orphan.

I have never found another example of any of these "in the wild", but I have seen one or two on retail sites. Never the documents and never the Georgian variant, however.

Does anyone know of other variants?

Chuck

... and the interior of the MVD document.

...and the document for the civilian version which, you will note, is an MVD document.

Well, I guess I got the reverses in the first post. Here is the document for the military badge.

These are the military and civil equivalents of each other, I believe. Documents and reverses will follow.

Chuck

<quote>Ahhhhhhh! Welcome!

What's the number and date on that Red Banner of Labor? That would seem to fall under the regulations of 28 July 1949 for decorations to railways workers for long service--making the Red Banner of Labor for 20 years. So that gives you an approximate working life/age for the recipient, there.

I love those silver badges!!!!

Who is stating that the Udarnik badges were NOT exclusibvely railways? they were issued by the Peoples' Commissariat/Ministry of Railways and I've never seen one that wasn't and was not to a railways employee.

If I am reading those right, your first one, awarded 10 June 1941, is number 55,089 but the later one (thrifty fellow used same photo 1943 and 1946) #45,886 was bestowed on 15 September 1943! THAT throws trying to date undocumented badges out the window!

And, of course, another late-era version. This one is an orphan, no document.

Chuck

... and the interiors of the documents.

Enjoy.

Chuck

... and the reverses.

Here is another small railway group. Reverses and interiors of documents will follow.