Soviet Master Sportsman Badge

[Chuck In Oregon]

This is the earliest variety of the Soviet Master Sportsman Badge that I am aware of. This one belonged to the same guy - D. A. Dyakonov - as the Bolshoi badge I posted at http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=10189&st=0 , post #6. It came in a box with his other things, which I should post one of these days. I don't know if the brown-with-red interior box is original, just that it's the way it came. I believe he was a handballer -- the international game, not the American version.

More to come.

Chuck

Edited November 7, 2006 by Chuck In Oregon

[Chuck In Oregon]

A couple of more images of the early variety.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Here are three later, numbered varieties and an un-numbered candidate's badge.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Finally, I believe this to be the rarest of all the variations -- The Honor Badge of the Master Sportsman Badge. I don't know what the qualifications were, but I do know the history of this particular one, #256.

This one was awarded to Tigran Petrosian, the Russian world chess champion. He was born in Armenia and grew up in Tbilisi before moving to Moscow. He still has family in Tbilisi and they received a few of his awards when they were distributed after his death. I bought these two badges from his family.

The chess badge is the bronze, not silver, version. I am told this version was given to the president of the Soviet Chess Federation, which he was after he won the championship.

[Chuck In Oregon]

I forgot to include these. The top two are Georgian versions and the bottom one is -- I think -- the Georgian Master Trainer Badge.

I would like to the see what have in this area. There should be versions from each republic, I would think.

[Ed_Haynes]

Interesting how similar these are to the more recent and much nicer Mongolian badges. See http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=10228&st=5 for a few.