Russian Federation Paired medals

[TacHel]

The Russian Defense Ministry has released some medals in pairs instituted on the very same ministerial order. These were first issued on an anniversary of the service represented. One medal recognizes current military service while the second, a commemorative, recognizes past service (veterans) or support to the force by other governmental entities or representatives of the military-industrial complex.

Their ribbons are differentiated by an additional single black stripe through the yellow field on the commemorative medals' ribbons. These commemorative medals, originally intended to be worn on the smaller 4 corner mount as a breast badge on the right side, are being remounted and bestowed on the military 5 corner mount and worn on the left breast. Although I was unable to find any such written directive, it seems that as in other ministries and departments, the 4 corner mount is going the way of the Dodo.

Below are the commemoratives the way they were initially bestowed as breast badges.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2009/post-3030-125726502111.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2009/post-3030-125726502219.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2009/post-3030-12572650232.jpg

Left: 300 Years of Naval Infantry

Center: 50 Years of the Space Age

Right: 100 Years of the Submarine Force of Russia

Further down are pictures of the way they are being worn as regular military medals beside the "service" medal for active duty personnel.

[TacHel]

Left: Medal for Service in the Submarine Forces

Right: Commemorative Medal for the 100th Anniversary of the Russian Submarine Forces

Both instituted by ministerial order #105 of 10 March 2006.

[TacHel]

Left: Medal for Service in the Naval Infantry

Right: Medal for the 300th Anniversary of Naval Infantry

Both were instituted on ministerial order #455 of 3 November 2005.

[TacHel]

Left: Medal for Service in Space Forces

Right: Commemorative Medal for the 50th Anniversary of the Space Age

Both were instituted by ministerial order #360 of 11 September 2007.

[TacHel]

Be careful when purchasing these, especially on eBay, they are quite often misidentified as their counterpart and even mounted on the other's ribbon.

[Christophe]

Hi François,

Excellent and informative post. Many thanks.

Cheers.

Ch.

[TacHel]

Just to clarify a point about the 4 versus 5 corner medal mounts. Info I picked up in multiple Russian forums is that there is NO regulation allowing any serving member of any service to remount a commemorative breast badge on a 5 corner military mount. They just do it... And nobody enforces the rules.

[Megan]

Are serving personnel awarded 4-corner-mount commemoratives? Or are they normally awarded to veterans? Or is it pot-luck what you get handed? Or is it that you get the 4-corner-mount commemorative if you HAVE served in the appropriate role and have moved on to something else but are still in service, and the 5-corner-mount version if you are still serving in the appropriate role?

[TacHel]

Are serving personnel awarded 4-corner-mount commemoratives? Or are they normally awarded to veterans? Or is it pot-luck what you get handed? Or is it that you get the 4-corner-mount commemorative if you HAVE served in the appropriate role and have moved on to something else but are still in service, and the 5-corner-mount version if you are still serving in the appropriate role?

Commemorative breast badges are all awarded on the 4 corner mount regardless of the present state of the person being decorated. Serving members, veterans and civilians all receive them on the 4 corner mount for wear on the right breast. Why so many prefer to switch them to the 5 corner mount beats me. On the 4 corner mount, a breast badge is considered a decoration while on the 5, it is relegated to the state of a mere medal worn among many others on the left breast. My Russian colleagues tell me that ribbons and mounts are readily available and incredibly cheap to purchase and as previously mentioned, nobody seems to be enforcing the regualtions that are quite explicit. I myself was able to procure quite a few modern Russian replacement ribbons last month and they were so cheap my Russian contact didn't even bother to ask me for any money for them.

If you go on my Wikipedia page for the Defense Ministry, you'll notice all commemorative breast badges are on the 4 corner mount, I removed the pictures I had that were mounted on the 5 corner mount following many conversations with Russian collectors and servicemen.

[Megan]

So ONLY the four-corner-mount is correct for a 'commemorative' - I was going to show both mounts but now I won't if it is not an official variant to put them on five-corner mounts.

Got it, thanks :)

[TacHel]

Just make sure you don't confuse "commemorative breast badges" with "commemorative medals".

Commemorative BREAST BADGES:(4 corner mounts)

-Chief Marshall of Aviation A.A. Novikov

-Colonel-General Pikalov

-Major-General Boris Alexandrov

-300 Years of Naval Infantry

-100 Years of the Submarine Force

-50 Years of the Space Age

-50 Years Moscow Commandant's Honor Guard

-Nikolaï Rimsky-Korsakov

Commemorative Medals:(5 corner mount)

-200 Years Ministry of Defense

-300 Years of Baltic Fleet

-60 Years Moscow Operational Housing Management

-50 Years Special Inspection Service

-90 Years Military Intelligence

We having fun yet?:whistle: