Soviet Leonid Filipov

[Chuck In Oregon]

Let me introduce Tob. Leonid Filipov. At least, that's what I think his name was. Reading Russian cursive is very difficult for me. Please feel free to correct me. I have over-enhanced the reverses so that you might read them a little better.

Chuck

[Dudeman]

Cursive is always fun to decipher in any language - Leonid Petrovich Filippov.

[HuliganRS]

That's the name.

The bottom left is addressed to Shura.

Rusty.

[Chuck In Oregon]

In the top left photo he is wearing the GTO-2nd Step badge you can see here. Not one like it, this exact one.

In the top right photo he is wearing a Voroshilov Shooter's Badge. I have several, but one didn't come with this group. The same for the Jubilee Medal for 50 Years of the Soviet Militia that he is wearing in the bottom right photo.

Then there are the bottom two badges. The one on the left is a DOBROKHIM badge and the one on the right is a Ministry of Sports badge. I have never come across either of these badge variants before or since, not in books or "in the wild". Have any of you seen them?

The condition of the bottom two is poor, that of the top badge is excellent, as nice an example of this badge as I have ever seen. I cannot reconcile the discrepancy. I have only seen the condition of the bottom two badges come about in two ways. The first is after having lain under polluted water in a wet Tbilisi basement for decades, which I think accounts for these. The other is as a dug item, most commonly a grave-dug item. But why the excellent condition of the GTO badge? Was it in a drawer upstairs? I haven't a clue.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

Thank you, Dudeman and Rusty.

Chuck

[HuliganRS]

That sure is a puzzler!

If these were dug, I would expect too see more corrosion.

Who knows...

Rusty.