Soviet Help identifying (very new to this)

[mgee]

Hi, I'm deployed to Afghanistan and just came across some stuff at the local Bazaar that caught my eye. I registered on you fella's forums and you seem very knowledgeable. Maybe one of you could let me know if this is real and what it is? Thank you so much!

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8171/img0605c.jpg its a huge picture so im not going to link in here

Edited May 30, 2010 by mgee

[Hauptmann]

Hello and welcome to the forum. First off here's the photo:

It's the Soviet Veteran of Labor medal.

This from The Soviet Military Awards Page: http://soviet-awards.com/ which is an extremely useful site for Soviet awards:

Established 18 January 1974. Awarded to all workers of retirement age for their many years of labor in the Soviet economy, culture, science, medicine, and education. This medal could also be given to military personnel who had reached retirement age. It is made of a Zinc and Copper alloy. Approximately 36,000,000 were issued.

http://soviet-awards.com/medals22.htm#medal42

These are quite common and can generally be picked up for just a few dollars.

Hope this helps.

Dan

Edited May 30, 2010 by Hauptman

[Ferdinand]

Unfortunately it has the wrong connecting ring (should be silver) and the wrong ribbon (this one is for the 50 Years of Armed Forces Medal).