Russian Federation My tribute to the crew of K-141 "Kursk"

[Phil2012]

Hello!

On august 12, 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine K-141 "Kursk" sank in the Barents Sea, resulting in its 118 crew in death. Everyone remembers mostly the calamitous attempts to rescue eventual survivors and the TV reports that showed the anguish of families. It is widely accepted that several crew members survived in the rear part of the submarine during a day or two after the wreck. This makes the failures of rescue attempts even more dramatic...

Here is the "Kursk":

She was a vessel of "Projekt 949A Antei" class (NATO "Oscar II"). This large submarine (508 ft long, 60 ft wide) is designed to destroy aircraft carriers and their groups with missiles and torpedoes.

Here is my badge of the "Kursk":

You can see the coat of arms of Kursk town, the name "Kursk", the Tsar's crown, russian flags, the profile of the ship, an anchor and, as a background, the Navy flag. The numbers XII and '94 on coat of arms remind december 30th, 1994: the day the "Kursk" was commissioned. This official badge is made of gilted brass and hot enamel.

After the sinking, various commemorative badges (or "mourning badges", as they are called in Russia) have been issued over the years.

Here are mine:

This probably is the first one. It's the first commemorative badge I saw on web, around 10 years ago.

Quite at the same time I also saw this one. The diver's helmet makes me think that this badge is to commemorate the rescue attempts.

On this badge, you see the Norway flag: the first divers who reached the "Kursk" were norwegian divers working on oil rigs, after the russian authorities have accepted foreign aid after the failures of russian rescuers.

Another badge featuring the Norway flag.

Medal for the participants in the operations for raising up the wreck and recovering of corpses (october, 2001).

I saw this badge for the first time in 2010, in Moscow. That's why I think it's the most recent commemorative badge.

In 2010, my russian fiancee and I stayed in Saint Petersbourg for a week. As we were preparing this trip, I contacted the Saint Petersburg Submariners Club to plan some visits. We first were invited to visit the Club and we met the chairman, Captain 1st rank Igor Kurdin. I also was invited to become a member of the Club. Then, some days later we met captain Kurdin again in Serafimovski cemetery were 32 members of crew of "Kursk" are buried.

Here are the memorial and graves:

Edited April 22, 2012 by Phil2012

[Phil2012]

After vacation, as we were back home, my fiancee got an idea to make a commemorative frame with the badges and icons:

Left: an icon of Saint Nicholas (patron of the sailors. It's a travel icon, made of brass and hot enamel.

Right: an icon of Saint Serafim Sarovski (patron of the cemetery). It's handpainted on porcelain, with pewter frame.

And here is the commemorative frame:

The background is made of red velvet.

There are other commemorative badges, but I chose these ones for their beautiful design and very good quality.

If you have more information about them (when they were issued, quantity, etc...) don't hesitate to post! ;)

[TacHel]

Very nice!

[Mathomhaus]

A great collection.

If you haven't seen it, here are three photos of the Kursk memorial in front of the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow.

Regards

Photo 1

[Mathomhaus]

Photos 2 & 3

A statue commemorating the paratroops is located next to it and perhaps even more impressive, but should appear in another thread some day...

Regards

[Herr General]

Did the dutch workers from Mammoet, Smit etc. receive Russian medals for recovering the Kursk?

[TacHel]

Oddly enough, nobody received anything from the Russian governement. All of the items above, including the very nice one bearing the Norwegian and Russian Navy flags are unofficial, they're all from non governmental organisations.

[Herr General]

I just found this site in Dutch; it writes: all workes received Russian medals after the recovery.

http://www.tos.nl/nl/werken_bij_tos/ervaringen/verhalen_van_zee/berging_koersk

[Paul R]

That is a very nice commemorative display you created. Thank you!

[TacHel]

I just found this site in Dutch; it writes: all workes received Russian medals after the recovery.

http://www.tos.nl/nl.../berging_koersk

Russian medals... Yes.

Medals from the Russian government... Nope.

They received medals and badges from non governmental agencies and associations. Why? No idea...

[Phil2012]

Thank you for your comments about my frame, TacHel and Paul R !

Well, I have no information about official medals for people who take parts in these operations. I'm going to send the question to the staff of Saint Petersbourg Submariners Club, I guess I can get useful information from there!

[Paul R]

Have you seen any other commemorative items like this?

[Phil2012]

Yes, there are several other commemorative badges, but I didn't buy. For simple aesthetic reasons, because I didn't like their design a lot. When I made this frame, my idea wasn't to make an exhaustive collection but to make a kind of memorial.

Beside of this, I bought this badge two years ago:

As you see, it was issued on the occasion of 10th anniversary of shipwreck, with caption "10th anniversary of tragic loss of K-141 nuclear submarine KURSK". This badge was issued by Faleristika Club. 150 pieces only were manufactured.

Edited April 27, 2012 by Phil2012

[Paul R]

That is a sweet piece. I cannot imagine not liking that one. I like the design a lot. Was it made for the next of kin?

[Phil2012]

No, Paul, it wasn't. Club Faleristika is a russian website forum, and sometimes they order the manufacture of badges on many occasions and topics. The project for a new badge is presented on a topic, and the members can order how many badges they want to buy. You easily understand that under such conditions, not a lot of badges are manufactured!

Here is the back of my badge:

You can see the "Faleristika" logo and the number of the badge: 134 (150 issued).

I'm not sure any commemorative item was issued for the next of kin. But maybe someone here knows?..

[TacHel]

Paul, I think I mentioned this in a previous post somewhere... Many Russians build their entire collections around a central, quite specific theme such as the navy, submarines, air force units, customs, etc., whether a piece is official (governmental) or not makes no difference whatsoever. This practice isn't unique to Russia, but from what I've seen in many Russian forums, the percentage of collectors aiming at this over there far outnumbers western collectors. The Russian market is aimed directly at these collectors. Millions of pieces are produced by makers (even by the Moscow mnit!) simply to meet this incredible demand for what are most often, pieces of the highest quality that far outshine their official counterparts. Phil's item in post #13 is a perfect example, no official piece looks that good, and it's nice enough for even non collectors to want to buy it!

This Russian forum (of which I'm also a member of) producing these limited pieces is literally a gold mine for such collectors (forum members)! They are quite good at it too, I receive an e-mail detailing new releases on a monthly (sometimes more) basis.

Edited April 29, 2012 by TacHel

[TacHel]

No, Paul, it wasn't. Club Faleristika is a russian website forum, and sometimes they order the manufacture of badges on many occasions and topics. The project for a new badge is presented on a topic, and the members can order how many badges they want to buy. You easily understand that under such conditions, not a lot of badges are manufactured!

Here is the back of my badge:

You can see the "Faleristika" logo and the number of the badge: 134 (150 issued).

I'm not sure any commemorative item was issued for the next of kin. But maybe someone here knows?..

The commemoratives given to the families were non governmental (Russian Committee for Public Awards, Russian Awards Committee, and so on). The families initially received awards for the deceased (Hero of Russia, Medals "For Courage", etc) from the governent, it stopped there (for quite understandable reasons)...

[Mathomhaus]

Paul, I think I mentioned this in a previous post somewhere... Many Russians build their entire collections around a central, quite specific theme such as the navy, submarines, air force units, customs, etc., whether a piece is official (governmental) or not makes no difference whatsoever. This practice isn't unique to Russia, but from what I've seen in many Russian forums, the percentage of collectors aiming at this over there far outnumbers western collectors. The Russian market is aimed directly at these collectors. Millions of pieces are produced by makers (even by the Moscow mnit!) simply to meet this incredible demand for what are most often, pieces of the highest quality that far outshine their official counterparts. Phil's item in post #13 is a perfect example, no official piece looks that good, and it's nice enough for even non collectors to want to buy it!

This Russian forum (of which I'm also a member of) producing these limited pieces is literally a gold mine for such collectors (forum members)! They are quite good at it too, I receive an e-mail detailing new releases on a monthly (sometimes more) basis.

Dear Frank,

Thank you for this valuable insight. I've been collectiing Russian and Soviet items for almost twenty-five years and i could never make sense of the multitude of znachki souvenir pins that I see nor of the beautifully made unofficial pieces that did not seem to have any true purpose. Frankly, I thought that most were being produced to fleece collectors - particularly foreign collectors. I had no idea that some of this output was driven by Russian collectors who actually enjoy forming collections of these pins.

Bol'shoi spasibo!

Regards

[TacHel]

Dear Frank,

Thank you for this valuable insight. I've been collectiing Russian and Soviet items for almost twenty-five years and i could never make sense of the multitude of znachki souvenir pins that I see nor of the beautifully made unofficial pieces that did not seem to have any true purpose. Frankly, I thought that most were being produced to fleece collectors - particularly foreign collectors. I had no idea that some of this output was driven by Russian collectors who actually enjoy forming collections of these pins.

Bol'shoi spasibo!

Regards

I've seen very few dealers that were outright lying to potential buyers about the nature of their items for sale, what I did see in droves though, especially since 1991, are dealers without a clue about what they were selling. With the number of unofficial pieces being produced, I can't really blame them.

Пусть покупатель будет бдителен!

If you're interested in a modern Russian medal or badge but are unsure about its validity, check out my personnal collector galleries on this forum, or check OMSA's database, 90% of all modern Russian official items are there.

Cheers!

[Hoyden R.]

Absolutely stunning arrangement of that collection. Your fiance did a good job. I especially appreciate the inclusion of Saint Nicholas and Saint Serafim Sarovski into the frame. (On a side note, I was very pleased that I could read and understand a good deal of the Russian, I've been working on it.)

I find it very interesting that the clubs have created such beautiful commemorative pins to memorialize the KYPCK while the government has not issued any.

[Paul R]

The commemoratives given to the families were non governmental (Russian Committee for Public Awards, Russian Awards Committee, and so on). The families initially received awards for the deceased (Hero of Russia, Medals "For Courage", etc) from the governent, it stopped there (for quite understandable reasons)...

Thank you all for your comments. Is there a listing of awards presented to the crewmembers?

[Phil2012]

Thank you all for your comments about my frame!

Well, probably one of the most simple reasons to explain why so many badges are manufactured is that Russians like badges and lapel pins a lot! It's in their culture. There are thousands items about any subject you can think of, it's really unbelievable! So, for my part I wouldn't say there is a specific commercial aspect in producing such commemorative badges. Such badges about the "Kursk" simply are a component of the attraction of the Russians for badges in general. Even if in this precise case the drama of the shipwreck makes a difference in the motivation to buy the badges...

[Phil2012]

Here is another badge which was issued on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of shipwreck:

Some other badges exist, but I don't have pics.

[Phil2012]

Is there a listing of awards presented to the crewmembers?

Paul R, I don't know if I understand you question well, but if you ask about posthumous awards the answer is yes. All the crewmembers were awarded with the Order of Courage, and Captain 1st rank Lyachin also was awarded with the Order of Hero of the Russian Federation.

The Order of Courage:

You can see this medal on the tomb of all crewmembers:

[Phil2012]

I got an answer from Saint Petersburg Submariners Club: Captain Kurdin (chairman odf the Club) is on vacation, I'll receive answers about the "Kursk" commemorative badges once he'll be back.