Soviet Abkhaz Deputy's Badge

[Chuck In Oregon]

I sold off my modest deputy's badge collection a few years ago. I could never find the scarce ones and I gave up trying. However, last spring I came across a small Abkhazian group that included, sure enough, an Abkhaz deputy's badge. I'll post the other things separately but I thought this deserved its own thread.

Anyone else have any of the rare ones? The only others I kept are part of a 40-year set belonging to a former head of the Georgian KGB.

[GHB]

Chuck,

I believe the badge shown above is for Georgia TsIK. Georgia is Sarkevelos SSR in Georgian. SO it has three "S"s in a row like your badge.

Mekhenoshin has a book on Deputy Badges from 2003 or 5 or so that shows most of the badges. Let me post some Georgian, Abkhazi and Adjara for your enlightenment.

[Chuck In Oregon]

You're right. It is a Georgian TsIK badge from the 1920s-30s, item 2549, page 527, in Avers 8. I stand corrected and still confused.

​Not only that, I can't find my notes about this badge or the group I bought. I'll keep looking.

Thank you.

Chuck

Edited October 14, 2014 by Chuck In Oregon

[GHB]

Abkhazi TsIK badges (Central Executive Committee - before 1936) were in Latin letters. Attached is a first Convocation Supreme Soviet of Abkhazi SSR where you can see the ASSR letters in Georgian. First one, the "A" in Georgian points one direction and the second and third "S" in Georgian point the other way. The top line says Abkhaza except in Abkhazi it is Apsne or something like that.

[GHB]

Check out page 521 of Avers 8 if you have it for Abkhazi Deputy Badges.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Yours looks like item 2504, page 521, in Avers 8. They show only an illustration. I infer from that it is rare or, at least, seldom encountered.

[GHB]

The leading book on Deputy Badges, is by Alexei Mekhonoshin from Ekaterinsburg who wrote/consolidated data for Decoration Badges of the Highest Organs of Power 1917-1991 (the title is in Russian and my computer does not type Russian here) which was issued in 2006 in an initial edition of 500 and a subsequent addition of 100 more (I think - my copy is from his first edition).

According to him there were 104 deputies for Abkhazia to the first and then 104 to the second convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the ASSR (Each used a different badge.) Both are rarely encountered, especially anymore in the export market/world,

Attached is a photoshoped image of 12 badges, 11 of which are Abkhazi. I have to fix the image to remove the second badge from the left on the top because it is Adjara. The dates of issue that are shown differ from those shown in Mekhonoshin for the Supreme Soviet badges. He claims Abkhazia went to multicolored in 1951, but none of the other SSR's did so why would this one. He also claims it was only used for one convocation with 104 members so it would be just as rare as the all red types. Seems unlikely to me.

Before 1925 there was no uniformity in citation of SSR or ASSR. Abkhazia originally established itself as an SSR. It became an ASSR of Georgia formally in 1930 or 1931After the breakup of the Soviet Union it re-declared its independence and re-instituted the constitution of 1925. The first badge on the left, top row clearly shows ASSR for Abkhazi SSR not for Autonomous SSR.

The final badge is the Abkhazi Parliament badge for after 1991.