Question about the Returning of Awards to Families

[Wat05]

Good Day to all here! I have a question on the possibility of returning a Soviet Order to the family of the recipient.

 

Almost a decade ago I began collecting orders and medals, and one of the very first I ever had is a Jubilee Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class. I had research for the Order, which linked the award to a Belarusian National. When searching the name of the recipient, I found a post from this years Victory Day celebrations of the recipients grand-daughter. I reached out to her online and discussed the Order, and a wish to send it to the family. She said that the way to send the order is through the Belarusian Embassy (for me, Embassy in London).

I emailed the Embassy, and also sent a letter to the building, explaining what I wish to do. Sadly, after almost 10 weeks, there has been no reply. I am afraid that there might never be a reply, and that due to custom laws, it is probably forbidden to send governmental awards as such through Belarusian customs. Would the Jubilee Order still be considered forbidden to post, or is it regarding only high-awarding like Order of Lenin, Order of Red Banner, other valuable items of precious metals (silver), so on? 

[Wat05]

Here is the document and order in question. Because these were made of silver, a precious metal, it may be prohibited. Similar items like commemorative coins made of precious medals are prohibited. There is also a prohibition in the sending of Belarusian Military items, but could this extend to historical, or only modern? Even then, this was awarded under an order during the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Belarus only 30 years ago.
 

 

[Megan]

Unfortunately, the Belarus Customs website appears not to be working... or at least the connection keeps timing out.

 

The official Belarus tourist website says that travellers may take goods worth at most €500 and weighing at most 25kg with them into the country before incurring customs charges (not that I'm suggesting you hand-deliver, but it may be an indication of what may be sent...).

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that goods imported into Belarus from third countries are subject to the rules of the Common Customs Tariff of the Eurasian Economic Union.

 

The email of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus is mrt@customs.gov.by - maybe they can advise you if it would be permissible to send the award to the recipient's family through the post.

[Wat05]

Thank you very much for this answer! I will send them an email. 

 

[Leaftree]

For most countries the embassy is for government country to country type work. A countries consulate handles affairs of it's citizens overseas. You might want to contact their consulate and see if they can/will help. Again, this varies from country to country.

I suspect you may not get help from the consulate either as they would view it as a private matter or have privacy regulations that prohibit sharing of names etc.

[Wat05]

Understand, thank you! I will look for a consulate and email them too. 

[Marcel B.]

I think it's all wasting time. Best to fly there and hand over personally,...IF the family is really keen on getting the award. Know that lots of families sold awards from granddad/grandmom so there's a chance this comes back on the market again as well after returning the award. It is furthermore "just" a remembrance/anniversary award and not an award earned in combat.

Not to sound negative or harsh but I think you are wasting your time.

[Wat05]

I understand it is a difficult thing, and that it might not end the way as planned, but I still have hope. They do seem to remember their hero dearly, and I think because its a simple award of not much monetary value, it 'probably' wont be sold. But because it is seemingly the only award he ever had to his name, I would want to try to send it back.