Badge "Ready For Labour And Defence Of The U.S.S.R.".

[ericlida]

Yes, these are my badges.
Soviet Union was a military country. Preperation of civilians to war (brainwash) with Capitalizm was very important.
Soviet people always lived with fear of war (also memories of WW2).
It was very convenient for Communist Government. The first, they had somebody to blame for their failure (US and other Capitalist countries). The second, to turn away soviet people from their daily problems of their hard life.
GTO was more a political program, than sport program.
Of course, the idea of involvement of more people in sports was also to improve soviet people health.
Here is few more GTO badges (there are many more, they where changed often)
1. The first GTO badge from 1935
2. GTO badges for children 60s.
Eric

[pacha b]

thanks eric, with not having any reference to go of it's all guesswork
for me i will eventually get round to buying a book but the prices are fantastic, i think all the medals and awards i have bought so far do not add up to the the cost of comp guide medals and awards! the gto reminds me of the german strength thru joy and other german organisations ment to keep the civilian population ready and healthy for any eventuality.

ps i have noticed 3 of these badges for sale on e *** from armenia what do you think, worth going for!!!

regards pb

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by pacha b

The main thing i don't understand is why! if it's a civilian award why put such effort into a badge! which is why researching awards i noticed a lot of similarities with orders from 1935/6 almost like it was a special project done at 25% scale what do you think, also have you ever seen anything like it before ?

There was a big push for military preparedness in the 1930's. Although Stalin was caught with his pants down on the actual invasion, the Soviet Union knew armed conflict with Germany was inevitable. There were similar promotional drives for parachuting, tank production, interest in aviation, etc.

Also, another thing you don't take into account when you admire the quality of the badges. They are nicely made, expensive badges. Unlike a capitalist economy, if the state gives priority to something (this paramilitary preparative program) it gets priority. Another example of this is the lavish and beautiful Russian metro system. In the West public transportation is drab and utilitarian, but there it was the showpiece of what the State was doing for the people, thus they have beautiful statues, mosaics, etc.

[ericlida]

Originally Posted by pacha b

thanks eric, with not having any reference to go of it's all guesswork
for me i will eventually get round to buying a book but the prices are fantastic

regards pb

Buy on CD / DVD. You would have everything on computer for 8-10USD. I purchased 6 good books on DVD for $20.00 :D It is on our favorit site.
Here is an example, how it looks.
Eric

[ericlida]

Few new (at least for me) GTO badges:
1. Belorussia II Class GTO
2. Belorussia III Class GTO
3. Russia Sport-Military Faundation GTO

[EricFG]

These just flew in from Germany (and boy, are their arms tired :laff )
I think they are military related but decided to show them here.
From what I understand the first two are 60s era and the next two 70s or 80s.
The first two are brass and enamel, the last two are the typical light alloy and paint.

Checking through Avers8 (gosh do I love that book) it seems the first two are 46-61 versions. That's cooler. :/

[EricFG]

Here's the later ones, and reverse collage.

[plmurphy]

Originally Posted by EricFG

Checking through Avers8 (gosh do I love that book) it seems the first two are 46-61 versions. That's cooler. :/

The first two are not military, they are for the GTO.

[EricFG]

Thanks Paul.
GTO, aka ГТО is "Ready for Labour and Defence"
See: Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'm still trying to get a handle on these myriad Soviet organizations and their plethora of awards.

[EricFG]

This one just came in. A military sport badge if I do recall correctly.
And I believe there are two or three classes of this.