Chollima Honour Badge.

[medals73]

A fairly similar moment to China's "Great Leap Forward"?

And all countries, of course, diddle their remembered history. Even Chile. :rolleyes:

[Will]

That is one fine point, Will. History showed us more than once that east bloc countries have a DEL button they pushed more than once in their histories when things "didn´t fit well".

Absolutely.

In the DPRK, the revision of history is a way of life.

The Korean War began when the south invaded the north!

The role of Soviet support for the North, to include training, equipment, planning, and Mig pilots, is all unmentioned.

The DPRK approach to the Chollima badge is much like the old Soviet approach to Trotsky and others who fell out of favor or who were reminders of unwanted memories: they were removed from the picture. Literally. Airbrushed right out of the photos!

[CtahhR]

I just got myself one of these in pretty good condition (seen some in really bad shape) for only $33. Obviously the market doesn't require any more at the moment. Specially not for $300+ prices!

[Will]

In going through one of my DPRK-published books recently I found a photo of a group of officials standing in front of a small foundry. Mounted above the doorway was a representation of the Cholima badge, just in the same way that a Soviet factory might have displayed a large Red Banner of Labor if the factory itself had received the award.

So I'm thinking that we're probably correct in presuming that the Cholima Honor award was an economic / industrial award for a program that didn't work.

And it would seem to me that it would be typical of the DPRK to make the award not only to a factory or workshop as a unit, but to everyone in it as well. This would account for the number of these awards showing up in the marketplace.

[CtahhR]

It would be very very obscure if only national institutions were awarded the "badge" who would wear it? Kim Jong-Il? It does make sense that every worker at the particular institution (that also had an outstanding record) received the badge.

[Will]

It would be very very obscure if only national institutions were awarded the "badge" who would wear it? Kim Jong-Il? It does make sense that every worker at the particular institution (that also had an outstanding record) received the badge.

Well, not really. In the Soviet Union it was the practice to award an Order to a group or organization without giving the award individually to every member of the group. For example, Pravda was the recipient of the Red Banner of Labor and the picture of the Order appeared on its masthead, but that did not mean that every member on the staff received an individual award. Similarly, there were entire military units, ships, fleets, and even cities, that received decorations such as the Order of the Red Banner, but the award was displayed by being pined to the unit flag on its presentation and, later, by a particular streamer on the flag, while the award to a city would be represented by a display of the award in the City Hall. Not every member of the military unit or city citizen received the award.

[CtahhR]

Here is a Third type Chollima Honour Badge (전리마영예휘장). The Badge was founded in 1968 and this one probably dates from 1972-3. Coinciding with the Chollima Movement which was phased out by the mid-1970's. The Badge is constructed from copper-nickel and is almost as large as some of the smaller DPRK Orders suggesting that this was a rather high status award Badge.

[CtahhR]

Here is a ground dug example of a Type 3. It cost under 0.2% of what I have seen other examples sell for so I don't think I overpaid.

These are certainly not the rarest Award Badges of the DPRK.

[88d]

One of mine.