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I agree the mint would be the best one to settle this question. True, the Voennii Vestnik writer may have done more research than just answering the letter.
If we still go with my belief in Soviet origin, a possibility could be a NON-military audience - labor or a civilian ministry like Ministry of Foreign Affairs and thus Voennii Vestnik wouldn't know anything about it.
If we discard the Soviet origin, does anyone else have any ideal what other country could have made them? Does Poland have a tradition of wearing miniatures, for example? If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Poland or Czechoslovakia... I feel we could rule out Albania, Yugoslavia, East Germany.
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I have seen polish soldiers (especially veterans) wearing miniature awards. Unfortunately I lack sources to say when were they introduced and what are the origins of this tradition. The letter I posted was an answer to a request from polish officer (still in active service by then unless I am mistaken).
I have seen Yugoslavian miniature awards, however they were always attached to a ribbon bar (normal ribbon bar, not miniature ribbon)...
You may be right about a non-military origin. I would, however, guess that it could have been someone's personal initiative.
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desantnik Wrote:...If we still go with my belief in Soviet origin, a possibility could be a NON-military audience - labor or a civilian ministry like Ministry of Foreign Affairs and thus Voennii Vestnik wouldn't know anything about it...
Paul,
It seems to me that a Soviet ministry would order its wears from the official state awards supplier, in this case, Monetniy Dvor.
Marc
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Paul,
I don't believe that miniatures were ever worn in the SU, not by the military, nor by the civilians. Even the Soviet diplomats on formal ocasions requiring them to wear dress uniforms with all the awards did not wear the miniatures. Also traditionally the Soviets did not wear tuxedos.
Another reason why I don't believe these are Soviet made is the quality. For instance, in comparison with a 50 Years in KPSS badge, made by the Moscow mint, these are crude.
In any case this is just my opinion.
Alexei
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I remember these being quite common in Manion's sales etc of the mid-1990s, as if from a single cache being dispersed, but have never seen any offered for sale since.
They also sold (out?) for about $3 each in smaller ephemeral militaria catalogs of that period. I first got into Soviet in '94, and these were around about then, before I paid any attention to them.
Though they seemed endless at the time, apparently only the one lot and that's scattered to the winds.
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Rick,
Do you have any pictures to post?
Alexei
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Alexei, I agree with your logic pertaining to Soviet wear and/or manufacture.
These are still enigmatic though and if the Soviet Union didn't manufacture them - who did? I don't believe an individual in any former Soviet bloc country would have had "commissioned" the creation of these and if the Soviet Union didn't produce them, what country did? It's not like there were hundreds of foreign recipients - only 20 Lenins were awarded to foreigners during WWII.
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desantnik Wrote:These are still enigmatic though and if the Soviet Union didn't manufacture them - who did? I don't believe an individual in any former Soviet bloc country would have had "commissioned" the creation of these and if the Soviet Union didn't produce them, what country did? It's not like there were hundreds of foreign recipients - only 20 Lenins were awarded to foreigners during WWII.
Paul,
Those are good questions, I wish I had good answers. Hmmm... Do you think we could write a letter to the Polish mint?
Alexei
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12-03-2006, 03:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2006, 03:24 AM by willie777.)
We could, I doubt we'd recieve a reply though. We could also email them if anyone knows polish.
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It would probably help if there was a forum member with contacts either within the Polish government or at the mint. Perhaps they could "pull some strings" for us.
