Check my thread on the 18oth rifle division standard; it has a few of these; they are award standards for units, to denote they were awarded certain orders.....for example, the 180th Rifle Div. was awarded the red banner, so it had a red and white streamer attached to the flag pole.
No, not the ribbons. I know they made the ribbons for the flags, to be used instead of putting the actual orders on the flags, but at times they did both; using the order-streamers and the orders themselves (pretty rare though). As for the medals, I have never seen medal ribbon-streamers for flags, but have seen the actual medals on the flags. Again, i think this was pretty unofficial.
Could you give an example. I didn't know that they awarded medals to units. At the same time I have seen badges, designed exclusively for banners, like DOSAAF and earlier defense preparedness badges...
I am trying to find the pic that I remember; it showed a unit flag with 1 or 2 orders, screwed on to cloth and then the cloth sewn on to the flag, with a few medals hanging next to them. I know it was in a book, but i can not remember the bok. I'll hunt it down.
I do not think that the units were awarded the medals, but my guess would be they were campain medals showing where the unit had fought at, done by the unit without official orders.
The reason I am so curious is because the Soviets exercised a very tight control over the medals, and (me thinks) a medal could not appear on a banner without an official award document and a corresponding Ukaz. I can still imagine a veteran attaching his own medal to his unit combat banner at some sort of a commemorative ceremony.