10-18-2003, 02:11 PM
Back to the Russian Federations decorations. There are really two periods of post-communist military design. Yeltsin tried to sweep away everything Soviet, including the old national anthem. Putin, with feet in both eras, has responded to Communist pressure by trying to straddle both the Soviet and post-USSR culture in almost everything, including bringing back the old national anthem with new words ("we'll soar like eagles again someday"). Decorations reflect those two periods. Yeltsin's were directed to pre-revolutionary days to establish his legitemacy and break with the immediate past (the first Caucasus medal). Those that have appeared since Putin took over attempt to satisfy both political cultures and, as a result, have fallen between two stools and look like rubbish. The infrastructure for producing those fine Soviet era awards has also been dispersed and they are being produced by industrial processes so the craftsmanship is nothing like that of the old babushki who did such fine work. As Lenin said, "it's all politics," or something like that. Dr. Bob
