01-17-2011, 03:19 AM
Andreas, thanks for that question.
Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union I visited MVOKU - the "Moscow Higher Combined Arms Red Banner Academy" and swear remembering meeting an officer graduate with "MVOKU" on his academy badge. I have always looked for a badge with those specific initials, but never found it among the crowd of various badges with initials. To me this is surprising since MVOKU was kind of considered the most elite of all the academies out there - it was located in Moscow, named after the Supreme Soviet and thus had their graduation directly on Red Square, the Soviet elite wanted to send their kids there due to its primo location, etc.
My conclusion about the lack of a MVOKU badge was either my memory was faulty or it was a private purchase. I guess I still don't know conclusively, but if anyone ever runs across a MVOKU badge - I'm game.
Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union I visited MVOKU - the "Moscow Higher Combined Arms Red Banner Academy" and swear remembering meeting an officer graduate with "MVOKU" on his academy badge. I have always looked for a badge with those specific initials, but never found it among the crowd of various badges with initials. To me this is surprising since MVOKU was kind of considered the most elite of all the academies out there - it was located in Moscow, named after the Supreme Soviet and thus had their graduation directly on Red Square, the Soviet elite wanted to send their kids there due to its primo location, etc.
My conclusion about the lack of a MVOKU badge was either my memory was faulty or it was a private purchase. I guess I still don't know conclusively, but if anyone ever runs across a MVOKU badge - I'm game.
