Badge "70 Years Of Soviet Militia".

[Dat Nguyen]

Greetings again,

Any expert out there to help me with identifying this badge? Thanks in advance for your help.

v/r
Dat Nguyen

[sovvisor]

From what I can read the medal is from latvia and it says union militia on the reverse

[Lapa]

Dat,

Looks like 70th Anniversary of MVD.

Marc

[deValcourt]

I especially like these two Latvian badges, but the dates throw me a bit. The first one below says "Soviet Latvian Militia" on it with the dates 1919-1979 on the reverse and the Lativian SSR flag in the shield on the suspension. The second one, according to Rogov, is for the 70th anniversary of the MVD's Criminal Investigations division (Уголовный Розыск) in Latvia - I think this is correct because he has this badge in two sections of the book and in neither case are they singled out for explanation. They are just on pages full of other badges. The problem is, as you can see, the dates on the reverse of this badge are 1917-1987 and the text simply says "Soviet Militia." At the same time, the all-union Excellent MVD Employee "egg" badge design is on the obverse.

Therefore, logically, I came to the conclusion that the 70th anniversary badge is for the MVD's Criminal Investigations department throughout the Soviet Union from its inception, whereas the first badge is for the 60th anniversary of the Latvian SSR Police/Militia in particular.

The only problem is that Latvia did not become part of the USSR until 1940, a year after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact allowed for its annexation by the Soviet Union.:confused:

If anyone can shed some light here, please do so.

Phillip

[Greg Collins]

Phillip,

I've encountered this date issue in other republics and, most recently, Pridnestrovie. The date is when the organization began- not when the republic or country began. Weird, I know, but it just is.

[Keith]

We have this also in Estonia - some of the Soviet organizations claimed an anniversary date of 1917 or 1918 going back to the predecessor organization established during Soviet control of eastern Estonia during the Russian Civil War.

Keith

[CtahhR]

Yugoslavia for example (that wasn't even a nation in 1917 let alone maintaining the same regime) used the 1917 date on commemorative Badges. http://soviet-awards.com/forum/sovie...countries.html

With the 100th Anniversary of the October Revolution coming fast it will be interesting to see which countries celebrate or commemorate it in any way. Will the focus of some in 2017 be more on the February Revolution and end of the Empire?

[deValcourt]

Originally Posted by Greg Collins

Phillip,

I've encountered this date issue in other republics and, most recently, Pridnestrovie. The date is when the organization began- not when the republic or country began. Weird, I know, but it just is.

Why not (I've come to see since this was first posted)? Various departments within the KGB recognize different beginning dates; e.g., the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) now the SVR claims 1920 as its starting date on most anniversary items I've seen.

Phillip