Halhingol Battle Commemorative Badge.

[Art]

Here's the correct information from Borisov's book: The Badges of the Soviet Armed Forces, 1918-1991.

[Nota Bene]

Dear Munroe,

Thanks for sharing this group with us. Wow! And finally an original Khalkhin Gol document!

Alexei

[scook17]

Here is the one I finally bought. I had to use the flash on the camera, so it rather messes up the colours.

Kind regards,
Shane Cook.

[Nota Bene]

Shane,

Your badge is perfectly genuine, but I believe the document is bad. All the entries on those fakes are usually made in the same places with almost no variations, ink stamp is the same, they are all filled out by 3 or 4 people, and I have already seen this handwritting on other fakes. The worn effect is achieved by rubbing the booklet between hands, and fakes always have the same "wear" pattern.

Alexei

[Tal Inbar]

Fake badge, sold as replica for $29.95:

Well, it's now on ebay:

"This nice badge is an UNOFFICIAL RESTRIKE of 1939 badge “For Halhingol Battle”. It looks nice, but something "smells bad" with the enamel and in too good condition. The original badge cost around $200.00 each and it’s pretty difficult to find them in good condition. I’ve found this badge during my summer trip to Russia. Later I was told that people in Moscow had found the original preWWII die and "borrowed" it for one night from the factory. They made around 200 unauthorized copies of this badge. The badge is in good condition, no heavy scratches or other damages on the enamel.

The scan is absolutely no good. I spent half an hour working on it, and you see the results! But you know, how the badge must look, and this one is in PERFECT condition! Simply it flashes real badly."

Well, any fake is UNOFFICIAL RESTRIKE .........

[Taz]

Medal of Chalkin Gol, established 16.08.1940.

And here the inside of the award Book. Writen in Mongolian apart from the recipiant which was a Russian.

[Tal Inbar]

Still a long time mystery - why the writing is not in Russian?

[Taz]

Originally Posted by Tal Inbar

Still a long time mystery - why the writing is not in Russian?

Tal,
There wasn't any reason to write in Russian. In effect it was a Mongolian award to a foreigner.
On November 27th, 1934, a Mongolian-Soviet "gentlemen's agreement" was reached that provided for mutual assistance in the face of Japanese advances in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. In January 1935, Soviet troops reentered Mongolia as Japanese forces began to probe the Mongolian-Manchurian border. On March 12th, 1936, the 1934 agreement was upgraded when the ten-year Mongolian-Soviet Treaty of Friendship which included a mutual defense protocol was signed. The pact did not mention Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia, and Moscow ignored Chinese protests.
As you can see the relations were there but Mongolia was seen, at least from the Chinese point of view, as their sovereign territory.
In any case it would not have mattered in which language it was to the Mongolians because in 1941 an estimated 90% of all Mongolians were still illiterate.

Eddie.

[otlichnik]

Eddie is right. By way of similarity I have a 1980s set of awards to a KGB Border Guard colonel who served in Afghanistan. The award books for his Afghan governmtn issued awards are all in Parsi (or is it Pashtu, anyway something Afghan) except for the name.

Shawn

[vatjan]

Well, some of the award docs are in cyrillic. Maybe there is a difference for wartime T1 (mirror reverse) and postwar T2 (flatback) medals
Jan