Hope this is interesting - and the right place to post these pics! I have a small collection of Soviet enamel pin badges which I like from a design point of view. Amongst them are a number of badges commemorating some of the great battles of the Great Patriotic War. I'm posting these pics because the badges are interesting and, in a sense, topical as 9 May approaches. I'd be glad if anyone can offer comments or translations or knows a little about Soviet pin badges in general. One of these in particular - the grey badge marked 1941 - 1971 intrigues me...any thoughts please? 1941-71 kharkov Smolensk Mother Russia Moscow View attachment 30115
I've messed up - can anyone explain how to post images in the message rather than as attachments to be downloaded?
Hi Civvie ! Look at FAQ (Frequently asked questions) above, from which this is taken: How do I add an image to a post? If you have uploaded an image as an attachment, you can click the arrow next to the 'Attachment Icon' and select it from the list. This will be inserted into your post and can be located where you want it displayed. To include an image that is not uploaded as an attachment and is located on another website, you can do so by copying the full URL to the image, (not the page on which the image is located), and either pressing the 'Insert Image' icon or by typing before the URL and after it, ensuring that you do not have any spaces before or after the URL of the image. You can insert pictures from your albums (?) in this way too I personally always post images as jpgs. Ron
These patriotic pins do intrigue me as well, I have a few but quite frankly don't worry too much about them, they're mostly unresearchable as they were issued by whoever might care up or down the political ladder. That 'Mother Russia' pin reads Volgograd Aeroflot, now go figure that out! That 41-71 must cover the 30th anniversary of the invasion, but... Use your powers of google and see what the 'Ostalgia' sites say, but practice your German first.
I've messed up - can anyone explain how to post images in the message rather than as attachments to be downloaded? As Ron says add them as jpg not tiff.
Fixed the Images Civvie. Don't know why it often handles .tiffs oddly, it just does. Apologies for that. ~A
Thanks for your help everybody - next time I'll post jpegs! I know the Smolensk badge is from one of many series of Hero City badges; it has a kind of austerity which I find very compelling and appropriate and I hope to complete the series eventually. I have maybe a hundred or so of these badges covering a wide range of places, activities and historic events. It seems to me that there's a badge for everything in Russia - even a Moscow Hooligans badge! - and badge-design is a genuine quality popular art-form over there. The UK trade union movement has been big on pin-badges but they don't have the artistic vitality of some of Russia's badges.
I think I can answer my own question about the grey badge at the top: it looks like it shows the entrance to the memorial complex at the Brest Litovsk Hero Fortress. Google Images has great pics of the extraordinary sculptures sited around the ruins of the fortress.
On my recent trip to Budapest I found stalls in the Central Market specialising in Soviet pins although these seemed much too new to be genuine articles. I understand that the local flea markets do sell the genuine article but as this is "not my scene" I didn't bother to purchase any examples.
That 'Mother Russia' pin reads Volgograd Aeroflot, now go figure that out! I wouldn't think that that badge has anything to do with the GPW, it's more likely a regular air crew badge for the Volgograd section of Aeroflot. Since 'Mother Russia' or 'Motherland' is Volgograd's most evident landmark and symbol, it's only logical that they'd stamp it on badges and other accessories. The trains going to Volgograd all have 'Mother Russia' printed on the curtains and towels and stuff. So no big deal. Since we're talking about the 'Motherland' statue, have a look at the pics I attached with the train - that statue isn't just a symbol, it is Volgograd. And I added a pic taken at a very interesting angle, showing the Motherland's sword and Mamaev Kurgan itself. That 1941-1971 badge is indeed a commemoration of the invasion. Brest-Litovsk was one of the first places to be hit, and is a symbol of the GPW's beginning, so the badge is all about that. I got some badges recently, with the 65th anniversary and all, they're really great. I'll post pics of them sooner or later.
Sorry for not editing, Owen, but I had to post these images somewhere, and you can't add more images in the 'edit' section. Civvie, there's that Brest-Litovsk gate you were talking about, on your badge and all, and I managed to find images of my badges on the net, so there they are. Oh yeah. And there's one last thing concerning the badges. That building on the last 'Moscow - Hero City' badge, the one with 'Россия' on it - it's been demolished. It was a hotel before, and a really famous one at that. Very elite, I wouldn't say 5-star, but it was right in front of the Kremlin and had the best view in Moscow. The evening news were always aired from that building on Perviy Kanal (Channel One, a bit like BBC One, but in Russia). Foreign presidents, ambassadors and prime ministers used to stop there, now all they're left with is the Ritz-Carlton :p It was a symbol of the Soviet era, and nobody wanted it to be pulled down, but the government here sucks, so they went ahead and it's now a pile of rubble. No new plans have been developed to transform that plot of land yet, but, apparently, they're 'working on it'. Baahh. Whatever. Check out the attached photos. Cheers, Owen.
and you can't add more images in the 'edit' section. You can by clicking "Go Advanced." once in edit mode.
Tovarisch, nice to see you! You must be cheating, your last image is the Order of victory, 18 only were awarded. Are you sure you got one too?
It's made of plastic You can by clicking "Go Advanced." once in edit mode. Cheers, I'll consider using that
Then you should see my O.Lenin copy, you'd be unable to find anything worse Isn't the Mother Russia doing a Tower-of-Pisa-like performance? The staute, I mean. I don't remember where I saw this, but I was under the impression that the HUGE statue is at risk.
Yeah, I read about that somewhere as well. It's slowly leaning due to underground rivers or something. But the situation's under control - people are on the scene and dealing with it. They've come up with a solution already, but, *drum roll* here comes another problem-funding - the government is short of cash, as usual, and they're struggling to gather money to repair the statue. I think there was a thread discussing this, and I posted there...hang on.