On military decorations, Soviet and Russian
This post was started as a comment on Lex Libertas's posting with a picture of a building, but his comment system is not working right now, and since the comment was too long-winded anyway, I decided to post it here.
Here on the building there are two circles below the national emblem. What is depicted on them is not a simple architectural decorations, but orders. On the left is the Order of Lenin, and on the right is the Order of October Revolution (with cruiser Aurora on it). The building itself is former Leningrad Higher Party School, now St.Petersburg International Business Center.
Military and civilian decorations in USSR and Russia have two classes. The higher one is called an order, the lower one is a medal. For example, if a soldier did some heroic deed in WWII, he was awarded a medal 'Za otvagu' (For courage). Many medals were awarded for participation in a specific battle, e.g. 'For the defense of Moscow', 'For the liberation of Prague', 'For the conquest of Budapest' (since Hungary was Hitler's ally, it is conquest, or taking, (vzyatie), not liberation).
However, if the deed was outstanding, he could be awarder an order 'Slavy' (of Glory), or an order of Red Banner. 'Hero of Soviet Union', 'Hero of Socialist Labor', and modern 'Hero of Russia' are special titles. In the Soviet times, the awardees were decorated both with an Order of Lenin and the special Golden Star medal (with Hammer and Sickle for Labor version). This makes this medal the highest award, like Medal of Honor in USA. But basically, orders are what is called medals in America, and medals are what is called badges and coins.
The word 'order' in this sense is a relic from the Imperial Russia. In Russian Empire, just like in the most of the contemporary Europe, orders were knight orders -- they had a limited number of members, they had their complex insignia, chapels, celebration days, the official head of order was usually the Emperor. When a commoner got in the Order he usually officially became a noble (there were exceptions for the lowest ranks in the lowest orders). However, in Russian Members of Orders were called 'cavaler', not 'rytsar' (knight), and this word was used exclusively in the context of orders. So, when the Communists decided to design their own system of military and civilian decorations, they simply used words 'order' and 'cavaler', both of which had already lost most of the connection to the concept of Knight Orders.
British system of orders is one of the few traditional ones which made it to the modern world, and now every time a celebrity of any kind gets a British decoration, the world is abuzz. Is Bill Gates a knight now? Paul McCartney surely is, but Gates wasn't dubbed and cannot style himself as 'sir'. Was it appropriate for the former Presidents of USA Reagan and Bush Sr. to become members of the Order of Bath? Well, everyone can remember something similar. However, a mere century ago 'the order' meant 'the Knight Order' with few, if any, exceptions, and there were no confusion when someone was awarded one of them (or, to be more precise, was accepted in one of the Knight Orders).
Another confusing feature of the Soviet award system is the practice of awarding not only persons, but legal bodies too. Factories, newspapers, organizations, cities, universities, and, of course, military units were awarded 'the order of Lenin', 'the order of Red Banner', 'the order of October Revolution', etc. Not all of the orders were used in this way, most of the military orders were highly restricted, but these three were quite common. That's why you see the depictions of two orders on the building in Owen's picture. The Leningrad Party School was decorated with them in both senses. Sometimes this practice brought extremely funny linguistic monstrosities such as 'Leningradskii Ordena Lenina Metropoliten imeni V.I.Lenina' (the official name of Leningrad subway).
Here on the building there are two circles below the national emblem. What is depicted on them is not a simple architectural decorations, but orders. On the left is the Order of Lenin, and on the right is the Order of October Revolution (with cruiser Aurora on it). The building itself is former Leningrad Higher Party School, now St.Petersburg International Business Center.
Military and civilian decorations in USSR and Russia have two classes. The higher one is called an order, the lower one is a medal. For example, if a soldier did some heroic deed in WWII, he was awarded a medal 'Za otvagu' (For courage). Many medals were awarded for participation in a specific battle, e.g. 'For the defense of Moscow', 'For the liberation of Prague', 'For the conquest of Budapest' (since Hungary was Hitler's ally, it is conquest, or taking, (vzyatie), not liberation).
However, if the deed was outstanding, he could be awarder an order 'Slavy' (of Glory), or an order of Red Banner. 'Hero of Soviet Union', 'Hero of Socialist Labor', and modern 'Hero of Russia' are special titles. In the Soviet times, the awardees were decorated both with an Order of Lenin and the special Golden Star medal (with Hammer and Sickle for Labor version). This makes this medal the highest award, like Medal of Honor in USA. But basically, orders are what is called medals in America, and medals are what is called badges and coins.
The word 'order' in this sense is a relic from the Imperial Russia. In Russian Empire, just like in the most of the contemporary Europe, orders were knight orders -- they had a limited number of members, they had their complex insignia, chapels, celebration days, the official head of order was usually the Emperor. When a commoner got in the Order he usually officially became a noble (there were exceptions for the lowest ranks in the lowest orders). However, in Russian Members of Orders were called 'cavaler', not 'rytsar' (knight), and this word was used exclusively in the context of orders. So, when the Communists decided to design their own system of military and civilian decorations, they simply used words 'order' and 'cavaler', both of which had already lost most of the connection to the concept of Knight Orders.
British system of orders is one of the few traditional ones which made it to the modern world, and now every time a celebrity of any kind gets a British decoration, the world is abuzz. Is Bill Gates a knight now? Paul McCartney surely is, but Gates wasn't dubbed and cannot style himself as 'sir'. Was it appropriate for the former Presidents of USA Reagan and Bush Sr. to become members of the Order of Bath? Well, everyone can remember something similar. However, a mere century ago 'the order' meant 'the Knight Order' with few, if any, exceptions, and there were no confusion when someone was awarded one of them (or, to be more precise, was accepted in one of the Knight Orders).
Another confusing feature of the Soviet award system is the practice of awarding not only persons, but legal bodies too. Factories, newspapers, organizations, cities, universities, and, of course, military units were awarded 'the order of Lenin', 'the order of Red Banner', 'the order of October Revolution', etc. Not all of the orders were used in this way, most of the military orders were highly restricted, but these three were quite common. That's why you see the depictions of two orders on the building in Owen's picture. The Leningrad Party School was decorated with them in both senses. Sometimes this practice brought extremely funny linguistic monstrosities such as 'Leningradskii Ordena Lenina Metropoliten imeni V.I.Lenina' (the official name of Leningrad subway).
posted by Mike Tyukanov at 3:31 AM
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