Order of Lenin

Order of Lenin

The Order of Lenin, type 1
Awarded by the  Soviet Union
Type Single-grade order
Eligibility Citizens of the Soviet Union; foreigners; institutions, enterprises and collectives
Awarded for
  • outstanding services rendered to the State,
  • exemplary service in the armed forces,
  • promoting friendship and cooperation between peoples and in strengthening peace, and
  • meritorious services to the Soviet state and society
Status No longer awarded
Statistics
Established April 6, 1930
First awarded May 23, 1930
Last awarded December 21, 1991
Total awarded 431,418
Precedence
Next (higher) Hero of the Soviet Union
Next (lower) Order of the October Revolution

Ribbon of the Order of Lenin

The Order of Lenin (Russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. The order was awarded to:


From 1944 to 1957, before the institution of specific length of service medals, the Order of Lenin was also used to reward 25 years of conspicuous military service.

Those who were awarded the titles "Hero of the Soviet Union" and "Hero of Socialist Labour" were also given the order as part of the award. It was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units and ships. Corporate entities, factories, various educational institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles.

The order was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930.

Design

The first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov. It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features. It was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenin's profile surrounded by smokestacks, a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc. At the top was a gold-plated "hammer and sickle" emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for "USSR" (Russian: СССР) in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted. It was awarded between 1930-1932.[2]

The second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a solid gold badge, featuring an enamelled disc bearing Lenin's portrait . The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat, and a red flag with "LENIN" in Cyrillic script (Russian: ЛЕНИН). A red star is placed on the left and the "hammer and sickle" emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel.

The third design was awarded from 1936–43

The fourth design was awarded from 1943 until the end of the USSR.

The badge was originally worn by screwback on the left chest without ribbon. Later it was worn as a medal suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges (see image above). The ribbon bar is of the same design. The portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a one-piece gold badge, but finally returned as a separate platinum piece until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Recipients

The first Order of Lenin was awarded to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 May 1930. Also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze. The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936. Another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki, became the first to receive a third Order in 1939.

The first five foreign recipients, a German and four Americans (one of the Americans was Frank Bruno Honey[3]—on May 17, 1932), received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry and agriculture in 1931–1934.[4]

A total of 431,418 orders were awarded in total, with the last on 21 December 1991.

Most frequent

The record for most Orders of Lenin received by a single person is held by Nikolay Patolichev, longtime Minister for Foreign Trade of the USSR, who was awarded 12 times. Other numerous repeat awardees are:

Notable organizational and regional recipients

Notable individual recipients

Fictional recipients

In the James Bond film A View to a Kill, Bond is awarded the Order of Lenin. He is described as the first foreign recipient. The first real foreign recipient was Luigi Longo.

In IPC publication's Battle Picture Weekly a character, 'Johnny Red', is awarded the order of Lenin for saving the life of a political commissar from a German air ace.

In the movie The Hunt for Red October following an order to surrender by a US Naval ship, Captain First Rank Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) tells the Senior Lieutenant/Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov, Chief Medical Officer of Red October (Tim Curry) that "you will stay with the men, whilst I and the rest of the senior officers will submerge beneath you and scuttle the ship". In response to this the medical officer informs his captain that: "you will receive the Order of Lenin for this".

In the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Jones's nemesis Col. Irina Spalko was awarded the Order of Lenin three times.

In the Singularity (video game) Viktor Barisov is awarded the Order of Lenin for his work on the fictional element E99.

In Ian Fleming's novel From Russia With Love Colonel Rosa Klebb was awarded the order once and Colonel General Grubozaboyschihov was awarded it twice.[10]

In the 2004 video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, weapons designer Alexander Leonovitch Granin received the Order of Lenin for his inventions, including the original plan for Metal Gear REX.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Орден Ленина: история учреждения, эволюция и разновидности. Часть II
  2. ↑ McDaniel & Schmitt, The Comprehensive Guide to Soviet Orders and Medals.
  3. ↑ "One American, Frank Bruno Honey, received the Order of Lenin for his work." Dana G. Dalrymple, "The American Tractor Comes to Soviet Agriculture: The Transfer of a Technology", Technology and Culture, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Spring, 1964), pp. 191–214
  4. ↑ (Russian) Order of Lenin - history of establishment, evolution and varieties by Valery Durov
  5. ↑ Ордена «Комсомольской правды»
  6. ↑ The Junior Aircraft Year Book, 1935, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Obituary reference in the Indian Parliament
  8. ↑ Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman--from World War to Cold War.
  9. ↑ Tito's Home Page - With world leaders
  10. ↑ Fleming I. From Russia With Love, Signet Books, p.44

External links

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