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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
All modern countries are familiar with the practice of governmental or royal awards to military personnel for distinguished action. Traditionally, these awards have been of an honorary rather than a material nature, in keeping with the concept that such actions are not assessable in money terms and cannot be rewarded in them.
Moreover in a number of countries analogous procedures have developed in the civilian sphere, whereby grateful governments reward those who have rendered some signal service of a political, economic, scientific, or artistic nature. Great Britain has long had such a system, though it is only since the beginning of this century that its scope has been extended to more than a small segment of society; now there are honorary awards for coal miners as well as cabinet ministers, conferred personally by the sovereign.
1 This article is based upon an essay written in fulfillment of the requirements for the Certificate of the Russian Institute at Columbia University.
2 Quoted in Deutscher, I., “Socialist Competition,” Foreign Affairs (April, 1952), p. 384.Google Scholar
3 Stalin, J. V., Questions of Leninism (10th ed., Moscow, 1934), pp. 393–94.Google Scholar
4 Loboda, V. F. and Karagalcev, I. P., Ordeny i Medaly SSSR (Orders and Medals of the USSR) (Moscow, 1950), p. 5.Google Scholar
5 It is therefore somewhat startling that, despite the strong condemnation of Tsarist honors, the Soviet Government, according to the report of a Russian displaced person, during World War II suddenly permitted those who had received the Tsarist St. George Medal, given in World War I to non-commissioned officers, to wear this decoration again.
6 Orden Krasnoe Znamja RSFSR, introduced on September 16, 1918; cited in Loboda, op. cit., p. 8.
7 Orden Trudovoe Krasnoe Znamja RSFSR.
8 Loboda, op. cit., p. 13.
9 Sobranie uzakonenij i rasporjaženij Raboče-Kres'janskogo Pravitel'stva RSFSR (Collection of Laws and Decrees of the Worker-Peasants’ Government of the RSFSR) (1921), 1/7.
10 Sobranie uzakonenij … RSFSR (1921), 31/167, and (1923), 10/125.
11 Henceforward, once the name of the order has been given in full, it will be referred to by its initials; thus, ORLB for Order of the Red Labor Banner.
12 Sobranie zakonov i rasporjaženij Raboče-Krest'janskogo Pravitel'stva SSSR (Collection of Laws and Decrees of the Worker-Peasants’ Government of the USSR) 1927, 45/456.
13 Cunkhu, Trud SSSR (Labor in the USSR) (Moscow, 1936), pp. 10 ff.
14 Ibid., pp. 10 ff.
15 Ward, Harry F., In Place of Profit (New York, 1933), p. 79.Google Scholar
16 Aleksandrov, N. G. and Genkin, D. M., Sovetskoe trudovoe pravo (Soviet Labor Law) (Moscow, 1946), p. 292.Google Scholar
17 Sobranie zakonov … SSSR (1928), 59/524.
18 Sobranie zakonov … SSSR (1930), 26/287.
19 Sobranie zakonov … SSSR (1930), 26/289.
20 Geroj Sovetskogo Sojuza.
21 Orden “Znak Počëta.”
22 Sobranie zakonov i rasporjaženij Raboče-Krest'janskogo Pravitel'stva SSSR, otdel vtoroj.
23 Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta.
24 If it be the case, as seems plausible, that the figures for 1931 contain also the awards made in 1930, for which no published lists have been found, then the 1932 figure would not represent a decline from the previous year. However, this is not ascertainable from the decrees.
25 Sobranie zakonov … SSSR (1936), 16/131 and 24/22ob.
26 Sobranie zakonov … SSSR (1936), 42/357b.
27 Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta (1938), No. 23.
28 Za Trudovuju Doblest’ and Za Trudovoe Otličie; decrees published in Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta (1938), No. 23. These were the first civilian medals in the Soviet Union, the first two military medals having been introduced in October, 1938. Previously the only medals were those which accompanied the conferment of an order.
29 Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta (1945), No. 33.
30 The only apparent exception was the Order of Victory, introduced in 1943, and this may only have been due to an oversight in the published list of awards carrying privileges.
31 Loboda, op. cit., pp. 18, 20.
32 Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta (1947), No. 30.
33 Sobranie postanovlenij i rasporjaženij Soveta Ministrov SSSR (Collection of Decrees and Ordinances of the Council of Ministers of the USSR) (1947), 7/128.
34 Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta (1947), No. 41.
35 There is some doubt whether or not the exemption from income tax also implies exemption from agricultural tax for collective farmers. In the past, awardholders among the latter were exempted by special legislation, and it is not clear how the 1947 decree affects this legislation.
36 Loboda, op. cit., p. 25.
37 Pravda, October 6, 1952.
38 Sobranie postanovlenij i rasporjaženij Pravitel'stva SSSR (Collection of Decrees and Ordinances of the Government of the USSR) (1940), 1/6.
39 Schwartz, Harry, Russia's Soviet Economy (New York, 1950), p. 419.Google Scholar
