"20 Years of the Red Army" - medal and its varieties

In January 1938, when the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union turned twenty, a special government decree marked this significant event with the establishment of a special medal. The right to confer an honorary award was given to a special committee under the government of the country, and by its rank, she followed a medal, which marked special merits in the development of natural resources and development of the gas and oil industry.

The newly established medal - the award of the military personnel

In accordance with the established regulations, the jubilee medal "20 Years of the Red Army" was given to the military personnel who occupied commanders and leadership positions in the army and navy, who had a seniority of at least twenty years, that is, in the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces since the day they were created. This included also years of service in the Krasnogvardeisky squads, as well as in partisan detachments that fought against the enemies of the state.

From this category of persons, the awards were given to those who displayed heroism during the Civil War, as well as in other battles with the enemies of our Fatherland. "20 Years of the Red Army" - a medal, which was also awarded to all veterans awarded the Order of the Red Banner during the Civil War . All this was noted in the government decree. Proceeding from this, on the frequently asked question about whether the medal "20 years of the Red Army" was awarded to the rank and file, a negative answer is inevitable. This is due to the list of categories of persons to be awarded, in which only commanders and those who held managerial positions are indicated.

Appearance of the award badge

The medal "20 Years of the Red Army" (photo at the beginning of the article) is a round disk with a matte surface, the diameter of which is 32 mm. On its edge there is a bezel, and on the front side there is a red five-pointed star made of enamel and having a thin silver edging. In the lower part of the circle, symmetrically between the ends of the star and leaning on the upper edge of the edging, is the Roman numeral "XX". It is gilded, has the following dimensions: height 8 mm, width 7 mm.

On the other side of the award badge is an image of a Red Army soldier in a bud and a greatcoat shooting from a rifle. In the lower right part of the disk there is an inscription "1918-1938", indicating the twenty-year stage of the Armed Forces' existence. To produce the medal, high-grade silver and gilding were used for the inscription "XX" (20 years of the Red Army). The medal contained 15,592 grams of pure silver and 0.10 gold. It was one of the first medals in the country.

Medal "20 Years of the Red Army": varieties of pads and fasteners

Suspension bracket for attaching the mark to clothing is known in two types. The earliest, used from the date of establishment of the medal (1938) and up to the special government decree of 1943, was a rectangular shape with a narrow oblong frame in the lower part. Through it, a red tape was passed that covered the entire surface of the pads.

To fix it, we used a copper plate placed on the back of the pad with teeth on the edges and a hole in the middle. To the clothes it was fastened with a threaded pin and a flat clamping nut with a diameter of 18 mm, on which the stamp of the manufacturer Mondvor was located, as well as the serial number of this award badge.

Changing the appearance of the pads

When the Decree of 1943 came into force, all the previously awarded ones used old shoes, and newly awarded ones received it in accordance with the government decree. In a new version, the ring, threaded into a special eye, connected the medal with a peg-shaped shoe, covered with a moiré tape. A gray silk ribbon with a width of 24 mm was edged along the edges by two longitudinal red stripes. The threaded pin with the nut was missing, and the shoe itself was attached to the clothes with a pin.

Two samples of award certificates

All those who were awarded the medal "20 Years of the Red Army" received the appropriate certificates, which also had different options for registration. The earliest of them, a sample of 1938, is characterized by the fact that on its cover was depicted the emblem of the Soviet Union with eleven ribbons - according to the number of republics that were part of it for that period.

The next feature that distinguished this certificate from the subsequent sample was the availability of a serial number. He was put on the first spread, right after the inscription "Identity card", and was in the upper part, on the right. The certificates of this model were signed by Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the country A. Gorkin.

In 1959, the relevant government decree amended the registration of certificates for the award badges "20 Years of the Red Army". The medal has not undergone any changes since 1943, but the accompanying document could not but reflect the realities of the new time.

By this year, the number of union republics has reached fifteen, respectively, and the number of ribbons on the image of the state emblem has changed. The post of Secretary of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by that time was occupied by MP Georgadze, and documents of a new type had his signature. In addition, they did not specify the serial number of the medal.

It should also be noted that all the certificates that were awarded prior to 1959 remained the same, that is, the old one, but they had the new right to receive in the event of the loss of old, or as a person, in previous years unreasonably repressed, and subsequently rehabilitated and restored in rights.

The medal that has become a rarity

Despite the fact that "20 years of the Red Army" - a medal, earlier than other similar award marks established in the Soviet Union - was handed over to more than thirty-seven thousand red commanders of various levels, by the end of the war, it could be seen infrequently. The reason is that a significant part of the awardees fell under the wheel of mass repressions of 1938, as well as subsequent years, and was shot; Many perished during clashes with the Japanese aggressors on Khalkhin-Gol and the Finnish campaign, while others fell in battle with fascist Germany or were captured. In the post-war, fifties, this award was already extremely rare in officers', general's and marshal's uniforms.

One of the few pre-war officer awards

It is interesting to note that by the beginning of the forties the picture was completely different. On the uniforms of the cadre officers, other awards were extremely rare except for the one in question in this article. The reason for this is as follows. The fact is that at the beginning of the 1940s only five orders were established in our country, three of which were awarded for military merits. In addition, there were four medals, two of which, according to the regulations, were also intended for those who distinguished themselves on the battlefields.

Proceeding from this, to reward the cadre of military personnel, except for "20 years of the Red Army", there were still only five awards - three orders and two medals. All of them were given for the heroism shown during the military conflicts, and there were only three such at that time: two of them in the areas of Khasan and Khalkhin-Gol lakes , as well as the Finnish campaign.

Thus, to obtain military awards, it was necessary to distinguish at least one of them. The exception was a group of officers who were awarded for heroism displayed in Spain. It is for this reason that, at the beginning of the war, among the cadre officers there were very few gentlemen of other awards, except for the medal "20 Years of the Red Army".

The thousands-strong army of awardees

At the end of the article it will be appropriate to quote the statistics of the awards with this medal for the entire period during which it was awarded to the veterans of the Soviet Army. It is known that in 1938, immediately after the publication of the government decree, this award was awarded to 27,575 people. A year later, it received another 2,515 personnel officers of the Soviet Army. When, in 1959, new certificates were introduced in a new model, there were 37,504 officers, generals and marshals among the cavaliers of the medal. Photos of two of them are presented in the article. This award became a monument to the defenders of the country, and the cavaliers of the medal "20 Years of the Red Army" - its heroes.