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Russia
Order of Lenin Medal – Fourth Design
1943-1991
Gold and Platinum Award Medal, 43mm x 38mm (Medal) Length with
ribbon: 95mm (41.53 grams including ribbon)
Lenin facing 1/4 left.
Medal Notes:
The fourth design was awarded from 1943 until 1991. Gold, with
platinum portrait, suspended from a ribbon.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate
of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
The Order of Lenin
(Russian: Орден Ленина, romanized: Orden
Lenina, named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution,
was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The
order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union.
The order was awarded to:
- Civilians for outstanding services rendered to the State
- Members of the armed forces for exemplary service
- Those who promoted friendship and cooperation between peoples and in
strengthening peace
- Those with meritorious services to the Soviet state and society
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. Various educational institutions and military units who received the
said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles.
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.
The second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a solid gold
badge, featuring a silver plated 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 until 1943. Design was same as
previous, but the central disc was gray enamelled and Lenin’s portrait was
separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets.
The fourth design was awarded from 1943 until 1991. Design was same as
previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon (all previous were
screwback).
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.
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 – who were presented with the Order on May
17, 1932 – comprised a German and four US citizens, one of whom was Frank Bruno
Honey.They received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet
industry and agriculture, during 1931–1934.
431,418 orders were awarded in total, with the last on 21 December 1991.
Most frequent
- 11 times:
- Nikolay Patolichev, longtime Minister for Foreign Trade of the USSR
- Dmitriy Ustinov, Defence Minister in 1976–1984
- 10 times:
- Efim Slavsky, Head of Sredmash, the ministry responsible for nuclear
industry, in 1957–1986
- Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, aircraft designer
- 9 times:
- Petr Dementiev Minister of Aviation Industry 1953–1977
- Vasily Ryabikov, defence industry official, co-head (together with Sergey
Korolev) of the first Sputnik project
- Nikolay Semyonov, winner of 1956 Nobel Prize in chemistry
- Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov; president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences
(1975–1986)
- Vasily Chuikov, World War II commander
- Ivan Papanin, polar explorer
- 8 times:
- Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union
- Kliment Voroshilov, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Notable collective recipients
- All fifteen republics of the Soviet Union
- Komsomol, the Young Communist League
- LOMO, Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Corporation
- ZIL, automobile manufacturer (for their manufacturing of weapons and
ammunition)
- Kryvorizhstal, massively successful and profitable steel mill
- Moscow Region
- Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper
- Pravda newspaper
- Cities of Moscow, Donetsk, and Yekaterinburg
- 62nd Army for extraordinary valor in the defence of Stalingrad
- Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”
- Soviet ship Stary Bolshevik, for the courage in Convoy PQ 16 (World War
II).
Notable individual recipients
- Sergey Afanasyev (Soviet “Space Minister”, awarded 7 times)
- Aziz Aliyev (Azerbaijani and Dagestani politician and scientist, awarded 2
times)
- Sona Akhundova-Bagirbekova (Azerbaijani ophthalmologist)
- Clyde G. Armistead and William Latimer Lavery (American air mechanics
awarded for participation in search and rescue operations of the steamship
Cheliuskin
- George Avakian American record producer who promoted international musical
exchange between Russian and American musicians.
- Valeriy Borzov (Soviet Ukrainian sprinter)
- Emilian Bukov (Soviet writer for the Moldavian SSR, awarded 2 times)
- Bill Booth (for parachuting into the North Pole)
- Fidel Castro (Cuban leader)
- Konstantin Chelpan (Chief designer of the T-34 tank engine)
- Luis Corvalán (secretary general of the Communist Party of Chile)
- Álvaro Cunhal (Portuguese politician and writer; instrumental in the
overthrow of the fascist dictatorial regime of Estado Novo)
- Sripat Amrit Dange (Indian Communist leader who had strongly endorsed
pro-Soviet views)
- Chandra Rajeswara Rao (He was one of the leaders of the Telangana Rebellion
(1946–1951). He also worked as Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary
for 28 years, was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1974.)
- Joseph Davies (American diplomat who strongly supported Stalin and the
Soviet Union)
- Sergei Eisenstein (film director)
- Roza Eldarova (Chairwoman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the
Dagestan ASSR, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR)
- Zinaida Vissarionovna Ermol’eva (biochemist, independently synthesized
penicillin for the Soviet military during World War II)
- Muhammed Faris (Syrian research cosmonaut, July 30, 1987)
- Yuri Gagarin (Cosmonaut, first human being in outer space)
- Israel Gelfand (Soviet mathematician, awarded 3 times)
- Kim Pen Hwa (collective farm manager, awarded 4 times)
- Pinkhus Turjan (Soviet Captain)
- Otto Grotewohl (former prime minister of GDR)
- Armand Hammer (American businessman and philanthropist)
- Erich Honecker (former leader of GDR)
- Sergey Ilyushin (Soviet pilot and aircraft designer, awarded 8 times)
- Wojciech Jaruzelski (former leader of People’s Republic of Poland)
- Mikhail Kalashnikov (designer of the AK-47, AKM, AK-74 and AK-100 (rifle
family) assault rifles along with RPK, PK and PKM machine guns.
- Urho Kekkonen (Finnish president)
- Nikita Khrushchev (Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, Soviet
Union)
- Klaudia Sergejewna Kildisheva (1917 – 1994), aviation engineer and Hero of
Socialist Labor
- Kim Il-sung (President of North Korea, awarded 2 times)
- Igor Kurchatov (physicist, leader of the Soviet atomic bomb project,
awarded 5 times)
- Yanka Kupala (Belarusian poet, for the book «Ад сэрца» heart)
- Vladimir Komarov (Cosmonaut, first cosmonaut to fly in space twice and
first man to die on a space mission, awarded twice)
- Vladimir Konovalov (sub-commander and admiral, awarded 3 times)
- Alexei Krylov (Russian naval engineer, applied mathematician and memoirist,
awarded 3 times)
- Luigi Longo (Italy; Political commissar of the XII International Brigade in
Spain (1936–1938), deputy commander of the Freedom Volunteers Corp (1943–1945)
and secretary (1964–1972) and president (1972–1980) of the Italian Communist
Party)
- Fariza Magomadova (Chechen boarding school director and pioneer for women’s
education)
- Nelson Mandela (South African leader)
- Kirill Mazurov (Belarusian Soviet politician)
- Ramón Mercader (Spanish NKVD agent, assassinated Leon Trotsky)
- Boris Mikhailov (Soviet ice hockey team captain in the 1970s and 1980s)
- Shoista Mullodzhanova (Bukharian Jewish Shashmakom singer)
- Alexander Morozov (designer of the T-64 tank)
- Yelena Mukhina (gymnast, 1960–2006)
- Rahmon Nabiyev (First Secretary of the Communist party of Tajikistan, later
president of Tajikistan)
- Alexander Nadiradze (Soviet Georgian scientist who developed the first
mobile ICBM systems)
- Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egyptian president)
- Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (Soviet spy)
- Fyodor Okhlopkov (World War II hero)
- Nikolai Ostrovsky (Soviet author, 1904–1936)
- Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Soviet sniper World War II, two times)
- Mausuza Vanakhun (Soviet military officer, Dungan national hero)
- Yevgeny Pepelyaev (fighter pilot in the Korean War)
- Maya Plisetskaya (Prima Ballerina Bolshoi Ballet Company, one time 1964)
- Kim Philby (British/Soviet double agent)
- Neville Ramsbottom-Isherwood (commander of Operation Benedict, an RAF
fighter wing that defended Murmansk in late 1941)
- Konstantin Rokossovsky (World War II Marshal of the Soviet Union, awarded 7
times)
- Arnold Rüütel (Estonian communist leader, later president of the
independent Estonia)
- Anatoly Sagalevich (underwater explorer, creator of the MIR DSV)
- Belisario Sanchez Mateos (Spanish painter, sculptor and social activist)
- Aleksandr Sergeyevich Senatorov
- Dmitri Shostakovich (Soviet composer, awarded three times)
- Mikhail Shumayev (nuclear physicist, engineer and chemist)
- Ivan Sidorenko (Soviet sniper in World War II)
- Sergey Spasokukotsky (surgeon and member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences,
1870–1943)
- Nikolay Sutyagin (fighter pilot in World War II and Korean War)
- Max Taitz (scientist in aerodynamics, theory of jet engines and flight
testing of aircraft, one of the founders of the Gromov Flight Research
Institute, recipient of the Stalin Prize (1949 and 1953), Honoured Scientist of
the RSFSR, awarded twice)
- Valentina Tereshkova (Cosmonaut, first woman in space, awarded twice)
- Semyon Timoshenko (World War II general, awarded 5 times)
- Josip Broz Tito (President of Yugoslavia 1945–1980)
- Gherman Titov (Cosmonaut, awarded twice)
- Vladislav Tretiak (Soviet ice hockey goaltender)
- Aleksandr Vasilevsky (Soviet marshal, awarded 8 times)
- Pyotr Vershigora (Soviet major general and writer, Soviet partisan leader
during World War II)
- Pham Tuan (Vietnamese cosmonaut)
- Vladislav Volkov (Cosmonaut)
- Sergei Novokov (Soviet sniper during Battle of Stalingrad, and liberation
of Chelmno and Majdanek camps)
- Lev Yashin (Soviet football goalkeeper)
- Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev (Soviet sniper during the Battle of Stalingrad,
awarded 4 times)
- Yakov Zel’dovich (Soviet physicist)
- Georgy Zhukov (Marshal of the Soviet Union)
- Lyudmila Zykina (folk singer)
- Michał Rola-Żymierski (Marshal of Poland)
- Joseph Stalin (1949)
- Anatoly Karpov (World Chess Champion)
- Sergei Krikalev (Cosmonaut, person with most time in space)
- Vasili Mikhailovich Blokhin (Soviet executioner; most prolific official
executioner in recorded world history)
- Vladimir Pravik (firefighter who died in the Chernobyl disaster)
- Semyon Nomokonov (Soviet sniper of Buryat descent)
- Dora Lazurkina (Old Bolshevik, Soviet Politician)
- Vladimir Tokarenko (liquidator of Chernobyl disaster)
- Clara Zetkin (member of the Communist Part of Germany and women’s rights
activist.)
- Anatoly Solovyev (Soviet cosmonaut and pilot)
- Leonid Telyatnikov (Chief of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Fire
Brigade, first responder to the Chernobyl disaster. Died of cancer in 2004)
- Viktor Kibenok (Chief of the Pripyat Fire Department, first responder to
the Chernobyl explosion. Died of radiation sickness on May 11th 1986)
Fictional recipients
- In the James Bond film A View to a Kill, Bond is awarded the Order
of Lenin, and 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 1990 film adaption of Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red
October, following an order to surrender by a US Navy ship, Captain Ramius
(Sean Connery) of Red October tells Dr. Petrov, the Chief Medical
Officer (Tim Curry), “you will go with the crew; the officers and I will
submerge beneath you and scuttle the ship.” Dr. Petrov responds “You will
receive the Order of Lenin for this, Captain.”
- In the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,
Jones’s adversary Col. Irina Spalko was awarded the Order of Lenin three times.
- In the video game Singularity, 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.
- In the 2004 video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, weapons
designer Alexander Leonovitch Granin received the Order of Lenin for his
inventions.
- In the Person of Interest season 3 episode Razgovor,
Genrika Zherova, a Russian immigrant in New York, keeps an Order of Lenin earned
by her grandfather for his services in the KGB.
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