VI Lenin badge picture gallery

Posted on 31/08/2025 by Michael

VI Lenin

VI Lenin badge picture gallery

I don’t really know when the wearing of badges with the image of VI Lenin started to become common place in the Soviet Union.

Images of the first Bolshevik leader were used soon after his death, especially in photo-montages, for example, promoting the scheme of the ‘Electrification of the whole country’. The Soviets had long understood that in a (at that time but quickly diminishing as literacy campaigns took root) predominantly peasant country with high levels of illiteracy that the visual image – especially in the form of cheap to produce posters – were an effective weapon to get over the government’s message. This was later stepped up during the 1930s with the programmes of collectivisation of agriculture and the industrialisation of the country in the Five Year Plans.

Yes, this was propaganda – but which society before or since hasn’t used all the methods to hand to get across their message?

Also, in the 1920s images of Vladimir Ilyich would have been common in state and public buildings. (This happens in the present day in the USA where there’s always an image of the present President in public buildings down to and including post offices – so not a uniquely Soviet phenomenon.) However, I don’t know to what extent this practice would have developed in private houses.

(In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea you will find the image of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in virtually every home – normally the two of them side by side. However, I have never seen an example where the image of the present leader (Kim Jong Un) is on display in either a public or private forum. It is almost virtually impossible for foreigners to acquire a badge similar to those which every citizen wears in public.)

Returning to the Soviet Union I have not come across any badges with the image of Soviet leaders (and here I’m talking principally about VI Lenin, JV Stalin and FE Dzerzhinsky – the only three I have seen personally depicted on a badge – I’m ignoring here the traitorous Gorbachev and the vodka sodden idiot Yeltsin) prior to the 1970s. If there have been personal badges earlier they tended to be of a Red Star or a Hammer and Sickle – and from the early days the Hammer and Plough. But nothing of the leadership.

1970 saw the hundredth anniversary of the birth of VI Lenin – and many of the badges produced made direct reference to that anniversary. My assumption is that in an effort to boost their credibility (and to piggy-back on the admiration the people of the Soviet Union had for the first Bolshevik leader) the then Revisionist leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union instigated the wearing of a small badge with Lenin’s image. It must be remembered that this was only a few years after the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China which included the wearing of a badge with the image of Chairman Mao.

Whenever the mass production of these badges started – and for whatever reason – there may be many readers who haven’t had the opportunity to see examples of these images of VI Lenin. Hence, the slide show below to rectify that omission.

Also included are a few examples of badges with the image of JV Stalin. These have been produced in very recent years and, to the best of my knowledge, none were ever produced in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Monument to Courage – Tashkent

Posted on 04/08/2025 by Michael

Monument to Courage – Tashkent

Tashkent was hit by an earthquake on April 26, 1966 at 05: 23 local time. It had a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter Scale with the epicentre right under the city at a depth of from 3 to 8 kilometres. Most of the buildings were destroyed (including the historic ‘Old Town – which is now only a replica of the original), remarkably no more than 200 people were killed but 300,000 were left homeless.

Tashkent, with the assistance of the other Union Republics of the former Soviet Union, was rebuilt and even extended following its destruction and the monument commemorates that effort and unity of purpose. (If such an event were to happen again it’s unlikely that such a joint effort would come to the city’s aid.)

The monument was created by the sculptor and artist Dmitry Ryabichev and was inaugurated on May 20, 1976.

It’s basically in three parts. On the left hand side is a black, labradorite cube with the date of the disaster on one side and a round clock face showing the time the earthquake struck on an adjacent side. This cube is split through the date and this fracture leads in the direction of the main element of the piece – a group of a man, woman and child.

The male stands in front of the woman and child, in a protective stance, with his right hand facing any approaching danger. Although this fits into the traditional trope of the male being the protector the woman herself is not entirely passive as her right arm also extends towards the threat, with the palm of her hand ready to push back. She has turned so that the child, which clings to her neck and which she supports with her left arm, is as far away as possible from the danger. The stance of both of them gives the impression they are walking towards the threat and not running away from it. Note should be taken of the plinth upon which they stand as this continues the idea of a fractured earth with the jagged line that runs away from the cube.

The other element of the monument is a number of bas relief panels which form a back ‘wall’ to the couple. Here are represented the various trades that were needed for the reconstruction of the city. As is the case in many Soviet era monuments (celebrating both military and civilian events), here women are depicted as playing a role equivalent to that of the men in the construction trades.

The story of the reconstruction reads from the left to the right, starting with basic clearing away and preparation for the new buildings and ending in the festival celebrating the completion of the rebuilding of the country’s capital city.

The area is clean and obviously well tended demonstrating that this monument still has resonance amongst the people of Tashkent.

Location;

Sharaf Rashidov Avenue 74

GPS;

41.32370 N

69.27270 E

How to get there;

It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from Abdulla Kodiriy Metro station along the street with the name of the station.

Tashkent Metro – Uzbekistan

Posted on 09/07/2025 by Michael

Tashkent Metro

Tashkent Metro – Uzbekistan

The Tashkent Metro was a relatively late addition to the Soviet Union’s mass transit system being the seventh to be completed in 1977. The system followed many of the conventions established since 1935 in Moscow; the design of the station platforms; the style (if not the content) of the decoration; the use of light to give the impression of not being underground; the use of the finest materials; and the method in moving people through the system as fast as possible. However, following the lead from the centre, which began with the Premiership of Khrushchev but continued after he was ousted, there was a general ‘depoliticisation’ of the decoration.

Although by 1977 Revisionism was well entrenched within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the newer metro stations in Moscow, for example, there was still some reference to the construction of Socialism, using images and motifs that had been part of Soviet culture since the 1920s – the image of the Hammer and Sickle, for example.

However, there was none of that in Tashkent. In fact, there’s barely a reference to the social system supposedly being constructed at the time. The Red Flags in the image at the top of this post are one of few such references and they stand out because they are so few. This would tend to reflect the anti-Communist views of the leadership of the local Communist Party and demonstrate the weakness of central control of the periphery.

The purge of the local Communist Parties in the 1930s are understandable at the time (although I have to admit I do not really know a great deal of the details) as in a part of the Soviet Union where there was little tradition of working class organisation it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the remnants of the feudal ruling class hadn’t been able to infiltrate the Communist Party leadership and manipulate it to their own personal ‘class’ advantage. Through the imagery in the metro it is possible to see how the replacement ‘leadership’ was as divorced from the ideology of Marxism-Leninism as the group they surplanted.

The themes represented in the various stations follow a traditional, folklore style. In place of drawing upon a new form of representation of the interests of the working class the artists commissioned to produce the art works in all the stations represented here took as their starting point traditions established during the feudal, pre-revolutionary period. Instead of creating images that could assist in the battle for the construction of Socialism the artists chosen to decorate the station harked back to feudal traditions and imagery, reinforcing the old social system, not the new. If there are any ‘new’ styles they tend to be in the more abstract images, especially in the imaginative use of metal.

The dominant material used in the decoration were ceramic tiles which were built up to create large images with rural themes dominating. Industry, which had been introduced to the predominantly agricultural society, appears only sporadically and briefly in the imagery.

The main reason for including these images is to allow viewers to compare and contrast the way the metro systems in the Soviet Union were seen during the different stages of its existence and the difference between the Revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist leadership (as represented in the decoration in the Moscow and Leningrad Metros) and the Counter-revolutionary, Revisionist leadership (represented in Tashkent) which eventually led the Soviet Union to its self-destruction.

There are also images included in the slide show below from some of the stations opened after so-called ‘independence’.

Plan of the Tashkent Metro.

Location;

Various places in the city.

Access;

All the stations have staffed ticket offices and entry to the system costs 3,000 Uz Som (in the summer of 2025). With that ticket you can visit all the stations on the network as long as you don’t go out into the street.