The Order of the Red Banner of Labor

• Time Period: Interwar Medals
• Year of Institution: 28 December 1920
• Country: Russia & USSR

The Order of the Red Banner of Labor (or Орден Трудового Красного Знамени in Russian) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honor great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, health, social and other spheres of labor activities.

It is the labor counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order. The Order of the Red Banner of Labor could be awarded multiple times to the same recipient for successive deeds and long time merit

The Order of the Red Banner of Labor Design

The “type 1” Order consisted of a 38 mm wide by 43 mm high silver badge in the shape of a cogwheel, at center, a disc bordered along its entire outer diameter by panicles of wheat. Protruding from under the lower half of the central disc, a red enameled triangle pointing downwards. On the central disc in the background, a hydro electric dam, at center, a gilded hammer and sickle, at the top, a waving red banner bearing the inscription “Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!”, “Proletarians of the World, unite!”. At the very bottom of the cogwheel, the relief inscription “USSR” (“СССР”) on a stylized horizontal shield bisected by a smaller cogwheel meshing into the larger one.

On the otherwise plain reverse, a recess at center bearing a threaded post, two rivets used to secure the hammer and sickle and the award serial number engraved on the lower portion opposite the “USSR” inscription. The Order was secured to clothing with a threaded screw and nut arrangement. The earlier nuts were 28 mm in diameter, later ones measured 32 mm.

The “type 2” Order also consisted of a silver badge in the shape of a cogwheel, it measured 38 mm wide by 44 mm high. At the center, a disc surrounded by a gilded wreath of oak leaves bearing the relief image of a hydro electric dam, below the dam, blue enameled water, at the center of the disc, the gilded hammer and sickle, from the inner left side of the disc, a gilded mast bearing a waving red enameled banner protruding from the central disc, covering the upper portion of the cogwheel and protruding past its outer upper edge on which “USSR” (“СССР”) is inscribed in gilded letters.