The Hermitage Phaleristics Collection
«The collection contains Russian and foreign government awarded decorations, such as order emblems and decoration medals, office insignia and badges and signs to wear on the chest. In accordance with tradition, small souvenir and remembrance badges were also included in the display. At present, the collection totals about 30 thousand objects.
The beginnings of the Order and Medal collection date from 1861, when some foreign order badges were purchased at an auction sale for the Imperial Munzkabinett. Later on, the Chapter of Imperial and Royal Orders handed over to the Hermitage all the badges of the then existing Russian orders.
The Russian section of the collection contains badges of orders awarded in the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, the USSR and the Russian Federation.
The bulk of the subdivision representing the USSR’s order badges and medals consists of specimens submitted by the mints, beginning with the 1930s. A special group is made up of the orders instituted during the Great Patriotic War. In 1997 and 2003, the Hermitage received a set of present-day decorations awarded by the Russian Federation.
The section of foreign order badges represents the state decorations of the countries of Europe, America and Oriental states.
The section of the USSR’s chest badges and small badges numbers over 25 thousand pieces. They were worn by shock workers in the first five-year-plan periods, by winners of various contests and competitions, sporting events, etc. and were manufactured by different factories, as well as by the mints in Leningrad and Moscow. Very noteworthy are also large thematic selections, like, for example, that devoted to the development of the USSR chemical industry or selections dealing with the country’s theatrical art, etc. The foreign part of the collection is represented by up-to-date bigger and smaller badges of remembrance or souvenir types. Large quantities of such materials are given to the Museum as gifts».
