The Order of the Red Star — a USSR award for military merit

The Order of the Red Star was officially approved in 1930, but its history began much earlier. Since 1918, the five-pointed scarlet symbol was used by soldiers of the revolutionary army and navy. The very name of the insignia contained its purpose — to reward soldiers and officers for military exploits. The Order of the Red Star remained the most honorable award for military personnel for a long time, regardless of its official hierarchy.

History of the establishment of the Order of the Red Star

The Order of the Red Star was approved on April 6, 1930, simultaneously with the highest award of the young Soviet state — the Order of Lenin, but its prototype appeared much earlier. The distinctive sign in the form of a scarlet star was published in one of the April issues of the newspaper “Izvestia VTsIK” for 1918. Bright red was considered the color of the Roman god of war, Mars, so in the order of the People’s Commissariat of War of the RSFSR the badge was called the “Mars star”, and civilians were strictly forbidden to wear it.

The Order of the Red Star was developed in addition to the only award that existed at that time – the Order of the Red Banner, which had been a rare and very honorable distinction since the Civil War. The first projects appeared in 1925, but the model was officially ordered in 1930 from the Moscow Goznak factory, where a staff of highly qualified specialists had been preserved since pre-revolutionary times.

The enterprise was supposed to prepare a sample based on a schematic sketch and immediately launch it into production, but the work was delayed due to the fact that with multiple awards, the orders were planned to be numbered. The delay caused a negative reaction from the Red Army leadership, so in October 1930 Kliment Voroshilov sent a letter of complaint about the delay to the Secretary of the Central Executive Committee Abel Yenukidze. The factory tried to speed up the process, but Voroshilov managed to approve the first sample only in mid-April 1931.

The author of the layout was the artist Vasily Kupriyanov, who worked at the Mint before the revolution. In the center of the star, he placed an image of a Red Army soldier with a bayonet at the ready. Later, the sculptor Vladimir Golenetsky made adjustments to the design; he was instructed to correct the figure of the Red Army soldier, which looked “implausible and illiterate.” The master found a slender military man in the nearest unit and sculpted his bas-relief from life.

The material for the order was silver, but it was made in an unusual way and consisted of an obverse and reverse part, connected to each other by soldering with a cavity inside. The star was coated with bright red enamel, and in the center was fixed an oxidized medallion with a sculptural composition and a circular inscription “Workers of the world, unite! ” On the reverse side, a screw was soldered and punches were used to stamp out a serial number with the manufacturer’s stamp. This design was caused by the lack of the necessary equipment at the factory for the production of monolithic signs, and in subsequent years the technology changed several times.

What was the Order of the Red Star awarded for

The statute stated that the order under the name “Red Star” (original name) is awarded to army and navy units, military personnel of units and formations, factories, plants and other organizations for outstanding services in strengthening the country’s defense capability both in wartime and in peacetime.

The list of feats initially consisted of only a few points and included:

1. activities that contribute to victory over the enemy in wartime;
2. personal feats in peacetime;
3. work to improve the combat training of the Red Army;
4. inventions of great importance to the country.

The document was then reissued six times, with changes being made until the 1980s. New technical specifications for the production of the award were approved, and the design of the sculptural composition was improved in accordance with the changed uniform.

Recipients of the Order of the Red Star

The first to receive the high award was the 1st rank Army Commander (later Marshal of the Soviet Union) Vasily Blucher. The reason for the award was the Red Army’s success in protecting the borders “from White-Chinese mercenaries” during the conflict on the CER. The military leader had to wait longer than anyone else for the award to be presented due to a delay in production; badge number 1 was received by the Awards Sector only in July 1931, although the petition for the award had been signed a year earlier.

The list of the first recipients of the order included:

• a group of eight pilots who made a multi-hour non-stop flight on aircraft manufactured at Soviet factories;
• OGPU leadership members Ivan Pavlunovsky and Vasily Karutsky, with the latter’s description of his merits in different award sheets being radically different;
• engineer Konstantin Kovalev for improving machine tools for military factories (order No. 11).

Only specimen number 7, belonging to aircraft engineer Anton Mezinov, has survived to this day; the first six specimens were returned to the Awards Sector of the Central Executive Committee and sent for remelting. The award ceased to be presented in 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.