50 Year Communist Party Member Badge

[Bill D.]

The Soviet Union awarded a specific badge to those individuals who achieved the milestone of having been a member of the Communist Party for 50 years.

The badge was a miniature version of the Order of Lenin, but with a silver "50" replacing Lenin's profile, and the letters "кпсс" ( an abbreviation of the designation for Communist Party of the Soviet Union, rendered in English as "CPSU" ) on the banner in place of Lenin's name.

Despite the prestige associated with the award, it was presented in simply a small plastic box with a clear lid.

I have several examples of this badge, with award documents and boxes, and I'll try to post photos soon, unless others have photos of their own that they would like to post.

In the meantime, I'll post these:

A representation of the design of the badge; and

An official portrait of Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party from February 13, 1984, until his death on March 10, 1985. Within hours of his death Chernenko was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev.

In this official portrait Chernenko can very clearly seen to be wearing his badge as a 50 year member of the CPSU beneath his Supreme Soviet membership badge.

[Eric Gaumann]

It's a tiny badge, very small. But cool as well. I do have one. I see them a lot on ebay and I'm told they are faked. I wonder how many were awarded? Probably quite a few. Too bad they weren't serial numbered.

[Bill D.]

I have wondered about the number awarded as well, Eric.

However, relatively speaking, I'm not sure there were as many as we might suppose.

The Soviet Union went out of existence at the end of 1991, meaning that the last recipients had to have become party members by 1941.

Additionally, I don't think it was possible to join the CPSU until at least your early 20's.

So to receive the 50 year badge a person had to have:
A. Lived into their 70's; and
B. Survived the Great Patriotic War.

I'm not certain how many people that would come to but, relatively speaking, perhaps not as many as we would think.

[Alfred]

It's a tiny badge, very small. But cool as well. I do have one. I see them a lot on ebay and I'm told they are faked. I wonder how many were awarded? Probably quite a few. Too bad they weren't serial numbered.

I have a document to this badge. On the document is a serial number. I will have a look on it. Maybe that gives a clue, how many were awarded.

best regards
Andreas

[Bill D.]

Andreas...
I thought that was an excellent idea, so I checked one of my award documents for this badge. I found that, unlike many other award documents for Soviet decorations, the document itself did not have a serial number on it.

[Alfred]

Yes, my memory was wrong. I also looked at my document and there was no serial number on. Sadly.

Only the membership dates in the communist party gives us a small hint.

1918 - 115.000 members
1926 - 639.652 members and 440.162 candidates
1930 - 1.184.651 members and 493.259 candidates
1933 - 2,2 mio. members and 1,3 mio. candidates
1938 - 1,4 mio. members
1949 - 3,9 mio. members and 1,8 mio. candidates
.....
1997 - 19 million members

cheers
Andreas

[Bill D.]

The award document, in this case for an individual who joined the Communist Party in 1930, and who became a recipient of the award in 1980.

[Bill D.]

The awarded badge, manufactured of silver and enamel at the Mint.
A very high quality award in terms of production.

[Bill D.]

And an interesting photograph.
This is my own attempt to photograph a picture that appears in the memoirs of Andrei Gromyko, the long-serving Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union.
The photograph in the book is clearer, but I think that you can still see here the fact that Gromyko in this photograph, taken with President Reagan, wears the 50 year Communist Party membership award on the lapel of his jacket. Gromyko became a member of the Party in 1931, and achieved 50 year status in 1981. This photograph, as I recall, dates from 1986.