The medal "For victory over Germany" is a reward to all the winners

The tradition of minting government awards in honor of the glorious victories is not new. Russian warriors from the eighteenth century were awarded medals "personally" composed by the Emperor Peter the Great and dedicated to victories won in the Swedish war, and then other battles, sea and land. Sometimes the heroic actions of the valiant regiments were awarded with badges even when the battle was lost.

The tradition was continued during the Great Patriotic War, and also after its completion, because the Second World War did not end in May 1945. There was a rout of imperial Japan, in which the Soviet Army took an active part, defeating the Kwantung grouping and reaching Korea and China.

Already in the autumn of 1944, it became obvious that Nazi Germany was doomed. Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin supported the proposal of the Chief of Logistics Service of General of the Army Khrulev on the development of a sketch of a new medal, the most massive, which should be awarded to all who contributed to the upcoming victorious end of the war. The best was the sketch of the artists Andrianov I.K. And Romanova E.M. The medal "For victory over Germany" was minted at the Mint in June 1945, at the same time it began awarding the representatives of the Supreme Command, marshals Tolbukhin, Rokossovsky, generals Berzarin, Purkaev, Antonov, Zakharov and others.

The main element of the design of the government award was the image of the supreme commander-in-chief. The medal "For victory over Germany" fully corresponded to the spirit of the era. On its front side is a profile of I.V. Stalin in the marshal's tunic, framed by a slightly modified quote from his speech of July 3, 1941. In the original radio address were the words: "We must win!". After four years of bloody suffering about the defeat of the enemy, it was possible to speak as a fait accompli: "We won!". On the reverse side the text "For victory over Germany" on the edge and "In the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" in the center was minted.

The colors of the award pads corresponded to the heroic Russian symbols. Orange and black stripes were the same as on the St. George ribbon.

The medal "For victory over Germany" became truly popular. In total, it was awarded to about fifteen million people. Among them are direct participants in the fighting, and those who fought in the territory occupied by the enemy as part of partisan detachments, and selflessly worked in the rear.

During the first five and a half years, the medal "For the victory over Germany" was supposed to be surrendered to the state after the death of the recipient, only in 1951 it was allowed to be left in the family together with a certificate so that the next generation could keep the memory of the heroic past.

After the collapse of the USSR in some countries - the former Soviet republics - this award was called one of the symbols of the totalitarian era and even banned its wearing. However, this attitude towards people who defeated fascism, which in the twentieth century was the embodiment of absolute evil, did not add popularity to politicians of European orientation. You can publish a petty law, but it is very difficult to ensure its implementation by those who shed blood on the long journey to Berlin. And it's not a profile on the front side of the award. It's enough just to remember what the medal was for. The victory over Germany has always remained in the people's memory, whether someone likes it or not ...