Andrey I. Savin,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Deficits of Brezhnev’s Decorations Industry (1964–1982)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-5-19
The article explores the topic of decoration industry as a main instrument of extra economic coercion to labor in the USSR during the reign of L. Brezhnev. Basing on the documents of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Decorations department, most of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the article focuses on the mechanism of mass decorations, as well as specific “decoration policy” meant to correct the deficiency of moral stimulants. First, this meant devaluation of different orders and medals, resulted from the mass decorations. To lessen the risk of decorations and, simultaneously, moral stimulants’ devaluation, Brezhnev’s bureaucracy aimed to establish the hierarchy of awards (from inferior to superior decorations), and to increase time gap between re-decorations (once every 3 to 5 years). This hierarchy and less often re-decorations meshed poorly with heroic myth, and excluded the possibility of spontaneous “heroization”, so common during the second half of the 1930s – time, when the ideal examples of heroic behavior and archetype of the Soviet hero were established. As a result, during Brezhnev’s era, heroic labor transformed into mundane part of the national economic plan.
Publishing: 30/10/2020
The article has been received by the editor on 18.07.2020
How to cite: Savin A.I. Deficits of Brezhnev’s Decorations Industry (1964–1982) // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 5 (13), pp. 228–237. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-5-19.pdf
Links: Issue 5 2020
Keywords: decorations; orders; industry; heroic labor; moral stimulants; deficits; devaluation; Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Decoration Department; Brezhnev
The study was carried out with the financial support of the RFBR in the framework of project No. 20-09-00218 A