USSR Commemoratives

1967 fiftieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution

1965 twentieth anniversary of victory in WW II

1975 thirtieth anniversary Battle of Stalingrad

 

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Really like that Battle of Stalingrad coin. I'll have to look for one of those.

 

Palladium coin commemorating 1000 years of Christianity in Russia

 

The Stalingrad commem is a tricky one. That battle was in 1942/43 but this coin was issued in 1975 (the year is part of the edge inscription), and the lights designed as XXX suggest 30 years since the end of WW2 in 1945. While I am not fond of gigantomania, no matter where, and thus dislike the monument, the idea with those lights is a good one, I think.

The monument on the 1965 coin (date on the edge again) is also interesting from a German POV. It features a Red Army soldier carrying a German child - and that memorial is in Berlin (also see the images here).

Christian

 

I didn't know any of this. Thank you so much. Do you live in Germany?

 

This coin was issued under an atheistic communist government?

 

Yes. So contradictory isn't tit.

 

This would have been under Gorbachev I think during Perestroika

 

Yep, in the state of North Rhine Westphalia. The GDR (East Germany) issued a 10 mark coin in 1985, by the way, that shows the very same monument: http://www.muenzen.eu/assets/images/5/10-mark-befreiung-faschismus-1985-fba287b5.jpg I have that coin, so I got the Soviet piece too, because I find such common themes and/or designs interesting ...

Christian

 

Thanks again.

 

Russia issued these two commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad:


Russia 3 Rubles 1993 Stalingrad (32mm, 14.06gm)


Russia 10 Rubles 2013 Stalingrad (22mm, 5.67gm)

"The 70th Anniversary of the Crushing Defeat of the German-Fascist Troops by the Soviet Troops in the Battle of Stalingrad"

The second is a small coin celebrating a big event.

 

Here's mine - although they are Russian Federation not USSR.

http://www.pcgs.com/cert/30807121
http://www.pcgs.com/cert/30807122

 

Strange that they have all that text in fairly small characters running along the edge while there is lots of empty space in the center ...

Christian

 

Atarian - something is wrong with the photos. This is what one is supposed to look like

http://cbr.ru/Eng/bank-notes_coins/Base_of_memorable_coins/ShowCoins.aspx?cat_num=5111-0242

 

There must have been several statues/images made on the "Befreiung vom Faschismus" theme in East Germany. Here's an image of a large sculpture on that same theme that I took at a museum in East Berlin in 1988. Here, a Soviet soldier is tearing apart the shackles of fascism ensnaring some poor German. I snapped this photo and then turned my head to the right, and there, plain as day, was a sign written in German and English declaring that photography was prohibited. Oops!

It was also at this museum that I saw an impressive row of SKS rifles lined up on a wall-mounted display beneath the East German coat of arms. Being a goofy 18 year-old, I reached up to grab the charging handle of one of the rifles to see if I could pull it back, and instantly, out of nowhere, a rather squat, rotund babushka-looking docent appeared like a character straight out of Hollywood central-casting communist villainy and said curtly, "FASSEN Sie nichts an!"

Ah... memories.

 

Yeah...that Stalingrad coin is beautiful...I wish there was a silver commemorative of these coins...I would love to get them...even so I will get this one and others like it. Thanks for sharing.

 

From the top of your head...are these silver or zinc aluminum?

 

Absolutely. Both the Federal Republic of Germany (initially West G.) and the German Democratic Republic (East G.) were founded in 1949, but the two countries had different concepts also with regard to history. In a nutshell, the GDR approach to German fascism moved the emphasis from historic responsibility to liberation - as if the country had been occupied by Nazi Germany. On the other hand, in the Fed. Rep. it took longer to see 1945 as a year of both surrender and liberation. And yes, taking photos is still not exactly popular in many museums, let alone playing with guns.

Christian

 

I think maybe you are right... I once read Ernst von Saloman's "Fragebogen" (English title, "The Answers of Ernst von Salomon"). His books is a rather bitter self-justification of his actions in the 1920s and 1930s (he was a co-conspirator in the murder of Walter Rathenau) and Salomon certainly saw 1945 as a surrender, but definitely NOT a liberation, although he might have preferred the western allies as "less worse" than the Soviets.