Medal for Valiant Labor, Type 1 on a Type 2 pentagonal suspension, #9370, awarded on 5 June 1942 to Tamara Avakyan, an Armenian woman, for outstanding contribution to the production of tanks, tank diesel engines and tank armored hulls.
The medallion is in silver and enamels; measures 38.9 mm in height incl. eyelet, 34.5 mm in width; weighs 20.7 g not including the suspension and connecting link. Features stamped number sign "N" with a dash under the "o" and a serial number engraved in the manner characteristic of its range. The medal comes on a wartime pentagonal suspension of 1943 type, a two-layer model in steel with a self-locking pin. Note the stamped manufacturer's logo with the inscription НКМП РСФСР ("NKMP RSFSR" which stands for "Narkomat of Local Industri
The medallion is in silver and enamels; measures 38.9 mm in height incl. eyelet, 34.5 mm in width; weighs 20.7 g not including the suspension and connecting link. Features stamped number sign "N" with a dash under the "o" and a serial number engraved in the manner characteristic of its range. The medal comes on a wartime pentagonal suspension of 1943 type, a two-layer model in steel with a self-locking pin. Note the stamped manufacturer's logo with the inscription НКМП РСФСР ("NKMP RSFSR" which stands for "Narkomat of Local Industries of RSFSR") on the reverse of the suspension.
In excellent condition. The enamel is essentially perfect, having only some microscopic contact marks completely invisible to the naked eye, free of flaking or other significant wear. There are no edge knocks or noticeable scratches to the medallion; the details of the raised lettering are perfect and crisp. Attractive toning to silver throughout. The suspension device and connecting link are of WW2 period.
The recipient of the medal, Tamara Avakyan (Тамара Аветовна Авакян) was born in 1902 in the city of Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan, to an Armenian family. Although the currently available archival documentation does not provide many details, she apparently received higher education and joined the Communist Party prior to WW2. On 5 June 1942, Avakyan - at the time senior manager of the Secretariat of the Narkomat of Tank Production - was among the few dozen workers, engineers and managers of the tank industry awarded with various decorations "for exemplary completion of the tasks of the Government in production of tanks, tank diesel engines, and armored hulls." Interestingly, Avakyan's award record card shows that the actual decoration was issued in Moscow on June 10th mere five days after the award decree - a near record speed for WW2 period.
On 20 January 1943, Avakyan was decorated again for the same kind of achievements, this time with an even higher award of the Order of the Badge of Honor (#26032). Her last decoration of WW2 was the Order of the Red Star (#1153241) bestowed on 20 April 1945 while she was working as a department chief at the Kirov Factory producing tank diesel engines.
The Valian Labor Medal is a very interesting and unusual piece. In general, researched Soviet labor awards of WW2 period are not common: this has to do with comparative difficulty in researching labor awards as opposed to military ones. Although the tank industry was given special attention by the Soviet Government and awards to its most distinguished employees were more frequent than in most other fields, such awards are not easy to find. It is especially rare to see a labor decoration to a woman who was a senior executive in the Narkomat (People's Commissariat) of Tank Production.
Research Materials: Xerox copy of the award record card; photocopies of the relevant pages of the award decrees for all three WW2 decorations.
$485.00 Add to cart