Honorary Revolutionary Weapon
Honorary Revolutionary Weapon | |
---|---|
Type | Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union |
Eligibility | Senior commanders |
Status | No longer awarded |
First awarded | 8 August 1919 |
Last awarded | 23 April 1930 |
Total | 23 |
Total recipients | 21 |
The Honorary Revolutionary Weapon (Russian: Почётное революционное оружие) was the highest award in the Soviet Armed Forces between 1919 and 1930. It was awarded to senior commanders for exceptional combat achievement; the majority of recipients received it for actions during the Russian Civil War.
History
After the
The practice of giving successful commanders ceremonial shashkas was legitimized by a decree of the VTsIk on 8 April 1920 following a request from the Revolutionary Military Council.[2] The decree empowered the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) and the Revolutionary Military Council to award an honorary revolutionary weapon in the form of a shashka to senior field commanders for "special distinction in combat," and established a process for award recommendations. Naval commanders were to receive a dirk with the same ornamentation, but none of them received the award during the period that it was issued. On the same day, Ieronim Uborevich received the award for his command of a field army during the North Caucasus Operation.[1] Shortly afterwards, another VTsIK decree retroactively regularized the awards to Kamenev and Shorin, integrating the previous ceremonial weapon presentations into the new system.[3]
The next group of awards came in November 1920, when
The award was modified on 12 December 1924 by a decree of the
Recipients
The Honorary Revolutionary Weapon as a shashka was awarded to 21 commanders, with Kamenev and Budyonny receiving both the shashka and pistol:[1]
- Sergey Kamenev (8 August 1919 and 5 January 1921)
- Vasily Shorin (8 August 1919)
- Semyon Budyonny (20 November 1919 and 5 January 1921)
- Mikhail Tukhachevsky (17 December 1919)
- Ieronim Uborevich (8 April 1920)
- Mikhail Frunze (25 November 1920)
- Kliment Voroshilov (25 November 1920)
- Filipp Mironov (25 November 1920)
- August Kork (25 November 1920)
- Nikolai Kashirin (25 November 1920)
- Semyon Timoshenko (28 November 1920)
- Vladimir Nesterovich (5 January 1921)
- Yakov Balakhonov (2 February 1921)
- Vasily Vinnikov-Bessmertny (2 February 1921)
- Alexander Yegorov (17 February 1921)
- Yevgeny Kazansky (3 June 1921)
- Grigory Kotovsky (20 September 1921)
- Voldemar Roze (12 December 1921)
- Grigory Khakhanyan (12 December 1921)
- Ivan Kutyakov (28 April 1922)
- Stepan Vostretsov (23 April 1930)
References
Citations
Bibliography
- Antonov, Sergey (8 April 2019). "Почетное революционное оружие: царская награда для красных командиров" [Honorary revolutionary weapon: Tsarist award for Red commanders] (in Russian). Russian Military Historical Society. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
- Durov, Valery (2010). Русское наградное оружие [Russian award weapons] (in Russian). Moscow: Fond "Russkiye Vityazi". ISBN 978-5-903389-33-9.
- Dushenkin, V. V. (1979). "Honorary Revolutionary Weapon". Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). New York: MacMillan.