Description
Badge to an Excellent Worker in the Bureau of Far Eastern Construction and Development #2398
GUSDS (Gulag Far Eastern Construction) NKVD (ГУСДС НКВД)
Made of silver and gold plated brass and enamels. Measures 28.62 mm in height, 22.60 mm in width and weighs 8.0 gram without its screwplate.
The badge itself is in nice condition with most gold and silver plating still present on its obverse and flawless enamels. Its reverse is in lesser condition with some corrosion and some scratches. At some point in time the screw must have been broken off and was replaced by a another one. Its thicker than the original one and therefor the screwplate is not original to the badge.
At first glance, it these badges seem innocuous (badges for construction, development, canals, etc). But, in fact, they were GULAG labor camps which dotted the Soviet landscape. The badge above is the only one which spells out that chilling fact: ГУСДС НКВД – GUSDS (Gulag Far Eastern Construction) NKVD
This badge is a departmental insignia of the Main Directorate for the Construction of the Far North (Dalstroy) under the NKVD of the USSR (formed on March 4, 1938, on March 15, 1946 it was transformed into the eponymous Central Directorate under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR). The regulation on the badge was approved on the basis of the resolution of the SNK of the USSR No. 641 of May 4, 1940.
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