The Order of the Red Star was established by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on April 6, 1930, the statute of the Order was instituted on May 5, 1930.

 

 

Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941) it was awarded 21,500 times, during the war (1941-1945) it was awarded 2,860,000 times and until 1991 4,000,000 Orders of the Red Star had been awarded.

 

 

The order was awarded to servicemen of the Red Army, Navy, Border Guard, troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was also awarded to military units, ships, enterprises, organizations and foreign servicemen.

 

 

The Order was awarded in wartime for bravery or excellence in organization and command and in peacetime for strengthening the security of the state, its borders, achievements in military matters or the development of armament or war technology.

 

 

The order is made of silver, the central motif is a Soviet soldier armed with a mosin nagant with bayonet drawn.

 

 

 

 

 

There are 4 types within the Order, the 1st type has no variations, and it is the Order awarded between 1930 and 1936, the 2nd type and 3rd type have a lot of variants and variations (the 2nd type, has the screw soldered to the star with a round plate, and not directly to the star as in the 3rd type) and the 4th type has no variants, it differs from the previous ones in that on the back it has 3 rivets that hold the central medallion, it is a scarce type manufactured during a few months between 1941 and 1942.

 

 

 

 

2nd type, 3rd variant 

 

 

 

3rd type, 1st variant, 1st subvariant 

 

3rd type, 1st variant, 2nd subvariant 

 

 

3rd type, 2nd variant, 4th subvariant 

 

3rd type, 2nd variant, 8th subvariant 

 

As can be seen in the photographs the higher the number (or the later the manufacture) the tips of the stars tend to become increasingly rounded.

 

 

 

 

 

The Order of the Red Star when granted, a seal was put in the book of concessions with the name of the order (sometimes it was put by hand) next to the number of the order, as in the following example: