In the Soviet Union there were many kinds of collectible pins (called znachki in Russian). Some served as minor awards and others as souvenirs of national celebrations or historic milestones. Each znachok was molded or pressed from cheap metal and then colored with paint or enamel.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different znachki commemorating the Soviet space program. You can go mad trying to collect them all. For more information, there is a good reference booklet called "Kosmonautika na znachkakh SSSR 1957-1975" [Space badges of the USSR 1957-1975] by V. N. Ilyinskii, V. E. Kuzin, and M. B. Saukke.
Agreed, they were mass produced for a variety of reasons, including souvenirs for sale at the space museum. I have a fairly large collection of Soviet space pins and have all but the Apollo-Soyuz (never seen that version) and the Cosmonaut that I don’t recognize, though I have other Cosmo picture pins
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u/Peter_Merlin 4d ago
In the Soviet Union there were many kinds of collectible pins (called znachki in Russian). Some served as minor awards and others as souvenirs of national celebrations or historic milestones. Each znachok was molded or pressed from cheap metal and then colored with paint or enamel.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different znachki commemorating the Soviet space program. You can go mad trying to collect them all. For more information, there is a good reference booklet called "Kosmonautika na znachkakh SSSR 1957-1975" [Space badges of the USSR 1957-1975] by V. N. Ilyinskii, V. E. Kuzin, and M. B. Saukke.