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USSR. Soviet Union. Medal for the Defense of Kyiv.
Medal «For the Defense of Kyiv»
The medal was established by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 21, 1961.
The «For the Defense of Kyiv» Medal is awarded to all participants in the defense of Kyiv: soldiers of the Soviet Army and former members of the NKVD, as well as all workers who participated in the defense of Kyiv in the ranks of the people’s militia, in the construction of defensive fortifications, in factories and plants supplying the front, and to members of the Kyiv resistance and partisans who fought the enemy near Kyiv. The defense of Kyiv is considered to have taken place between July and September 1941.
The medals are awarded on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR based on documents certifying actual participation in the defense of Kyiv.
The Major defense medals—such as those for Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, and Odessa—were instituted between 1942 and 1944, while the war was still ongoing or shortly after the defensive campaigns.
In contrast, the defense of Kyiv in 1941 ended in a massive Soviet defeat. The encirclement of Kyiv resulted in the capture of hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers by German forces. During Joseph Stalin’s era, this operation was considered a strategic failure, and it was not politically expedient to highlight a campaign associated with a defeat.
After Stalin’s death and during the de-Stalinization process spearheaded by Nikita Khrushchev, who had also been the leader of the Communist Party in Ukraine during the war, the official interpretation of these events changed. Emphasis began to be placed on the heroism of the defenders of Kyiv, regardless of the military outcome.
Therefore, on June 21, 1961, the medal was finally created, almost twenty years after the battle. It was the only one of the major Soviet defense medals. of cities established so late. It was awarded to military personnel and civilians who participated in the defense of Kyiv between July and September 1941.
Soviet World War II Medal.
