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I can only speculate on the
origins of it, but there are several interesting facts to review.
First of
all, it was manufactured by a plant that belongs to the Ministry of chemical
and oil machinery industry (it is its proper name). The plant "Metallist"
located in Leningrad is not a common one, as it its name also stated that it is
"Experimental". The fact that this order was placed there can be explained
either that all available manufacturing capacities were busy cranking other
orders or that it was a 'rush' order and the closest available facility was
used. I think the latter is true, because this particular set was manufactured
on December 25th (Christmas !) 1969 . Communist Party leaders were planning
this commemoration many years in advance. The other unusual fact is that these
pins don't have pinbacks. They were just glued to the inside of the plastic box
! After more than 30 years 6 pins out of 8 fall off, but the two of them still
sit there. Another fact to prove my theory is that there is a typo in the word
"Ministry" and nobody cared to fix it . That would mean to delay the production
and could cause a severe punishment... They just let it
go.
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Here is the description of pins from left to right starting from
the top row. All pins have a sign "100 years since Lenin's birthday", except
the last one which is the name of the city spelled 3 times
"Leningrad."
- Lenin in his favorite hat which is called "kepka" in
Russian (cape ? in English);
- armored vehicle, one of a few that existed
there in 1917. Lenin made a speech standing on top of this vehicle when he
returned from Finland and was greeted by the crowd near Finnish railway
terminal;
- April 22, 1870 - Vladimir Uljanov's birthday January 24th, 1922
(if I am not mistaken, forgive me comrades, if I am wrong);
- "Smolny" or
"Smolnij" palace - headquarters of the revolution;
- this is the train which
took Lenin, disguised as a worker Nikolaev to Finland (I forgot the
dates);
- cruiser "Aurora" made a shot from its nose cannon to start the
assault on Winter Palace - tsar's residence. This cannon is considered to be
the most powerful gun in the history of the mankind. One shot and the whole
country was ruined for 70 years (Russian joke);
- In the end of summer 1917
Lenin was hiding from police. He lived about 30 km from the city near the
village called Razliv where he played a role of a grass cutter. He lived in a
tepee <indian hut, right ?> made of dried grass. There he was waiting for
the convenient moment to start the uprising in St.Petersburg which eventually
turned into the revolution.
- symbol of St.Petersburg/Leningrad - a golden
ship placed atop of a spear of Admiralty building in
St.Petersburg;
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