History of the medal
.On December 28, 1988 by the Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR № 9965-XI were approved the certificates and sample description of the medal «For Soldier-internationalist».
The medal was designed to reward members of the Armed Forces of the USSR for participation in the performance of the international duty in Afghanistan.
Even before the release of the official Afghanistan medals for soldiers-internationalists in the USSR there appeared several informal badges for participation in the performance of international duty, but rewarding with these medals had differentiated character, there was no centralized system in the USSR for awarding persons performing international duty. Therefore, soon there arose an issue on the establishment of the official awards of the Union for this category of persons.
Development of such Afghanistan medal of honor was entrusted to the artist of the Central Experimental base of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, A.B. Zhuk.
Statute of the medal
.At first, this was supposed to become an Afghanistan medal to award the Soviet soldiers executing their international duty in the Republic of Afghanistan, but later the list was expanded, and to the ones served in Afghanistan there were added participants of conflicts in Angola, Algeria, Korea, Egypt, Vietnam, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, and other countries.
Description of the medal
The medal is a circular laurel wreath, which is superimposed with a red five-pointed star with white cutting. On its beams there are arranged three radially directed golden stripes. In the center, against a blue globe with a grid of meridians and parallels there depicted a handshake. Around the globe there is a red belt with the inscription: «For Soldier-Internationalist». Below there is a small convex shield with the inscription: «USSR».
With ear and ring the badge is attached to a rectangular block which has a whole for red moire ribbon.
An order for production was entrusted to the Leningrad Mint, where the molding of face of the medal and editing of master punch performed engraver I.S. Kamshilov.
March 3, 1989 they started its replication. Total there were released 505,083 copies.