2010 Mongolia Darkhan Democratic Union 20th Anniversary Badge – Uncommon Original Issue

Description

Original Item – Only One Available. An uncommon commemorative badge issued for the 20th anniversary of the Darkhan Democratic Union, one of the important provincial organizations of Mongolia’s 1990 democratic movement. The Democratic Union movement had first emerged publicly in Ulaanbaatar in December 1989, and organizers were sent to Darkhan in January 1990, where a local Democratic Union organization was established and branches quickly spread through the city’s major factories and workplaces. Twenty years later, in January 2010, the Darkhan-Uul organization formally celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of the democratic movement in Darkhan, attended by leaders of the Mongolian Democratic Union and representatives of the original local movement. This badge belongs directly to that anniversary and represents a distinctive piece of material history from Mongolia’s transition from the socialist period to multiparty democracy.

Unlike nationally distributed political souvenirs, regional anniversary insignia of Mongolia’s early democratic organizations were produced for a much narrower circle connected with the local movement and its commemorative events. The Darkhan 20th Anniversary issue is consequently an uncommon piece, particularly attractive for a collection focused on the 1990 Mongolian Democratic Revolution, post-socialist political history, Darkhan-Uul regional insignia or modern Mongolian historical badges. Its elaborate construction and direct connection to the twentieth anniversary of one of Mongolia’s earliest provincial Democratic Union organizations make it considerably more significant than an ordinary commemorative pin.