2016 Russian FSB Counterintelligence Service Special Measures Directorate 70th Anniversary Badge – Variation 2, Rare Original Issue

Description

Original Item – Only One Available. A rare original 2016 Russian FSB Counterintelligence Service Special Measures Directorate 70th Anniversary Badge, commemorating the specialized directorate known as the Special Measures Directorate within the FSB’s Counterintelligence Service. The dates 1946–2016 mark the seventy-year institutional lineage claimed by the unit, reaching back to the major postwar reorganization of Soviet state security in 1946, when the Ministry of State Security was formed and its counterintelligence structures were extensively reorganized. In the modern FSB, the Special Measures Directorate forms part of the Counterintelligence Service, placing this badge within one of the more specialized branches of Russian federal security rather than the general FSB award system. Jubilee insignia of this type was associated with the directorate’s professional community of serving officers, personnel and veterans, and was not intended as ordinary public commemorative material.

This Variation 2 is an elaborate multi-piece construction dominated by a silvered sword-and-shield form, with a translucent red enamel central field. At its center is the directorate’s distinctive gilt emblem of a bear holding a key, surrounded by the anniversary dates 1946 and 2016. The lower blue enamel scroll identifies the FSB of Russia, while the entire composition uses the traditional sword, shield and key symbolism closely associated with security and counterintelligence organizations. 

The Variation 2 execution is encountered noticeably less often than the better-known first variation, making it the more desirable form for a specialist collection. Material from individual directorates of the FSB Counterintelligence Service is considerably more difficult to obtain than general FSB commemorative insignia, particularly pieces tied to narrowly defined internal structures. With its 70th-anniversary attribution, explicit Special Measures Directorate association, distinctive bear-and-key emblem, scarce Variation 2 design and original period manufacture, this is a particularly strong example for an advanced collection of FSB, KGB-successor, Russian counterintelligence or state-security insignia.