- Time Period: Post-WW2
- Year of Institution: 20 October 1956
- Country: Russia & USSR
The Medal for the Development of Virgin Lands (or Медаль «За освоение целинных земель», Medal «Za osvoenie tselinnyh zemel» in Russian) was established on 20 October 1956 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and awarded to all Soviet workers who helped cultivate 36,000,000 hectares of previously uncultivated lands (started in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev) in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals, the Volga area and the northern Caucasus for two solid years from 1954–56.
The medal was awarded to farmers, workers of state farms, MTS, construction and other organizations, the Party, government, labor and Komsomol workers for their good work in the development of virgin and fallow lands in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Ural, the Volga and the North Caucasus for a period of usually at least two years. This Medal was also awarded to Yuri Gagarin right after his space flight (and it became a tradition to award the Medal to many Soviet cosmonauts after that).
The Medal for the Development of Virgin Lands Design
The medal was 32mm in diameter, circular with a raised rim on both sides. It was worn on the left side of the chest.
On its obverse, the image of a C-4 combine harvester in a field with a grain silo in the background on the horizon, at the bottom, the relief inscription on three rows «За освоение целинных земель» (“For the development of virgin lands”).
On the reverse at the bottom, the relief image of the hammer and sickle with sun rays radiating upwards towards a five-pointed star at the top, along the right circumference, ears of corn, along the left circumference, a panicle of wheat.
The medal was secured by a ring through the medal suspension loop to a standard Soviet pentagonal mount covered by an overlapping 24 mm dark green silk moiré ribbon with 3 mm wide yellow edge stripes.
