Tarpukario Lietuvos Šaulių sąjungos atributai : vėliavos ir apdovanojimai

ENThe Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union was established in 1919 and operated until the Soviet occupation in 1940. It later resumed its activity in exile. The activities of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union were resumed in the current Republic of Lithuania, and the old attributes – flag and awards – were also restored at the same time. However, despite its long history, the Union’s attributes have so far been very little researched. For the first time, the evolution of the development of flags and awards is described in detail in this article based on archival sources – protocols and financial documents: dates of design presentation and acceptance, descriptions of their appearance, and names of the authors. The production of awards is also described: dates of their production, runs, and the cost of awards. Diplomas are also mentioned in addition to the awards: their chronology, runs, and artists’ authorship. The Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union approved the design of the flag of their organization in 1920. The designs of flags of squads were approved in 1927, and of teams – in 1929. After the reorganization of the Union, a new flag design, which was common to teams, units and squads, was adopted in 1937. In 1939, a separate flag design was approved only for choirs.It was decided to establish the first award – Šaulių Žvaigždė – in 1927. Initially, the award had to be two types and two degrees. Test samples were produced in 1929. The first Šaulių Žvaigždė awards were produced in 1931-1935 in Switzerland by the Huguenin Freres et Co firm, which produced about 550 units of these awards. Later, in 1937-1939, the awards were produced in Kaunas by GRAVELIT, the company of engravers A. Pranskevičius and Edvardas Kelbauskas, which in the middle of 1938 changed its name to GRAVIŪRA. Altogether 320 units of awards were produced in Lithuania. The marks of both producers are distinguished by details of imaging a rider. The author of the Šaulių Žvaigždė pattern is A. Kairys and P. Rimša – of a model. The new award diplomas were presented from 1936. The second award – the medal of Šaulių Žvaigždė was established in 1939. The author of the design was P. Rimša. A total of 10000 units of medals were produced by the Swiss firm Huguenin Freres et Co, the price of one medal was LTL 1.08. The medal was the anniversary award to honour distinguished individuals. The designer of the award diploma was J. Burba. [From the publication]