The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was founded after the October Revolution in the Russian Republic and very soon had to create an award system. The award systems of parallel Soviet states soon followed and they also created and issued awards of their own, mainly in a similar style to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In 1924, the Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics started to award all-union Orders and within a decade all the Orders of member republics had ceased to be awarded. Some Republics such as the Tuvan People's Republic only replaced their own award system with the Soviet Union's after joining and therefore were issued to a later date.

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• Orders, decorations, and medals of the Soviet Union
• Socialist orders of merit