Original Item: Only One Available. The Medalla de la Campaña de Rusia ("Medal of the Russian Campaign"), commissioned 9 November 1943, was awarded by Nationalist Spain to those Spanish volunteers who served at the Russian front during World War II, as members of the Blue Division. This force, attached to the Heer of the Wehrmacht, known as the 250th Infantry Division, was in total composed of 47,000 men, sent by Francisco Franco to aid the Third Reich, as a way to pay back Adolf H's help during the Spanish Civil War.

The obverse is a Nationalist Spain Eagle with an Iron Cross, with the Swaz, above the Falange's symbol, all surrounded by a laurel circle and a crown on the top. On the reverse the Novgorod Kremlin surrounded with chains and the inscription "Rusia 1941"

This is the first example we have seen of one of these, and it definitely looks to not have been very high quality when originally produced. We have seen these in many different styles, from ones made from multiple pieces of metal brazed together, to simple cast examples like this. The surface has suffered further oxidation that makes the designs on the reverse quite difficult to read. It looks like it may have been cleaned aggressively to remove corrosion, and then someone attempted to restore it with black paint on the Iron cross. The ribbon looks to be original, and shows wear and staining from contact with the award.

Ready to research and display!

The 250th Infantry Division (250. Infanterie-Division), better known as the Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division), was a unit of volunteers from Francoist Spain operating from 1941 to 1944 within the German Army (Wehrmacht) on the Eastern Front during World War II. It was officially designated the Spanish Volunteer Division (División Española de Voluntarios) by the Spanish Army.

Francisco Franco had secured power in Spain after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), during which the Nationalists received support from NSDAP Germany. Franco's authoritarian regime remained officially non-belligerent in World War II but sympathised with the Axis powers. After lobbying by the Spanish Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer and by senior figures within the Spanish Army following the 22 June 1941 launch of Operation Barbarossa, Franco agreed that Spanish people would be permitted to enlist privately in the German Army and undertook to provide tacit support. An infantry division was raised from Falangist and Spanish Army cadres and was sent for training in Germany. The unit fought on the Eastern Front and notably participated in the 1941–1944 siege of Leningrad, but was withdrawn from the Front after Allied pressure in October 1944 and returned to Spain soon afterwards. Several thousand non-returners were incorporated into the 121st Infantry Division, the short-lived Blue Legion, and eventually into the Waffen-SS.