The Medal For the Restoration of the Black Metallurgy Enterprises of the South

The Medal "For the Restoration of the Black Metallurgy Enterprises of the South" (Russian: Медаль «За восстановление предприятий чёрной металлургии юга») was a civilian state award of the Soviet Union established on May 18, 1948 by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to recognise personal achievements in the restoration of the Black Metallurgic Enterprises of the Soviet Union which were destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. Thirteen blast furnaces, forty-nine open hearth furnaces, twenty-nine finishing mills and sixty-eight coke-oven batteries were restored to effective or outstanding production rates. The medal's statute was amended on July 18, 1980 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR № 2523-X.
The Medal "For the Restoration of the Black Metallurgy Enterprises of the South" was a 32 mm in diameter circular brass medal. On the obverse on the left side, the relief image of a rebuilt blast furnace, at right, a worker with a tool for punching tapholes, in the background at center, the rising Sun with rays going up. Along the medal side and upper circumference, the relief inscription "For the restoration of the black metallurgy enterprises of the South" (Russian: «За восстановление предприятий чёрной металлургии юга»), at the bottom, the relief image of a five pointed star over a laurel wreath. On the reverse, the relief image of the hammer and sickle over the inscription on two lines in prominent letters "LABOUR IN THE USSR - A MATTER OF HONOUR" (Russian: «ТРУД В СССР — ДЕЛО ЧЕСТИ»).

The Medal "For the Restoration of the Black Metallurgy Enterprises of the South" was secured by a ring through the medal suspension loop to a standard Soviet pentagonal mount covered by an overlapping 24 mm silk moiré ribbon. The ribbon had an 8 mm wide central blue stripe bordered by 1 mm wide white stripes themselves bordered by 5 mm wide light blue stripes, 2 mm wide blue edge stripes completed it.