The contest announced by the magazine "Orientir", "For the best design" of the coat of arms (emblem), the breastplate of a military unit, has attracted a large number of submissions. We receive sketches, various emblems, and insignia from military units, formations, and individual departments. The range of symbols is not limited to coats of arms or emblems. We also receive designs for awards, shoulder insignia, pennants, banners, and flags. Representatives of not only the Ministry of Defense, but also other agencies that provide military service, such as the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information under the President of the Russian Federation, the Federal Border Service, the Federal Service of Railway Troops, and others, have joined the competition. The geography of the participants is also diverse. We receive mail from literally every corner of our country, from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin, and we also receive mail from neighboring countries.

There are already the first laureates. In total, when summing up the results of the competition for 1999, 25 authors and author's collectives were awarded with wall and wristwatches with logos of parts on the dial, as well as honorary diplomas of the magazine "Orientir" for sending sketches of logos of military units and formations to the competition.

However, when we announced the contest, we warned our readers that the editorial board was not authorized to conduct a heraldic examination of the logos submitted. The contest jury, consisting of members of the magazine's editorial board, designers, and artists from the sponsoring companies, evaluated only the artistic and aesthetic aspects of the submitted coats of arms and emblems, as well as their compliance with the spirit and history of the Russian state, its army, and navy. But now that our competition has become a nationwide event, we realized that this was not enough.

The editorial board of the journal appealed to the leadership of the authoritative regional public organization (ROO) "Academy of Russian Symbolism MARS" with a request to help the journal's editorial board with the heraldic examination of the works submitted for the competition. Naturally, the experts of "MARS" would not be able to review all the sketches sent to the editorial office due to their large number, but they kindly agreed to conduct several comparative analyses of the breastplates and emblems submitted for the competition in the "Heraldic Bulletin" section of the journal. We hope that the creation of a special heraldic section on the pages of the magazine will help heraldic enthusiasts in the military with practical advice, and will allow all our readers to learn a lot about the history of Russian military symbols and the traditions of military heraldry. Stay tuned for our publications.

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