№121665Badge of graduation from the Riga Polytechnic Institute

Russian Empire. A badge of graduation from the Riga Polytechnic Institute. Approved on 11/10/1902.

The golden academic badge, to which the golden letters of the FIR are added on the lower part of the coat of arms — Riga Polytechnic Institute.

Riga Polytechnic opened its doors on October 14, 1862 as the first technical university of related disciplines in tsarist Russia. The famous Swiss Federal Higher School in Zurich was used as a model for the Riga Polytechnic. Teachers were lured away with large salaries from Germany, Switzerland and Austria-Hungary. In 1869, a palace house was built for the Polytechnic on the banks of the Riga Canal (now the main building of the University of Latvia).

During the First World War, the Polytechnic was evacuated from Riga in 1915, first to Tartu, and then to Moscow. The university became the founder of the Ivanovo Polytechnic Institute. In 1919, the Technical Faculty of the Latvian State University was established on the basis of the "remnants" of the Polytechnic.

84 silver, gilt. The badge is typed, multilevel. In the course of existence, the ribbon on the right side and one oak leaf in the lower part of the wreath were lost. The size is 54*40 mm. Weight (with nut and backing) 39.7 grams.