When I was at university reading Russian I did a dissertation on Russian and Soviet orders as part of my degree.
The Soviet system of awards which evolved from the old Czarist Russian ranks of nobility made our own system look positively niggardly, as medals were awarded on every conceivable occasion including appropriately enough the Order of Motherhood which awarded medals in 6 grades for producing children for the Motherland!
Recipients of medals received more than just a bit of tin and a ribbon. Holders of the Order of Lenin, for example, were accorded the right to go straight to the front of a queue wherever it may be. As long queues were a daily part of Soviet life this was quite a useful perk. Heroes of the Soviet Union and Soviet Labour not only received a solid gold medal, but were granted a "time share" in a dacha (holiday home) usually at a Black Sea resort, with free train travel there and back.
Interesting that a system where everybody was supposed to be equal enthusiastically built up an honours system in which everybody was certainly not equal. I haven't kept up with the post 1992 Russian orders system, but I wouldn't be surprised if it followed the lines of its Soviet predecessor