Jump to content
News Ticker
  • I am now accepting the following payment methods: Card Payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
    • Latest News

    Captain 1st rank Ivan Nikolaievich Kandybin

    Christian Zulus
     Share

    Recommended Posts

    Christian Zulus Grand Master

    Christian Zulus

    Posted
    Posted

    Gentlemen,

    in spring 2002 I purchased from Art Bates, owner of the "other" Soviet-awards-forum, for mere USD 250,- (!!!) the complete leave behinds in terms of all awards, badges & documents of a high-ranking Soviet naval officer, who was in a top-commanding position after the GPW and was also a meritorious in battle - Order of the Red Star - veteran of the war against Japan in 1945.

    O.K., Art Bates didn't knew anything about the group - he couldn't even read the "captain 1st rank" in the documents ;) - only, that the awards group had something to do with Japan 1945, due the "Japan Medal" and the medal for "Liberation of Korea". For the obligation, that I will arrange the research, he handed the group for the mentioned USD 250,- over to me. I invested another USD 150,- into the research, Ed Maier did an excellent job and got the results, I will present here.

    All orders and medals of the Kandybin-group are in an immaculate - almost 10/10 - condition.

    First, the group consits of following orders, medals and badges + all the documents:

    - Order of the Red Banner, sn. 491.954 (type 4; 20-years-of-service)

    - Order of the Patriotic War 2cl, sn. 5.876.281 (1985 jubilee edition)

    - Order of the Red Star, sn. 1.693.661 (battle award, Japan 1945)

    - Order of the Red Star, sn. 2.919.272 (15-years-of-service)

    - Meritorious Servic in Battle Medal, sn. 2.692.925 (type 2 / version 3; 10-years-of-service)

    - Centenary of Lenin's Birth Medal (civil type)

    - 20th Anniversary of Victory in the GPW Medal

    - 30th Anniversary of Victory in the GPW Medal

    - 40th Anniversary of Victory in the GPW Medal

    - Victory over Japan Medal (version 2)

    - Veteran of the Armed Forces Medal

    - 30th Anniversary of the Soviet Army and Navy Medal

    - 40th Anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces Medal

    - 60th Anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces Medal

    - 50th Anniversary of Victory in the GPW Medal (Russian Federation)

    - Medal for the Liberation of Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)

    - Badge of the Highest Naval Academy "Frunze" (early version of the 1950s)

    Besides the last 2 items - Korea & Academy - I will present here not the orders and medals, because all members know, how they look like. I will only present the documents.

    The first 5 awards are listed in the orders booklet. The rest of the awards have seperate booklets. The medal + document for "50th Anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces" is missing. I assume, that comrade Kandybin never got the medal, due to phase of retirement - in 1968 he had been already 6 years in retirement - and his new residence in Riga, Latvia. My theory :unsure: .

    Which aspects make this researched award group interesting?

    - it's a genuine naval group

    - includes a battle award (Red Star) from the Japan-1945-campain + Korea-Medal

    - belongs to a high-ranking naval officer (commodore!), who promoted extremly fast in the 1950s

    - and the group is really comprehensive and in excellent condition.

    Ivan N. Kandybin's position in the Soviet Navy:

    At the young age of 42 years - as a Captain 2nd rank (!) - Kandybin was the commander of the 111th OVR-Brigade in Lipaja (german: Libau), one of the main harbours at the Baltic coast, in Latvia (german: Lettland, region of Kurland). The 111th OVR-Brigade was part of the "Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet". OVR means "marine coastal defence forces" and brigades consists of a rather hughe number of boats, ships, corvetts and frigates, but no submarines. For naval officers the Baltic coast (3 Baltic Republics) was the most favourable place to serve, due to the very high living standard there during the Soviet age.

    For such a commanding position, there is a special rank in the Soviet Navy missing. A commander of such a flottillia should be above a Captain 1st rank, but below a Rear Admiral, despite of that, he should be a "Flag Officier". Complicated :P ? Not really. In the British Navy you would have for Kandybin's position the rank of a "Commodore 1st Class" and in the US Navy the rank of a "Commodore", which is an authentic "Flag Officier", corresponding to a "Brigade General" and representing a "One-Star-Admiral" (the "Rear Admiral" has in the US Navy has 2 stars!). Even in the German Navy of the 3rd Reich you had a special rank for such position: "Kapit?n zur See" in the position of a commodore (one big gold star at the cuffs of the uniform). The fact is, that the Soviet Navy never had the rank of a commodore and so comrade Kandybin only promoted to the rank of a Captain 1st rank :( .

    This photograph of comrade Kandybin shows him in a uniform in the pre-1943-style, where the ranks of the officers were attached to the cuffs of the jacket.

    At the next postings I will show the above mentioned 2 awards - Academy & Korea - and all the documents + english translations.

    Best regards

    Christian Zulus

    [attachmentid=57131]

    Christian Zulus Grand Master

    Christian Zulus

    Posted
    • Author
    Posted

    It is a pity, that comrade Kandybin didn't receive a Order of Lenin for his 25 years in service in the Soviet Navy, but only the Military Veteran Medal :( .

    But that procedure was correct according to the regulations in the 1960s.

    On the other side, the price for the group would have been much more expensive with a Lenin instead of the Veteran Medal ;) .

    Best regards

    Christian Zulus

    NavyFCO Mentor

    NavyFCO

    Posted
    Posted

    Christian:

    Nice group! To me, it appears that he had a "classic" career in the Soviet navy, making all of ranks and command positions on time. His promotions were actually right on schedule... He was promoted to Captain 1st Rank after 22 years of service, which is about normal even today.

    A small note about commodores.... The US Navy had (and has) both a rank and title of Commodore. Same word, but different meanings. The RANK of Commodore (one star admiral) has come and gone throughout the years, and was finally replaced for good in the 1980s with the rank of Rear Admiral, Lower Half (abbreviated as RDML.) However, this is different than the TITLE of Commodore, which means someone who is in charge of a squadron of ships - much like Captain 1st Rank Kandybin.

    Thus, he would have been considered a Commodore in title, but not in rank, as the two had different meanings: the person in charge of a squadron of ships would be a Captain 1st Rank, but would have the title of Commodore, whereas the person who was a one-star admiral had the rank of Commodore, but chances were that he was not in charge of a squadron of ships, and was actually in charge of a flotilla, group or a larger unit of ships.

    Hope that helps clarify things. :beer:

    Dave

    Christian Zulus Grand Master

    Christian Zulus

    Posted
    • Author
    Posted

    Dear Dave,

    many thanks for your great insight informations about the US-Navy. I am focussed at WW II and the early "hot" period of the "Cold War", so I didn't knew, that the rank of a Commodore as a "1-Star-Admiral" vanished.

    So the US-Navy returned to the German (3rd Reich) system, where you had the "Kapit?n zur See" (Captain 1st rank) with the "title" Commodore + the big gold star at the cuffs.

    O.K., the rank promotions of comrade Kandybin had been in right (minimum) time, but the promotion to the positions - i.e. Brigade-Commander (= "Commodore") in the rank of a Captain 2nd rank and at the age of 42 - had been rather quick - it's just my opinion and experience with Soviet military history.

    I assume, that most of the US-Navy-officers at the age of 42 are rather far away of the high-ranking commanding position comrade Kandybin had ;) .

    Best regards from the city of your (old) familiy

    Christian

    • 7 months later...
    Christian Zulus Grand Master

    Christian Zulus

    Posted
    • Author
    Posted (edited)

    2 scans of the whole Kandybin-group

    Gentlemen,

    here are two (rather bad :blush: ) scans of the group.

    Best regards :beer:

    Christian

    Edited by Christian Zulus
    Bryan Mentor

    Bryan

    Posted
    Posted

    Christian, you have a very interesting group! :beer:

    My friend you need to practice your photography skills! I wouldn't mind travelling to Vienna to give you a small course. :lol:

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
     Share
    Go to topic listing


    ×
    ×
    • Create New...

    Important Information

    We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.