Soviet What DID You Do In The War, Comrade Daddy?

[Guest Rick Research]

Here are a couple of booooooooooooooooring 1950s career officer groups to officers who went through all four years of the Great Patriotic War, with the deaths of millions of Soviet subjects...

and never got an award for anything!

Air Force Major Georgy Ivanovich Galitsky's "G" series 1950 edition Orders Book:

Snappily attired in the M1949 Zoot Suit, scarf and all:

Now, even though his Medals Book is missing, we KNOW that his MMM was a ten years long service award, because he is only wearing the one, and here is his 15 years Red Star

Order of the Red Star 2,949,671 was authorized on 30 January 1951, with the Orders Book issued 23 May 1951 and photo (unusually) stamped by his "Unit 21486."

No 20 years Order of the Red Banner circa 1956, so presumably retired (or dead) by then. NOT a flyer, NOT administrative branch... Comrade Galitsky was presumably a political commissar.

[Guest Rick Research]

Air Force Engineer Captain Aleksandr Grigorievich Zaitsev got the Medal for the Defense of the Caucasus in addition to the Victory Over Germany and 1948 Jubilee Medals he had in common with Galitsky, above.

Zaitsev also wears (photographs were unusual by this period-- and he is wearing all his awards, so this was added by his "Unit 8801(1?)" AFTER receiving the ORS listed inside) the M1949-58 flight engineer wings AND a parachutist badge... and yet

NO awards for all of WW2!

His "G" series Orders Book is a 1952 edition, showing 10 years long service MMM (without number) 20 June 1948 (like many a previous MMM issued with its own Medals Book, "rolled over" and re-entered in an Orders Book-- like the 1954 MMM/1969 ORB Gordienko Orders Book) and 15 years long service Order of the Red Star 3,147,930 on 30 April 1954, issued 28 June 1954

If he was still serving at the end of the 1950s, he would have gotten the 20 years service medal in 1959, just in time for Khruschev's "Budget Purge" of February 1960.

Tomorrow I will add a photo Orders Book Naval Polar Aviation flyer who also through the entire war-- though HE went on to "Doctor Strangelove" nuke flying in the "Cold" War, having apparently been in hibernation up there during the "hot" one!

We wouldn't want you to think they were ALL Heroes of the Soviet Union!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

Senior Lieutenant Boris Ivanovich Verbitsky's 1945 Orders Book bears his photo (looking eerily like Jerry Mathers as "the Beaver") helpfully stamped by the Command of Naval Aviation of the Northern Fleet:

His awards entries confirm that his first award was Red Star 1,845,186 in August 1945-- AFTER the war on the polar circle was months over. A numberless MMM followed for 10 years service, and then a second Red Star, number 3,126,921 circa August 1953 as a 15 years service award:

Comrade Verbitsky was NOT a commissar or commissary... he was a navigator on flying dutyon the "hot front" of the coldest (literally!) Cold War action, still flying in the Arctic at the end of the 1950s--

[Guest Rick Research]

Now pay special attention to the TYPES of Verbitsky's Red Stars--

The THIN, pointed-tip Type 2 "flat star edges" no screwpost type at # 1,845,186 is here well over A MILLION numbers higher than usually found!

This is the highest number of this type I have ever seen

Whatever rank Major of Naval Aviation (in the late 1950s, per his Navigator Wings authorization booklet) Verbitsky ultimately achieved, he was still alive in 1985-- I also have his jubilee OPW2 and award booklet. His "junk" jubilees were sold separately years ago by a New York area eBay seller and are "out there" somewhere.

[Paul R]

I have been looking for an earlier Red Star like that for a while. Nice find Rick! Same awardee with two variations of the same order!!!

Edited October 25, 2005 by Paul Reck

[Guest Rick Research]

Here is the same thin pointed tips type only WITH a screwpost base:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2470&hl=chertov

I think these thin ones are much nicer looking thn the thicker "fat cookie" versions. The very first Soviet award I ever got (and still have), back Pre-Collapse, was a thin screwpost base one with the serial number scratched out-- as was commonly done then to conceal the original recipient's identity.

Igor's got a couple of these ranging from $75-110--

http://collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=12320

which is more than I paid for my RESEARCHED one in the link above, Back In The Day. (Time Travel is FANTASTIC...

it is, unfortunately, only ONE WAY.... )

[Guest Rick Research]

Only a personnel file photo (actually, there are TWO of these Out There, the other being identically filled out at his unit on the same day in the ame way) but again...

makes you scratch your head and wonder

what DID he do in the Great Patriotic War?

[attachmentid=14783]

Guards Major Nikolai Timofeevich Kosolap, as attested 13 October 1949 (yet is wearing WW2 period 5 pointed rather than the new 6 sided boards on his dress tunic) was a MAJOR with less than 10 iears of service-- not even an MMM for Time Served. He has Defense of the Polar Region, Victory Over Germany, and 1948 Jubilee along with his Guards badge but z-e-r-o awards for WW2.

All the MORE incredible since he served in

[attachmentid=14784]

"1018th 'Yaroslavsky, Red Banner, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky' Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment"!!! In October 1949 that was in 11th Guards Tank Division (wherever that was), 1st Guards Mechanized Army.

Nine years to major-- less if he made the rank before the shoulder board points changed-- ZERO decorations... in an obscure AckAck unit that received TWO UNIT DECORATIONS!

[NavyFCO]

Nine years to major-- less if he made the rank before the shoulder board points changed-- ZERO decorations... in an obscure AckAck unit that received TWO UNIT DECORATIONS!

Rick-

I think this fellow wasn't so uncommon. He probably joined the Red Army in maybe 1942/43, spent six months in officer training, another year in the Vistral artillery school, and he made it out to the front in maybe 1944/45. He probably saw some action, but nothing remarkable, thus no pressing requirement for a decoration. He probably made Captain by the end of the War (not unusual for them to be Captain after a year or two) and then was promoted to Major shortly after the war - could even be right before the photo was taken. AS far as the boards are concerned, they're probably hand-me-downs from another officer... I can't tell you how many times I've lent my insignia out to an officer who was either a recent promotee or forgot their insignia. The theory probably was: "Hey, better to have a photo taken with the right rank rather than one with the old rank..."

At the same time, with regard to his action during the War, he could have ended up in one of those units that was in the "Reserve" for most of the end of the War, or in one of the front line training units. At the same time, he could have been an artillery officer detailed as the aide to the Regimental/Divisional Commander, could have been the Adjutant or personnel officer for the Regiment/Division... you can go on down the list... There were millions of officers and men who served valiantly on the various fronts but never fired a shot from a weapon. After all, SOMEONE has to be there to handle the transportation, logistics, pay, training, etc...

Plenty of guys actually saw action during the War, but for whatever reason, only a minority of them recieved awards for their service. We get rather cynical after a while always looking at and researching groups that have gallantry awards... But go figure... If they had 35 million people in uniform during the period of the Patriotic War, not all of them earned awards - even with close to 2 million Red Stars given out for wartime service, that's still only roughly 5 percent of those that put on a uniform for the Soviet Union during the War. And at that, think of the multiple awards, etc...

Anyway, just a few thoughts... I think this guy was probably the more common veteran of the Patriotic War than we actually think he is...

Dave

[Guest Rick Research]

"If they had 35 million people in uniform during the period of the Patriotic War, not all of them earned awards - even with close to 2 million Red Stars given out for wartime service, that's still only roughly 5 percent of those that put on a uniform for the Soviet Union during the War. And at that, think of the multiple awards, etc...

Anyway, just a few thoughts... I think this guy was probably the more common veteran of the Patriotic War than we actually think he is..."

Much more concise than my ramblings, but exactly the point I wanted to make. We find ourselves (well, I do anyway ) getting so blas? about somebody who "only" had a Red Star or "only" got two of the more common awards that it seems like, sometimes, those guys were not as "exciting" as the ones with all the awards.

I am sure there were some, but there can't have been very many boring places in the Soviet Union during the war-- even if they didn't have "much" to SHOW for it!

[NavyFCO]

Much more concise than my ramblings, but exactly the point I wanted to make. We find ourselves (well, I do anyway ) getting so blas? about somebody who "only" had a Red Star or "only" got two of the more common awards that it seems like, sometimes, those guys were not as "exciting" as the ones with all the awards.

I had a nice family purchased group once to a fellow who had been an Air Force pilot prior to WW2, but for some reason (perhaps medical) became an admin officer during the War. He had a long service Lenin, Red Banner, Red Star, Military Merit medal and then had a second Red Star. I was pretty excited to see what the other Red Star was for, since I figured that the rest of them were for long service.

When his records came back, I found out then that he had been the admin officer for the air division, but interestingly, he was awarded the Red Star for his writing of the unit's battle histories! Necessary, but "boring", even though his unit had a stellar combat record.

I sold the group and about a year later, a fellow offered the research (and one of the documents from the group) up for sale on another forum. I was livid, of course, having spent $125+ on the research, only to see it split from the group! However, he had sold the group to a dealer who didn't want the research, evidently because it wasn't "exciting"!

How sad is it that someone is willing to split apart a group in order to sell it based on the "merits" of the group, in order to forward the notion that he had been a pilot in this rather famous unit, when in all irony, his awards were given for being the person that made the group famous on paper?

Dave