Mondvor

OK, back to Konyaev's awards. I think the situation with his Glory 3rd class is pretty clear. We have a citation and I have to say it's very cool! After his mortar was damaged with enemy artillery fire, Konyaev used his machine-gun and killed German sniper. After that he took his rifle and with this rifle he killed 8 German soldiers and an officer. Germans tried to surrender and capture Konyaev, but he threw 2 hand grenades and killed 5 more Germans. Now we have the most strange part - his 2 Bravery medals. According to the documents first medal was given to him in 1947 in the city of Polotsk. He was awarded by the Decree of his Regiment on April 29, 1945. Why it took two years to receive the award? Most likely he was wounded and transferred to the hospital or just transferred to the other unit. So regimental authorities were unable to find him in a war-time chaos. But after he was discharged from the army in 1946, he returned back home and registered in a local Military Office. Administrative officer from this department filled his papers and send them to the Central Office. And there they found that his Bravery medal is still waiting for him. But now his location was clear and they simply sent the medal to local Military Office and the Head of this Office called him and gave him his medal. The number of this medal matches with the data when it was given to recipient (1947). The first award card was filled at that time and shows two awards - Glory and first Bravery medal. What happened then? From the first award card we know that Konyaev moved away in 1948. Some time later he settled in the other place and again came to the local Military Office. Administrative officer sent the request again and received his initial award card from previous location. It was on May 22, 1956. He put the new seal that confirms that all entries are correct. And of course he informed Central Office that Konyaev changed his location and got registered in a different Military Office. And here is a moment of truth. When Central Office personnel reviewed Konyaev's papers they found this old citation for the Bravery medal. AND THEY THOUGHT HE DID NEVER RECEIVE IT!!! They sent another medal to new location. And he was awarded SECOND TIME. But now the number of the medal was higher and it perfectly matches with data of issue - 1956. Of course local Military Office clerk immediately filled the new award card to Konyaev and now two medals were listed. Of course it is only my hypothesis, I'm not absolutely sure how it was in reality.

Dave, this award group is really interesting. There are several strange moments with it and I think we should not combine them all together. Lets answer one question at a time. First of all, I do not believe he was some special guy who was sent to the battlefield on the last days of the war to get some medals... Last days of the war were sometimes more dangerous than in mid-war period. If you are familiar with Russian losses during the battle of Berlin, than you understand what I'm talking about. He joined the Army on March 1942. But started to participate in active combat only since March 1945. So what did he do for 3 years. There are manu possibilities. He could be on Far Eastern Front. During the whole war USSR kept huge number of troops near the border with China and Mongolia to prevent possible Japanese invasion. Also he could serve in one of Training Regiments. Soviet famous fighter and 3 times HSU Kozhedub spent the initial part part of the war as a pilot instructor in one of the Fighter Training Schools. But for the final battles Red Army required more people. So many units from Far Eastern Front and from Training Units were transferred to Western Europe for the "last fight". Dave, you posted only one side of each award card. If you post the other sides, I try to continue my explanation about other strange moments with his awards. The every small piece of information from those documents could be very valuable.

Oh, sure! I've heard about "Star Trek" and saw couple of episodes on TV...

Sorry Ed, who is Spock?

Paul, I have full list of "Polevaya Pochta" ("Field Post-Office") military unit numbers, that were used in 1943-45. But for the post-war numbers there is no such information available. Probably this data is still classified, because many units still exist in moredn Russian Army. But some of them you can trace through the internet (like I did to find some information about 44708 unit).

Military Unit 44708 in Russian would have that official name Представительство 10-го Главного Управления Министерстав Обороны - почтовый ящик 515-Б, аппарат Главного Военного Советника в Кабуле. In English it would be something like that Local Office of 10th Main Department of Ministry of Defence - mailbox 515-B, Headquarters of Chief Military Advisor in Kabul. I want to add that 10th Main Department of Ministry of Defence was a structure responsible for International Military Cooperation between the countries of Warsaw Block. It became extinct in 1992. So our guy most likely was one of the Military Advisors (probably in tank troops).

Paul, you are welcome About abbreviations I must say that Soviet officials by some reason loved to create abbreviations. Some of them are so odd that even native Russian people unable to translate them

Soviet Li-2 (exact copy of American DC-3) were assigned to the ADD as well. But they were less common than Il-4. They also carried out the functions of transport planes and paratrooper launchers.

Could be only one explanation. The guy has a nice group with missing Red Star. And this Red Star from Ebay is the one that he is looking for... Sounds very unreal, but what else could push the person to pay about 100 for a regular Red Star???

Thanks a lot, gentlemen! It's always good to learn more about the historical evnts behind those badges

Oh, I see. But what is the number of his order? It is obviously another Shevchenko, not the one received 107949 "crab".

Wow!! They are spreading around!!! This is a third observed order. Thanks for sharing pictures

Gerd, it is not ROMVA. It is ROMVD. Which states for Районный Отдел Министерства Внутренних Дел - Regional Department of Ministry of Internal Affairs. NKVD after the war was converted to MVD but carried out same functions.

Oh, thanks!! I thought they were from WWII

Second badge.

Gentlemen, would you please help me to identify those two badges. Are they rare? My primary area of interest is Soviet awards, so I don't know anything about British medals Thanks!

ADD means Авиация Дальнего Действия (АДД) - Long Distance Operating Aviation. During second world war Soviet ADD was equiped mostly with Pe-8 and Il-4 bombers.

Dave, at 3 AM on September 26th first unit of 12th Army (commander Major-General Danilov) started to cross Dnepr river between villages Petrovo and Svistunovo. It was 333rd Infantry division, to be more precise it was assault group under the command of captain Strizhachenko. This small unit captured a bridgehead and for the whole day was fighting with Germans. Next night (September 27) two regiments of 333rd Infantry division (1116th and 1120th Infantry Regiments) joined assault unit and participated in holding and spreading the bridgehead. 244th Infantry Division crossed Dnepr the same day - early in the morning on September 26, but in a different place (near Zaporozhye).

Dave, really cool citation. This guy was a highly trained professional of air-defence business. But who is Anatoli?

Very common variation, nothing special. People must be out of their mind to pay that much for an ordinary item...

Just want to make some additions to Rick's translation. In the citation on section 3 it says: Platoon commander assistant, now in the reserve, enlisted to Uch-Kurgansk Military Registration Office (Уч-Курган is a city in Uzbekistan), works as a fire inspector in NKVD Regional Department (РО - Районный Отдел - Regional Department). He was born in the village of Babinkino.

Gerd, very nice early GPW! Mortar crews did not survive for a long time in the war. Normally, mortar man died in 6th or 7th battle according to statistics. So this guy was very lucky to survive the war.

My respect to jimzammit You just suggested very wise idea about selling out the groups. If some collector wants to get rid of the group because of some reason, it is better to offer this group to fellow collectors at first. And only if no one is interested, then pass this group to a dealer or to EBay. Doing this way we probably can save many groups.

I think I know who are you talking about Some of my friends have same kind of attitude to documents and researches. They are simply not interested in "stories". And I am constantly trying to change their point of view. Sometimes it works. One of my old friends in Ukraine finally shifted to documented groups and even asked me to make a research for him... I didn't know that you spent several years in Russia. What city did you live? Then you should agree that it was a horrible time. The big country just broke apart into pieces and chaos and disintegration covered everything. I remember empty shelves in the stores and huge lines for food. Very bad criminal situation, many local gangs, mafia and so on. Unemployement, inflation, etc. One hundred dollars was a treasure. That's why poor people sold out their father's awards almost "for a song". At this time (1992 - 96) the majority of high-ranking awards were brought to USA and Western Europe by Russian dealers. Of course at that time not many people in Russia were thinking about research. They were trying to survive. To be honest, not many American collectors were aware about the possibility of research as well. I think that only after 1996 first attempts to research something were made. Now things changed in Russia and Ukraine. You should visit those countries again. You'll be surprised. Now you can buy everything if you have money - from the newest BMW model to antique French collector's wine. There are many wealthy people called "new russians". Some of them are smart, some are not. But most of them like to invest money. And big percent of them invested their money to awards. And after 2001 the backflow had started. Many interesting groups returned back to Russia from USA and Germany, because Russians payed double and sometimes triple price. But I hope that sooner or later the prices should stabilize. Otherwise I'll switch to collecting bugs and butterflies

For Military Merit medal Shevchenko probably got separate medal book.