Mondvor

There are two links - for Part 1 and Part 2. Unfortunately they are not in PDF format, but in DOC format - regular Word Documents. However, pictures are available as well. http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform/p...28/chapter1.doc http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform/p...28/chapter2.doc About translator, well, I don't use any translators, so it's hard to recommend something. But I belive you can find something searching the web.

This Durov-Strekalov book is available online for free. So it's even easier for you to translate the text. Just copy part of the text and paste it to your translator. BTW, this book is a masterpiece. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Gerd, you are right. Fake makers improve their skills constantly and fakes look better and better every next year . Sometimes it is hard to determine a fake looking only at the obverse. Here is another fake RB.

Reverses

That's OK Rick, no problem About Red Banners and different dies. First of all, those Red Banners were produced in July 1943 on Krasnokamsk Mint (Краснокамский Монетный Двор). It is highly unlikely that two different dies were used at the same time at this facility. I checked the shape of plow and hammer carefully but didn't find any distinctive differences that you mentioned. What looks as a shape difference is a result of bigger amount of white enamel, surrounding a hammer and a plow. Tops of torch and pole are very different even on an orders with a close serial numbers. You are right, they were hand-finished after order was stamped. This hand finishing procedure was performed with a files, so it is almost impossible to find two exact torches or poles. I don't like to use only words. I'll try to illustrate my opinion with a pictures. So here we have two RBs with close numbers 96550 and 96911. As you see, in both cases plow doesn't touch banner's handle. So it should be one die, right? But if we compare torch and pole we can see they are still different.

I'm sorry, but who is Alexei?

You are right, this is a replacement for a screwback. Nice Red Banner. It was replaced probably in 1944 or 1945 acording to a mintmark. Could be a Victory Parade peplacement.

Reverse.

Another order (obverse)

Exactly! The relationship between the plow and banner's handle determined only by the amount of white enamel applied to the order. Compare two orders with close serial numbers...

Very nice group Dave, thanks for sharing Would you please show the first page of the orderbook with the name of the hero. About the combination of the awards. One of those Red Stars is a long-service award. The other could be either for a participation in some local conflicts (Hungary is possible, but also it could be Korea - especially for the fighter pilot) or participation in the testing of new planes (he could start a career of a test-pilot after second world war). Research would give the clear answer to all questions...

So this new duplicate book was given to Rulev when his second Glory 3rd class was replaced for the 1st class order. Also I have images of his personal record card. If anybody interested I can post them on the forum.

Second page.

I'm sorry for late answer. I was in Kiev for two weeks and came back only three days ago. About Rulev's orderbook. You can see that it was filled out in 1968, so this is a duplicate book. That's why the ink looks fresh. But there also was an old (original) oredbook in this group. Take a look.

Just a few words about history of this order. I've bought it in Kiev in 1998 for 25 USD For almost 8 years it was in my collection, but half year ago I bought similar Red Banner, which was a part of the big group. That's why I decided to sell it out. Order is in excellent condition and has a special mark "7" on the reverse. I'm really happy that this order is in good hands now Here is a fragment with "7".

I found a picture of Vataman who killed 10 enemy soldiers with a panzerfaust (bazooka), using it as a club. Wow, pretty scary

Sorry, have no idea where the second part of Gorelov's group. All I can do - just to post a picture of his RKKA document here. Probably it's sitting in someone's collection right now. I have no idea why the owner decided to split this amazing group. This scan is from June 2002... Four years... As you can see, he was at the rank of Military Doctor 3rd class (in 1943 this rank was changed to Medical Corps Major).

Here is another close range RB.

First of all my opinion about Kapral. If you make replicas, you have to CLEARLY INDICATE on the reverse that this is a replica. Kapral doesn't do this. Even more, they present their orders with actual serial numbers. Those orders could be easily obtained by "black dealers" and then sold to unexperienced collectors. About that very order RB#4 that I posted above... Of course this is not Kapral. Order was made out of real Red Banner first award. Lover part was cut off and fake fragment with shield was soldered instead.

As far as I know, Gorelov's Hasan badge also comes with XX years of RKKA medal and document. Nice group...

I have another close number that differs appr. by 200. Same handwriting and same mintmark. If you are interested I can post it in the evening.

This order is 100% real. Take a look at a close neighbor Well, if somebody told you that order is "unresearcable" doesn't mean it is fake. There are at least 3 possible explanations. 1. This order was awarded to NAVY person. They have separate archive from Army arcive in Podolsk. 2. This order was awarded to NKVD person. They have separate archive as well. 3. Person who was looking for that number simply didn't fina the citation. It could be missing, could be placed in a wrong folder, under a wrong letter and so on...

Reverse

Take a look at this funny fake

That's exactly what I said before about washed-out books. And this set also comes from Ukraine. Just remember the "name" of the person who will buy it. He might be a fake-maker.