Mondvor

We have the same place in Kiev. Special street in a historical part of the city were lots of foreign tourists walking around. And the prices are 4 to 5 folds from regular For the display boxes I would say they are either belong to Paretsky or Gruzlak. I don't know other German dealers who are still on the market. Am I right?

High prices could be understandable for unique and rare orders. But not for the regular medals that shown on the pictures. I'm visiting Kiev, Ukraine every summer. This is the main marketplace on the area of former USSR and all prices are created there. But regular medals are still cost nothing in Kiev. You can by 50 year Army jubilee medal for 3 USD in Kiev. BTW you can buy it for 5 USD even on EBay. So what is the reason to put the label with 15 EUR on the medal? This is only for the stupid tourists who don't know real prices and buy Soviet awards as a souvenirs. Once again - all you said holds true for RARE orders - small BHs, triangles RBLs, GOZNAK RSs, non-riveted Lenins, some "polkovorets" orders of 1st and 2nd class. But not for this garbage shown on the picture. For some things like 3rtd class Hm or Nahimov medal prices even going down slowly, because supply is exceeds demand.

Those people must be crazy. 15 EUR for a 50-years Soviet Army jubilee medal? 95 EUR for regular second type GPW 2nd class? Well, it's their own business. I can only wish them good luck in looking for some fool who would pay that much

Hi Jan, Of course you can try to do the research. Most likely this award was given for so-called "winter war" betwen Soviet Union and Finland in 1939-40. But all you can find is the name of the recipient ant sometimes his rank. There is a complete lists of pre-war awards recipients (those lists are separate for each award). My friend has a complete list of mirror-reversed Red Banners and about 90% complete list of early Red Stars (before 10.000). Some other people have lists of BH and RBL. But it was common that for pre-war awards no citations were filled. At least I didn't see any of them. All early awards were given in Kremlin only and in most cases the person who actually gave the award to recipient was Kalinin (one of the leaders of Communist Government). So it would be really hard to get a description of the merits for that Red Star. Could you share the images of your Red Star with us?

There are two reasons for this particular number range. First. The numbers prior to 23.000 could be issued before WW II. So you would not find any citations for them. No citation - no story Second. The numbers lower than 23.000 are not very common and it's hard to find them. Also the prices are higher (we are not talking about riveted Stars that were issued mostly in Noveber 1941 - January 1942, because this is very different story, that's all just about regular screwpost base Stars).

Yep... Looks similar. Is it another group for political officer?

The order that was issued more than 400.000 times should cost as a price for the metal plus 15 to 20 percent depending on the condition and serial number. If it comes with a paper than you can add up to 40 percent. This is just my opinion.

Thanks Doug, Now I can see that order is OK. The outline of the digit is thick. On the initial picture it looked different probably because of light reflection from enamel surface.

Hi Doug, Here is the picture of two Red Banners ## 932 and 1220. Just to illustrate my words about "fat" digit on the shield. The shields on those RBs look little bit different from your order. That's why I asked if you have better pictures. If you have them for 8 or 10 years is OK. But 90% of all fakes came to US between 1992 and 1998.

To Digger Doug, Could you show the reverses of those Red Banners? Especially #4. Obverse pictures are small and unclear, but the digit on the shield of RB#4 looks kind of "skinny". On war-time awards it was much more "fat". Maybe it is just wrong impression because of the light, reflected from enamel. But still it is interesting to see smaller details of obverse and reverse.

This medal is 100% real. About the documents - there are at least 5 types of documents for that medal. One is posted above by Dave. It has a signature of Minister of Defence. The other types have signatures of Minister of Internal Affairs (MVD), Chairman of State Security Committee (KGB), Secretary of Supreme Soviet of USSR and most common type for non-VIP persons (posted below)

Rick, I do not remember about the end of his career. I'll check his papers tonight.

Well, that is a great question! I've seen hundreds of citations and must say that it is extremely difficult to find an award with a really interesting story behind. You can try to research something like Great Patriotic War (as Rick mentioned above) because it is non-long service award and was given mostly for combat heroism. But there is always a chance to get something like Mech's GPW (for successful trading in local military store) or like Rodionov's two GPWs (given for the same events of providing Communist propaganda among other political officers). Both groups are described in this forum and you can see them by yourself. Order of Glory and Bravery medal are more reliable choices, I totally agree with Rick and Dave. But it is more about early numbers. I've seen many 1945-issued Glories and Braveries, that were given for something like "good conduct" or for being in Red Army since 1941 and wounded couple of times. Also I've seen some Glories given to personal drivers of high-ranking officers and to other people who were closely related to Division Headquarters. In my opinion it is always interesting to research ANY of early award from 1941-42 period. In most cases there is a true feat behind them. Red Banners in s/n range 16.000 - 30.000, Red Stars from 23.000 to 100.000 numbers, Otvaga and MM medals from 25.000 to 100.000. Those might be really cool. Not many people were awarded prior to 1943 because Read Army mostly retreated and there was no reasons to give awards. Except for REAL heroism. That is only my private opinion, I might be wrong

Really cool citation. We should keep in mind that during 1941 Red Army mostly retreated. But here we have an example of successful advance operation. Great! Do you have a pictures of Red Banner?

One more paper from personal file. Not related to previous one, but still interesting. This is also a certification for another HSU pilot - Lt. Colonel Gultyaev. At the moment of certification he was holding a position of the Head of Command Center of 145th Fighter Air Division. Certification describes an event when Lt. Colonel Gultyaev left his Command Center (the only remaining person in the Command Center was some Private) and together with other officers went to the cinema (I highlighted this with red line). Pretty funny, huh?

And the last paper from his Personal File. Not from the Army though, but from a civil job. He was working as a "зубострогальщик" 5th class (I have no idea what it means, sounds like something related to metal processing and handling) on a railway car repair factory.

Here is his final paper from Soviet Army. It says that Lt. Colonel Ivanov retired from active duty to reserve, but in case of war he could be called up again and could be used on a position of the Head of Strategical Department of Air Division Headquarters.

Here is a document from personal file of HSU pilot mentioned above. This document is a regular certification of an officer. Each active officer in Red Army went through a procedure of certification every three or four years. Main aim of certification was to determine if a person correspond to the position that he occupies.

Alfred, this stamp says 267 Батальон Аэродромного Обслуживания - that means 267 Airfield Service Batallion. This is a special unit that was provide technical and service cover for the aircrafts based on this airfield. During 2nd World War in Red Army were more than 800 of those units.

We have an anecdote (a joke) about Poltitcal Officers. Once upon a time a Political Officer made a reprimand (reproof) to a soldier who was a radar set operator. This reproof was about the operator left his working place for lunch and didn't clean it up before leaving. The soldier replied - "I'm sorry about that, I didn't have much time. I wish to be like you! You close your mouth and working place is cleaned".

Well, the job in the post-office is not the worst that could happen with the officer after retirement. I have some documents of HSU fighter pilot. His last position before retirement was a Head of Command Control center of Air Force Fighter Division in the rank of Lt. Colonel. Few month later he worked as a metal turner (tool maker) in a factory If somebody interested I can post those papers from his personal files.

Very nice group, Alfred! Thanks for sharing with us. Could you post the pictures of original award registration card? Rick, couple of words about Ukazes of April 20, 1953 and December 30, 1956. Red Banners and Red Stars were awarded in according with both of those Ukazes. The earliest Red Star that I know for April 20, 1953 is 3097934, the latest is 3103550. The earliest Red Star that I know for December 30, 1956 is 3403453, the latest is 3533041. Same story for Red Banner. For April 20, 1953 I found earliest as 388681 and the latest as 392742. For December 30, 1956 the numbers are 491977 and 528700 respectively.

More pages.

Here is his early Officer ID ? pretty interesting document. It shows that in Jan. 1942 he was a political commissar of 2nd battery in Independent Mortar Divizion of 291st Rifle Division, Leningrad Front.

Long service Red Star - reverse.