Mondvor

Certificate for Capturing of Budapest

Certificate for Liberation of Belgrade

Victory over Germany medal certificate. At the time of receiving this award (February 1946) he was a cadet in 1st Kiev Artillery School, so his rank is Cadet - Junior Sergeant

Reverse

His Bravery medal - obverse

Another certificate for the participation in the battles for break-through of heavy fortified enemy defence lines south to the city of Bendery (now in the country of Moldova) in August 1944.

Here are his official certificates of participation in some military operations. I have about 8 of them, so I'll post only couple of them as an examples. This one is for participation in the battle for capturing Romanian city and port Constatsa in August 1944.

Top Secret, Copy # 3 Battle Order of Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps # 02/N Front-line Forces April 30, 1944 On behalf of the Supreme Soviet Presidium, for the exemplary execution of High Command Military orders and displayed bravery and courage, I award BRAVERY MEDAL 2. Sergeant Chubaryh Nikolaj Ivanovich, Senior scout of Independent Battery of Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps. Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps ? Guards Colonel Balayev Artillery Chief of Staff of 68th Rifle Corps ? Colonel Slatin

Awarded Bravery medal by the order of Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps # 02/N on April 30, 1944.

Award citation for Bravery Medal Name: Chubaryh Nikolaj Ivanovich Military Rank: Sergeant Position: Senior scout, Independent Battery of Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps Born: 1924 Nationality: Russian Party membership: Communist Party Candidate since April 1944 Participation in war: In Great Patriotic War from December 1942 to February 1943 ? Voronezh Front, from July 1943 to October 1943 ? Stepnoy (Steppe) Front, from October 1943 to February 1944 ? 2nd Ukrainian Front, from February 1944 to present time ? 3rd Ukrainian Front. Wounds or contusions: Heavily wounded on February 11, 1943 ? Voronezh Front In Red Army: since 1942 From what Military Registration Office was recruited: Ukolov RVK, Voronezh Region Previous awards: Not awarded Home address: Voronezh Region, Ukolov subregion, Bolshev village, mother Chubarova Alexandra Yakovlevna Short description of merits: Scout comrade Chubaryh is always carrying out his duties on frontline observation point of 68th Rifle Corps Artillery Commander. During the battle for the town of Bobrinets he personally reconnoitered and pinpointed enemy artillery battery, which was destroyed later. On March 23, 1943 comrade Chubaryh displayed bravery and initiative during forced crossing of South Bug River near the village of Bugsky (Arbuzinsk subregion, Odessa region). He helped to build up a raft and transfer our communication facilities to western bank of the river near the village Konstantinovka. Deserves a state award - Bravery Medal. Commander of Independent Battery of Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps ? Captain Ioffe. April 26, 1944 Artillery Commander of 68th Rifle Corps ? Guards Colonel Balayev. April 29, 1944

Second page

His medal book

Gentlemen, Today I want to share with you a small group from my collection. This group is not very impressive, but for me it is special because it was belonged to my grandfather. I do not remember him very well, he died when I was 9 years old. He didn't tell me much about the war, so from my grandmother (she is still alive) I only knew that he was in artillery during the war. Finally I made a research one year ago and found more about him and his military career. This is his picture in a rank of Senior Lieutenant. I have another picture of him in the rank of Captain (his last rank berfore retirement), but on that one he didn't have actual awards - just a ribbon bars.

I'm not a big expert in Academy badges. But from what I've seen before I can say that there was no such badges with blank shield. All of them came with a legend (exept late ones without a shield). Now it's a question arised - what happened with Kravtsov's badge? I don't know... I can give two possible theories about that. 1. Kravtsov missed his original badge of Frunze Military Academy, find somewhere the other one with different legend and removed all letters from the shield. But it is hard to be real. 2. More real theory. A badge was missed from the group and dealer decided to make a group more complete. He found a badge from different Academy and removed the legend mechanically. After that he polished the area. 3. Could be some other explanation, but I beleive that original letters were removed from the badge. On General Mitrofanov's photo both badges could have a legend. But they are unvisible because of camera flash reflection, lack of light or low picture resolution. Take a look at Suvorov that is hanging near those badges. Do you see any letters? I do not. But it should be a legend ALEXANDER SUVOROV. Otherwise it is a new variation

Thanks for proposition, Dave! But we already made an agreement with Ed. Tomorrow I'll send him a picture. Andrew.

Rick was absolutely right - "it's a small world..." I bought this foto in Kiev about 4 years ago together with 6 or 7 other pictures of Soviet officers wearing Nevsky. I bought them from a dealer who had a lot of stuff from Kiev City Military Registration Office Archive (sorry, I don't know how to translate VOYENKOMAT in English). The rumors were around that he had a friend among the officers from this Archive and gave him a percent from his buisness. Anyway, I think that Dave war partially right. No real pictures could be taken out from Podolsk Central Military Archive. It's a law and they obey it. But probably you know that all pictures were made at least in 3 specimens. First specimen is in Podolsk Archive. Second one is in local "Voyenkomat" file were this officer was registred after retirement (in our case - in Kiev's Voyenkomat). That is much easier to get an access to those local files comparing with Podolsk (especially in Ukraine which is independent now). Were the third specimen goes I don't know. Probably to KGB arcives or somewhere else. I have a friend who is currently working in Magadan's Voyenkomat (Russia's Far North city). I can ask him how it works. Of course I can make a high-resolution scan of that picture. But I can only download the files that are less than 65 kb. Well, I can cut a fragment... But on the picture the badge is facing to the side. It's not exact frontal view. Also it's in a shadow. But I can try Ed asked if it would be on the market. If you are interested I can just trade it for similar picture of the other Nevsky or any 3rd class "polkovodets" cavalier.

Back of the foto.

Here is a somewhat better picture of this brave General.

There is only one minor problem with Epson scanners. Most of the models (including my one) give original pictures that somewhat darker than usual. But it's not a problem if you have Photoshop I really appreciate that Gerd Becker recommended me to visit this Club. This is a wonderful place and it's a real pleasure for me to be there. I have some more researched groups in my collection. If somebody interested, I can share them with others.

Well, it's mostly a question of a scanner quality. Some scanners doing amazing images of flat objects, but they unable to penetrate deeper. If the distance between scanner surface and object surface is more than 3 - 4 mm, then object surface is out of focus. Currently I'm using Epson Perfection 3590 Photo Scanner. I would not say it is excellent, but it is OK. I would give it 8 out of 10 in rating. When I lived in Kiev I used to have HP scanner that was best scaner for screwback orders ever. Even though its highest available resolution was only 1200 dpi (my present one can give 3400 dpi), the reverses even of early screwback GPW 2nd class (with unusually long screwposts) were pretty sharp and clear. When I came to US 3,5 years ago I tried to buy same model but it was out of the market already. I found only parts and repair kits I tried several models including Lexmark, HP and finally stoped with Epson.

RB reverse

RB obverse

RS reverse

RS obverse

Good evening, gentlemen. Thanks for your remarks about Kravtsov's long-service Red Banner. It is interesting that some differences are visible even from citations. On both citations, that I posted before, it says that he joined Red Army in 1938. But in his record card (on the very top) it says that he joined on January 1, 1939. If we count from 1938, then his first long-service MM medal was given exactly at right time - after 10 years. But the next one - Red Star - is already one year ahead the schedule. And third award - RB - is one year ahead of Red Star and two years ahead normal schedule. Unfortunately, at the moment I do not have any additional papers about that group. My friends who did this research send me the those few images by email. All actual papers I asked them to send at my mother's address in Kiev, Ukraine. I'll be there in June and pick them up. Maybe additional infomation from those papers would help to find the truth. But I beleive that is all because of total mess in military paperwork. I've seen similar situations before. Anyway, here are the final images - his triplet for long service.