Mondvor

Hi Ed, Yep, I have several additions concerning his service (about those PAPs and other things). I'll do it this evening after I'll be back home from my job.

Excellent group, thanks for sharing!

Excellent research! Just small addition. The Tank Army Commander's name is Kravchenko and Chief Comissar's name is Tumanyan (Armenian by nationality).

Later picture of my grandfather (taken prior to his retirement from the Army in 1960th).

This is a group picture of his class in the 1st Kiev Artillery School. My grandfather is standing on the very right side in the second row from the top.

Today is a weekend (finally ), so I've had some free time to make a scans from my other grandpa's old pictures. This one shows him together with his friend. He is wearing cadet uniform of 1st Kiev Artillery School. Dated October 1946.

But in your case there were no numbers of documents indicated in the award card. It only said that "confirmed by the human resources office of the COBГ" at September 13, 1947. CОВГ means Soviet Occupational Troops in Germany. So they found in arcives his citations and numbers of decrees, but awards were not given to him. So they sent both Red Stare and Bravery to his homeplace and awards were given to him the same day in the Local Military Office. At the same day award card was filled out and sent back to the Central Military Archive in Podolsk. Both Red Star and Bravery have high numbers that correspond to the 1947-48.

In case if the person already exchanged his temporary certificates for the permanent order book it would be the same orderbook number for all of his awards listed in the award card. Here is an example.

If he received any of his two awards prior to April 1948, then the numbers of the documents should be indicated in the award card. The medal could not be bestowed without a document. It should be either "temporary certificate" or "order book". They both have serial numbers and those numbers should be reflected in the award card. Here is an example. You can see that temporary certificate's numbers are indicated in award card.

Hello Ferdinand, Here is a translation for the award card AWARD CARD Last name: Golovach First name and patronymic: Nikolay Yakovlevich Military rank: Private Sex: Male Year of birth: 1925 Place of birth: Golovachi village, Belopolsk subregion, Sumi region Party membership: non-member Education: Elementary school Nationality: Ukrainian In Red Army: from September 1943 till March 15, 1946 Position and unit at the time of award event: 131st Guards Mortar Regiment of the 35th Guards Independent Mortar Brigade, operator Position and occupation at the present time: Belopolye Railway station, conductor Home address: Sumi Region, Belopolsk Subregion, Gorobivsk Rural District, village Golovachi About the citation - you are almost right. But this is not a citation, this is a Decree (final approved decision). Firstly platoon commander signed a citation, then it was approved by battery commander and finally approved by regimental commander. No other higher commanders should sign for Bravery and Military merit medals. Regimental commander was able to award with those two medals by himself. So this is his Decree of the Regimental Commander to award the soldiers who displayed bravery and courage during the battle near the town of Fogelzang. It is also might be interesting that he got both his awards (physically received them) at the same time in April 1948. Before that he was awarded, but Red Star and Bravery were not bestowed upon him.

Thanks for visiting it, gentlemen. Besides "Friendship of Nations" and "Service to Motherland in Armed Forces" one more page was completed - the page about HSU and "Gold Star" medal. I hope you will enjoy it. And many thanks to James Zammit who helped me a lot with the translation.

Color of the enamel is very problematic issue on the scans. In real order of course you will see the difference. But when you scan order or make a pictures with a digital camera, the color of enamel depends on the light intensity that comes from scanner or camera flash, the angle at which light falls to the surface of the enamel and other issues. Even enamel of the same order will look different under the different light conditions

And here is a comparison of two medallions of Nahimov order. Check the shape of the leaves under the portrait, shape of the ears and other small details.

Actually it is questionable if we can find any "style" in this digit 7. It is just two straight lines connected together. Every person who will practice with shtihel (the instrument used to engrave the numbers on the orders and medals, not sure about translation, but in Russian it called "штихель") for 30 min would be able to create this "style". However, in some cases you can clearly see unique style of one person who was numbering medals. You can actually see his handwriting pattern. I want to illustrate it with examples. Just check the shape of digit 2 on those numbers. This is what I call a style. And in this case it is almost impossible to fake.

The official position for Kovalev in 1941 - 1944 was "Chief of the Central Department of Military Communications" (Начальник Центрального управления военных сообщений). Of course he was mostly in charge of railroad transportation, because it was a key issue for the mobility and turnover of Soviet troops. About Kaganovich and Gulag... Well, just want to show you a picture taken in mid 1930th. A group of NKVD officers and support technical personnel on the inspection trip looking for a good location to built a new Gulag prisoners camp.

Actually, Kovalev became the Minister of Railroad transportation only at the end of 1944. He replaced on this position one of closest Stalin's friends and supporters - Lazar Kaganovich. During the war Kovalev was Kaganovich's deputy. When the war was over, Kovalev was in charge of restoration of the railroad system in Soviet Union.

Just want to add that during the GPW Soviet long-range aviation was represented with bombers Il-4, DB-3 and Er-2. However, all of them were two-engine airplanes. The only plane in Soviet Air Force with 4 engines, that could be compared to American B-17, was Pe-8. It was excellent plane. Unfortunately, less than 80 of them were produced. Pe-8 participated in night raids on Berlin and other German cities in 1941. Considerable part of them was lost because of AAA fire and enemy fighter attacks.

Translation for Military Merit. Comrade Kozmenkov arrived to the newly formed 328th Long Range Aviation Regiment at the end of May 1944, after being graduated from Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. During his service within the regiment he displayed himself as disciplined and diligent officer with strong organizing skills. After a new technical personnel consisted of sergeants and officers arrived to the regiment, comrade Kozmenkov organized for them special training courses about maintenance of new planes Er-2. He has a good level of knowledge about service procedures for the planes equipped with engines M-82, M-105, M-88b and ACh-30b, and he always shares this knowledge with people working under his command. Well behaved and polite officer. Morally strong and dedicated to the Communist Party of Lenin and Stalin. Deserves the state award medal ?For Military Merit?. Chief of Staff of 328th Long Range Air Regiment Lt. Colonel Mihajlov. August 4, 1944 Commander of 7th Guards Long Range ?Sevastopol? Air Division Guards Colonel Shirokij August 4, 1944

Here is a translation for Bravery medal. During the force crossing of river Pregel on April 8, 1945, despite heavy machine-gun and mortar enemy fire, the truck driver Avladoshvili uninterruptedly delivered pontoon equipment to the place of the new bridge construction. Due to his actions, the bridge was completed on time as it was ordered by high command, so the artillery units and the ammunition of advancing Red Army troops were able to cross the river. For excellent on-time delivery of pontoon equipment and displayed bravery and courage Private Avladoshvili deserves state award Bravery Medal. Commander of 82nd Independent Light Crossing Park Captain Voskresensky. April 10, 1945.

Hello Ostfront, Can you post the award cards (both sides) and full (not cut) version of citation? I would be happy to provide you a complete translation fot both Bravery and MM medals.

Rick, this is an excellent group! My congratulations. Actually, "Jr. Lieutenant of State Security" was not the same as a regular Jr. Lieutenant. It corresponded to Sr. Lieutenant in regular troops, so he was wearing three squares, not one. BTW, the rank of "Sergeant of State Security" was an officer's rank as well and corrsponded to Lieutenant in regular troops.

Jim, of course the order converted by recipient to match current statute and regulations is more original, than the one re-converted by a dealer. More changes you make to the order, more damage you bring to it. So it is better not to change anything. It is just my opinion, maybe other people have different point of view.

Well, about new Shishkov book I would not be that excited. Of course book is OK, but it does not have any serious information that was not published before in other sources. Also it has significant amount of pictures taken from PMD Red Bible (I hope Shishkov got Paul's permission to do that). Many pictures for this book were also taken from our "mondvor" website. So it all depends on the price. I think that 100 USD for both volumes is normal price (50 USD for each volume). If the price would be higher, well... it's up to you wether or not to spend that amount of money.

And finally, the conversion with the similar penetrating hole on the upper part of the order, but it has a threading inside. So some sort of screw with a loop on the top just twisted in this hole. I believe that this type provided pretty strong and reliable connection between the order and the ring. Those are a very basic types of conversion. Of course more of them exist. You can add your examples of conversions.