JimZ

1. Where am I located (city) ? - KALININGRAD 2. What happened to me when I was first vandalised, and when ? 5 May 2009 - Remember the victims of Red Terror in black paint 3. What happened again to me for the second vandalisation, and when ? 6 November 2009 - Spattered with Orange paint 4. Who is now assuming my protection ? Erm... the State?

Unless of course...its the statue of Lenin in kaliningrad...... KALININGRAD, November 6 (RIA Novosti) - A monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin has been daubed with orange paint in the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, a spokesman for the city's administration told RIA Novosti on Friday. "It [the act of vandalism] was discovered this morning. Police are already investigating it," the official said. He said three teams of street cleaners were immediately called to remove the paint from the monument. It took them several hours and more than 60 liters of acetone and other solvents to clean the statue. The local administration put the cost of cleaning up the damage at 20,000 rubles ($700). The local Communist Party branch said the statue was damaged to prevent them from holding a rally to mark the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7. This is the second time this year the statue in Kaliningrad has been defaced. On May 5 the monument was splattered with black paint. The vandals, who have not been found, wrote "Remember the victims of the Red Terror" near the statue." Jim :cheers:

Christophe....I'll pm you my mail and you can e-mail the pic....I'll post it for you... Jim :cheers:

Hi Owain, Thanks for your reply. It does throw some additional light, not only on this ribbon bar but also on the Libyan award system. Perhaps with the new revolution, libyan awards will become available freely on the market and it will be interesting to learn more about them (although I doubt I will actually get involved in collecting these!) Yet I still remain curious as to the content of the Colonel's bar and hope that we can eventually number and label them all. Jim :cheers:

Well done Christophe!!! One point awarded for the reply - after all it only took you 10 minutes I was stumped. Clueless and did not know which direction to search. I also kept thinking Russian Cinema but do not know much about that. So I am glad Christophe came to our rescue!!!! Christophe, you moved up by two places and the next correct reply should get you in 4th place...unless Valter scores first. The score now stands as follows: 14 points - JimZ 12 points - Harvey 9 points - Hauptmann 3 points - Valter 3 points - Christophe 2 points - kapten_windu 2 points - Gunner 1 Question 45 belongs to Chrisophe!!! Well done once again to both Hauptmann for the question and Christophe on the last one!

I think that you'll get two points deducted for slowing the quiz down instead We're going to kick ourselves in the backside when someone finds the answer!!! And I still like think its a film director! Keep looking guys! Jim :cheers:

Slava - could you confirm the name of the badge. The inscription at the back reads (IMHO) "For excellent shooting" Could we infer that this might be awarded for marksmanship as well as training of the gun crew perhaps? Its the first time I've seen one of these (and I love it!!!) Thanks, Jim :cheers

I am not familar with the word "__??__"- It reads "plutong." Neither am I familiar with the abreviation at the end. WIsh I could help more there. I also have little doubts that this was a personal award to A.A. Grigoriev in 1932. Jim :cheers:

Looks like we're stuck on this one and the clues are of no help to me. As a wild guess and perhaps to get things moving - are we perhaps talking of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein - those seem like exerpts from some film or other but I am hardly well acquainted with Soviet film or theatre to attempt anything other than a wild guess!! If not the right answer (and I am sure it is not!!) please narrow the question down. Jim :cheers:

Another link: http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?149739

Well done Jeff - that's a badge I would love to own and find out more about! Jim :cheers:

And just in case one is not bothered to click on the link here's a pic - although its entitled "Kraznaya Ukraina".

Very interesting.....some info from a quick search...... Chervona Ukraina (Ukrainian: "Червона Україна" — "Red Ukraine") was a Svetlana-class light cruiser of the Soviet Navy assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. During World War II she supported Soviet forces during the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol before being sunk at Sevastopol on 12 November 1941 by German aircraft. She was raised in 1947 and was used as a training hulk before becoming a target ship in 1950. Chervona Ukraina displaced 8,400 long tons (8,500 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 163.2 metres (535 ft 5 in), a beam of 15.7 metres (51 ft 6 in) and a mean draught of about 5.6 metres (18 ft 4 in). She was powered by four Curtiss-AEG steam turbines, each driving one shaft, which developed a total of 55,000 shaft horsepower (41,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph). The engines were powered by 14 Yarrow water-tube boilers. Four were coal-fired while the rest were mixed-firing. The ship carried a maximum of 540 long tons (550 t) of coal and an additional 690 long tons (700 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate in the mixed-firing boilers. At full capacity, she could steam for 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). Chervona Ukraina was designed to carry about 630 officers and men. The ship's main armament consisted of fifteen 55-calibre 130 mm (5.1 in)/55 B7 Pattern 1913 in single mounts. Six of these were mounted in casemates. Her anti-aircraft armament consisted of four 64-millimetre (2.5 in) guns. Chervona Ukraina also mounted twelve above-water 457-millimetre (18.0 in) torpedo tubes in triple swivelling mounts. Chervona Ukraina's waterline belt consisted of 76 millimetres (3.0 in) of Krupp cemented armour and above it was an upper belt 25 millimetres (0.98 in) thick. The gun shields were protected by 25 millimetres (0.98 in) of armour. Each of the armoured decks was 20 millimetres (0.79 in) thick. The armour of the conning tower was 76 millimetres (3.0 in) thick. She was laid down on 3 October 1913 as Admiral Nakhimov after Pavel Nakhimov and launched on 6 November 1915. Construction was abandoned in 1917 during the October Revolution when the ship was about 80% complete. In the second half of 1918, the Marine Department of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi restarted construction of the ship. On 25 January 1919, the ship was formally renamed "Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky", but Nikolayev was captured shortly afterward by the Entente. At the start of the Russian Civil War, the ship was run aground at the fitting dock in Nikolayev by the shipyard workers to hinder the evacuation by the Whites in 1919. The ship was raised by the Soviets in 1920 pending a decision on her disposition. The ship was renamed to Chervona Ukraina on 7 December 1922. It was decided to finish her in 1923 and the job was completed in 1927 to nearly the original design. She was modified to handle aircraft by adding cranes on either side of the middle funnel and a parking area was built for them between the central and rear funnels, although no catapult was ever fitted. The original internal torpedo tubes were replaced by four triple 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes mounted on the deck abaft the rear funnel. Chervona Ukraina made a number of port visits to Turkey, Greece and Italy before World War II. She was extensively overhauled between 26 August 1939 and 1 May 1941 where her aircraft equipment was removed and she was fitted with new fire control equipment. The ship was given three Italian Minizini twin-gun 50 caliber 100 mm (3.9 in) anti-aircraft mounts, one was placed on the forecastle, in front of the forward 130 mm (5.1 in)/55 B7 Pattern 1913 gun and the other two on each side of the quarterdeck. One torpedo tube mount was removed from each side and four single mounts for the semi-automatic 45 mm (1.8 in) 21-K gun were fitted as well as seven 12.7 mm (0.50 in) AA machine guns. Chervona Ukraina, in company with the cruisers Krasny Kavkaz, Komintern and a number of destroyers, laid down a defensive mine barrage protecting the Black Sea Fleet base at Sevastopol on 22 June.She provided gunfire support to Soviet forces during the Siege of Odessa and escorted convoys bringing the 157th Rifle Division into Odessa during the month of September 1941. She escorted convoys from Odessa to Sevastopol in October when the evacuation of Odessa was ordered. During the Siege of Sevastopol Chervona Ukraina provided gunfire support and evacuated cut-off troops from elsewhere in the Crimea into Sevastopol and brought in reinforcements from Caucasian ports. She was hit three times in the South Bay of Sevastopol by bombs from German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers from II./StG 77 on 12 November 1941, but didn't sink until the next day after her crew was ordered to abandon her. Her guns were salvaged and most of the guns and crew were incorporated into the port's defenses, although two of her twin Minizini turrets were added to Krasny Kavkaz. She was raised on 3 November 1947, repaired, and used as a training hulk until 30 October 1950 when she became a target ship. On 10 May 1952, Chervona Ukraina was grounded on a spit to serve as a fixed target by 1980 there was nothing left of the ship above the surface. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chervona_Ukraina

I'd translate the Reverse as _??__ Commander Cruiser "Chervona Ukraina" Comrade Grigorev A.A. For excellent shooting 04/08/32

Not famailiar with this but it reads "For Excellent Training"

TIme for daily clues Dan. The question remains way too wide and no attempts are being made at replying to it. Jim :cheers:

Hi Dan, I think you need to give a few more hints as I for one have no idea where to start searching. "He gained a daughter" echoes somewhere in my head but is not ringing any bells.....and yet I think I might know this one. Jim :cheers:

I personally drew the line at collecting Soviet. The Russian Federation military and its awards do not appeal to me. Firstly - Design. No offence meant, but I do not like the look of Russian Federation ODMs which in may cases are of inferior quality to the good old soviet stuff... late soviet awards were already not of the best quality and I do not think that the Federation has done much to improve the beauty of its awards. Secondly - Relative importance. Russia is not the USSR and it does not have the muscle that it once did. I'll probably become a persona non grata in Russia now... but although Russia played a significant part in the world history in the 20th Century, through its participation in the GPW and in the cold war, it has since lost its relative importance in the world - still a superpower of course, pas la meme chose! Yes, Irish Gunner is right - war will raise the desirability of awards, because it creates combat awards. I do not care for a long service medal. But I do care for a bravery award. I believe there are more service awards being given out rather than valour awards. Thirdly - Supply and Demand. I hardly doubt that there is as much supply of Russian Federation awards as there was for original soviet awards in the 1990s early 2000s. Remember that these went cheap and they were almost always original. 20 years down the road, even the more complex awards are sometimes well faked. Let alone inferior quality Russian Awards. I am not talking about higher end orders which, lets face it are not really on the market. Then you also have to navigate between official and non-official. Hauptmann mentions the several unofficial veteran's awards - typical of the soviet system to award anniversary or veteran awards - but not official and not really desirable. So even if one does weed these out and succeed in collecting official medals only, can one be sure that they are original. Fourth - Which brings me to my final point: availibility of literature. I am not well informed here but I get the feeling that there is still insufficient literature to help would be collectors. Soviet collectors were, at the time, armed with the Red Bible (now rendered partially obsolete by modern publications). And that was all we needed at the time!! Frank, the time to collect Russian Federation awards will come. Possibly, when it becomes appealing to the masses, those who have taken an early interest will find themselves at the forefront of the hobby. But not until that big war comes, or sufficient years go by to allow recently awarded ODMs to find themselves on the market in abundant quantities. And when they do, just pray to God that the dealers do not manage to fudge it up as they did with Soviet awards!! Jim

Hi Mervyn, This incident was a rather interesting one and I was not aware of it. Please do join in whenever you want to. If its a hassle to reply to questions, do know that there are situations when questions get passed on. I like to leave them open for grabs to get as many new participants on board and to keep the quiz going. So wheneve a question is up for grabs, you are more than welcome! Following Mervyn's question, the score now stands as follows: 14 points - JimZ 12 points - Harvey 9 points - Hauptmann 3 points - Valter 2 point - kapten_windu 2 point - Gunner 1 2 point - Christophe Question 44 belongs to Hauptmann!!! Herr Hauptmann...if you please....

Hi Mervyn....welcome to the Quiz!! I'd be surprised if you did not have a wealth of questions to ask so do feel free to join in the fun....and thanks for asking this one. We'll wait for you to confirm Dan's reply Jim :cheers:

No worries Harvey. I'll probably have to do the same in a few weeks time as work is piling up and I am heading into deadline period! If you can just sit out the next question. In the meantime, the floor is open to any member who wants to ask the next question..... If nobody does, I will come up with something myself...... Jim :cheers:

What a difference to simply stamping or engraving a name or number!! Could you give us more about the history of this medal. Thanks Jim :cheers:

Hi Harvey, Is there any chance that you will manage to ask the next question some time today ot tomorrow? Just keeping things going... Regards, Jim

The score now stands as follows: 14 points - JimZ 12 points - Harvey 8 points - Hauptmann 3 points - Valter 2 point - kapten_windu 2 point - Gunner 1 2 point - Christophe Question 43 belongs to Harvey!!! Jim