Ferdinand

I simply love this group, I think it is the most beautiful group shown on this forum. It's much more than a bunch of awards, it's almost the entire life of a man. Take good care of it Ed. :beer:

He later also became a Hero of the MPR.

Who did that research? AM can't research without the Award Record Card and GK only makes xerox copies (and doesn't come up with much research these days). Is there a third researcher? :unsure:

I think that's our guy - HSU, 2 Lenins, 2 Red Banners, Red Banner of Labor, Badge of Honor, Friendship of Peoples, exactly what we can see on the picture. He must have left his screwbacks at home to save his suit. :beer:

The red two-volume HSU book doesn't have a Livenkov, but that book only covers HSU's up to around 1985, so Livenkov could be awarded the title between 1985 en 1991 (which means the picture was taken in this period too).

Yes, that's what these are selling for. I've been watching the Lenins on eBay and in the last four months at least four Lenins were sold there: S/N 1118XX - 3,000 USD S/N 1651XX - 2,800 USD S/N 1968XX - 3,000 USD S/N 4277XX - 3,200 USD

Aaahhhh... Two minutes too late... Congrats Marc ;)

I can't find it... Can you post a direct link?

Red Star #1131161, Decree of 3 Nov 1944 Red Star #1511110, Order of 2nd Far Eastern Front of 12 Sep 1945 Red Banner #257943, Decree of 5 Nov 1946 Victory over Germany Medal, Decree of 9 May 1945 Victory over Japan Medal, Decree of 30 Sep 1945 30 Years Soviet Army and Fleet Medal Order of Lenin #195093, Decree of 19 Nov 1951

Just a small addition - the Major General in post #31 isn't 'Fedyunskii' but the well-known Fedyuninsky, who became an Army General in 1955.

And it's back...

Very nice! Can we see the entire photo?

The first badge is for a veteran of the 13th Kiev Red Banner Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class Artillery Division. And, apparently, it was also awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd Class. The second badge is for a veteran of the 115th Red Banner Kholm Rifle Division. The red line represents the route the division travelled during the war. All the major city's and locations are written on the back of the badge. The division started near Moscow and ended the war at Hela (Khel).

And it's back on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=200241199568

Concerning the Friendship of Peoples, here's mine - it seems to have better detail than yours. (Sorry for the piece of thread on the scan.)

I don't like them either, but it could be the lighting and cropping... Could you post a close-up of the centers? Yes, someday they will be moving on, but as long as I live they are my property. I am not the "custodian", I am the owner, just as I am the owner of my house and my car. I think you are looking too much into this; these awards are just pieces of metal, physical reminders of an awarding that took place a long time ago. We are the owners of these awards, just as their recipients once were.

Considering the low serial number I think this is a fair price nowadays.

Yep, nasty indeed. I don't think they claim they own every Soviet award... They just prohibited the buying and selling of them (in the Federation). If you have a document or Ukaz or whatever that proofs otherwise, please show it to us. I've read that in June 2002 it became forbidden to produce any more replica Soviet awards and Umalatova awards. And yet there are several Umalatova awards from after this date. On another forum, Alexei Merezhko wrote: "Here's THE most interesting part - none of the Soviet awards issued by Umalatova, were made at the mint or purchased from Gohran. Each one of them was special ordered at the same factory, that produces those fantasy medals, and Umalatova charges the recipients 20 Roubles - 250 USD "to offset production costs". Ironicaly this was one of the factors that got her in trouble with the law - she was accused of "collaborating with fake producers". HSL and HSU stars were described as made of "Samovar gold" (something that shines, but is not gold) and "cheap gold alloy". Order of Lenin was described as "cheap jewlery". At the same time I have seen an original mint production Red Star with very high serial number and Umalatova issue document, but apparently this number was just entered by somebody in the blanc Umalatova card."

It's the upper right one. Here's a close up:

You'd think the researcher would have looked twice at the serial number in question before making the xerox copies and mailing it to you. Furthermore, I recall Dave posting something about the order in which the researcher gets to the Award Record Card and citation. Wasn't it that the researcher first looks for the Prikaz (with the name and s/n) and then for the Award Record Card (also with the name and s/n), or something like that? That way it's not possible you have the wrong research. Perhaps you could contact Dave or Gregory? Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It simply doesn't make sense that BOTH serial numbers (and the citations) are the wrong ones. I've had this too in the past. I was convinced that the s/n on the Award Record Card didn't match the s/n on my medal, but other research documents (a list of bestowing dates of awards, including s/n's and names) proved that the research was correct nevertheless.

Yes, I guess these are covered in Paul Schmitt's book: http://home.netcom.com/%7Emerezhko/veteran_badges.html The second badge reads 'Glory to the Soviet Tankists' and along the edge '9th Mechanized Kiev-Zhitomir Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army'.

Here's a pic of all the orders (and some Bravery Medals):

Here are mine. Two OPW1 T2's, six OPW1 T3's, eight OPW2 T2's, seven OPW2 T3's and one Umalatova OPW2.

A dirty Glory 3rd in horrible condition (S/N 727554) sold for 311,99 AUD (191,96 EUR) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=130237417772

'Kavaler' (Cavalier / Knight) is simply the Russian word for recipient / awardee.