Ferdinand

Sorry Christophe, but exactly how does your post help me? Anyway, thanks for your reply. The picture must have been taken between 01-06-1945 and 20-06-1949. Of his other foreign awards I have already identified the Legion of Merit, Order of the Bath, Legion d'Honneur, Virtuti Militari and Grunwald Cross.

Gentlemen, I'm trying to identify all Zhukovs awards seen on this beautiful picture. The Soviets are no problem, but I'm having difficulties with the foreign ones (including his Mongolian ones). Are the two awards left from his Lenins Orders of the Red Banner of Military Valor?

To be honest I expected that too - why only one person who conducts the research for all of us? He must be a busy man...

Bob, So did I, two days ago.

Very nice pics, thank you! And you can always upload larger pics at sites like www.imageshack.us , what is not allowed at the other forum.

Today I received a very extensive reply from our researcher. I asked for everything he could find. The research would take about two - three months. I can't wait...

I did a little testing with my scanner with a couple of OPW's and some sort of velvet as background:

And there's of course a difference between production date and issue date...

Thank you for your enthousiastic reply Doc. I have taken the first step and contacted the researcher. I can't wait for the results... Perhaps a mod can move this topic to the 'Research' Forum?

As research is a totally new world for me, I have a lot of questions. There is only one fellow who interfaces with the Archives? If I want to contact him, I can contact one of you for his name and contact details? Then the researcher knows what to do, he goes to the Archives and copies the Award Card en Citation for me? And I assume he wants something for his services too? Thanks, Auke

I LOVE that sticky Must have overlooked it. Research is a totally new (and expensive) world for me, but I will reconsider it. Here he is:

A small question - who can give me an approximate production date for a Red Banner serialled 223004? Thanks. Auke

I noticed that too. Here's another veteran, not a cavalier but a nice picture (sorry, a little bit off-topic). A 20th Anniversary of Victory Medal with a kolodka of the 70th Anniversary of the Armed Forces turned upside down, a Victory over Germany with a 30th Anniversary of Victory ribbon, his 1985 OPW 1 is on the left instead of right, and a 70th Anniversary of Armed Forces with a wrong ribbon.

I discovered another one on my PC, must have found it somewhere on the internet. May 2005 60th Anniversary of Victory commemorations. Auke

You're absolutely right Gerd, my mistake. Of course it's no Flatback I can see your points about showing S/N's. So, for the interested ones, close-ups of the two S/N's. (When were they produced?) 44030 296650

Yes, I noticed that many people over here just show their S/N's. However I don't want my awards to be traced down by others. That way there can't be a 'Sotheby's effect'. But I never paid that much attention to the case of hiding / showing S/N's, I'm just used to doing this. Perhaps a nice subject for a discussion...

Two new OPW 2's in my collection, for a very decent price: S/N 440XX, 'Starback', Krasnokamsk Mint, T2 V1.3. Who can tell me when this one was produced? S/N 2966XX, 'Flatback', Krasnokamsk Mint, T2 V6.1. Who can tell me when this one was produced?

http://www.authentications.info is at the bottom of the doc.

Just an addition: two late picture of Marshal of Air Forces Ivan Ivanovich Pstygo. All 8 Red Banners are visible as ribbons.

Excellent! Very informative! Looking forward to your book...

A little bit late, but... Great article!

That's exactly the reason why I posted this question. Many of us have got huge collections, but somehow these awards must have been shipped out of Russia / the Soviet Union. And Dave tells this has always been illegal, so I'm surprised you're answering 'no'. In a Dutch WWII Forum I'm currently having a discussion with a collector who only buys his awards from friends and collectors he really trusts. He doesn't want to buy illegal stuff. Also, he always erases his serial numbers when he posts his awards on the internet. I'm finding it difficult to form my own opinion.

I have been told that it's currently illegal to sell or buy Soviet awards in Russia or the Ukraine. It seems that this law was instituted in the 90's because veterans were being robbed of their medals. Is this true? If so, did anyone of you have any trouble with this law?

We discussed this one over at the other Soviet Forum... http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6492

Thanks Gerd. It's one of the last batch of OPW's before the 1985 version was instituted. Auke