Carol I

The number was quoted in an article in Colectionarul Roman no. 8 (if you read Romanian). With the same occasion 82 Soviet officers received the Order for the Defense of the Fatherland and the Order of the Star of the People's Republic of Romania in various classes. Not much. Most likely it was for some late awards that were made in the early years of the RSR. And if we step into the realm of gossip, I have also found an interesting note on the net that among these late awards there were some for veterans of the Eastern Front, but it's rather hard to believe it as any reference to the anti-soviet war in those years was a taboo (to put it frankly). On the other hand, it is quite plausible that some veterans of the Eastern Front received the medal (some even the earlier variant) simply because they also fought on the Western Front in 1944 and 1945. I wonder if the author of the note mentioned above did not mix things up.

The medal was also awarded to Soviets who fought alongside the Romanian Army in 1944-1945. And, most important, it was awarded to all the Soviets leaving Romania in 1958 (some sort of a farewell gift). No less than 35027 awards were made to them in the summer of that year.

Yes, it was awarded to all those who fought on the Western front.

Given the prominent position of the Order of the Redeemer I thought the officer to be Greek. I looked on the net for a confirmation and I have found the image below of King George II of Greece with the same embroidered pattern on the collar.

Given the red sash, I would say that it is a Grand Cross of the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph.

The order with blue and white ribbon is the Greek Order of the Redeemer. The one with red and white cross is the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.

I think the NCOs received the Military Merit Medal for long service.

I have seen one in a plastic case.

I can only give you what they were intended for: eroism, courage and initiative on the battlefield and distinguished services in wartime, as well as for strenghtening the armed forces in peacetime.

I've just remembered reading about this in an English-language magazine some time ago. I did a small search and found it: Brusilov's Immortal Days by Jamie H. Cockfield in MHQ Autumn 2001 Vol 14 No 1.

There are many works that have to be taken with a grain of salt, as they might be influenced by ideology, political agenda or even the personal need for a scapegoat. Chris' recollection reminded me about a physics teacher in a communist country who told how she chose this profession. Her parents have been history teachers in the first years of communism when history was taught according to the official ideology and when the importance of events was given according to the official ideology. And as this changed rather often the history has to be rewritten according to the new indications (well, "1984" had not been that far from the truth). Anyhow, she told that seeing them wondering night after night in what light to present a particular event or whether it would be safer not to mention it at all, she decided that she would choose a profession where the way of looking at thinks should not be influenced by ideology, hence she chose physics. And I just remembered another story about how sensitive were some things in those days, not only in history, but in geography as well. In the Black Sea there is a large rock called Serpents Island that had belonged for years to Romania. The peace treaties of 1947 that fixed the post-war borders of Romania did not make any reference to the rock and therefore it was still de jure Romanian territory. Anyhow, in 1948, the soviets forced the Romanian government to do further changes to the frontier which resulted in transfer of territory to the Soviet Union including the Serpents Island (as a note, the agreement had not been ratified by either country which undermines its validity even today). Anyhow, in those years when the pupils were taught the new frontiers of Romania (in those days they were being referred not as 'new', but as 'true') one teacher was asked who had possession of the Serpents Island. The teacher was quite embarrassed as attributing the island to Romania if it belonged to the soviets would have led to charges of revisionism and attributing the island to the soviets when it belonged to Romania would have led to charges of anti-sovietism (both with quite nasty results for the teacher). So the safe answer was: "as the name says, it belongs to the serpents". If the story is real I fear for the pupil as in those days even mentioning the name of the island created problems for the speaker. Anyhow, these indicate how things worked in those days. So do not be surprised when you read that the Soviets did not invade Poland or that Katyn was an all-German thing (perpetration and subsequent cover-up). According to the official directions, this was the truth. Maintaining the contrary would have brought the author to tough circumstances, times and places.

I am again intervening into the discussion with my own perspective which I hope would go across the national or geographical interests. In my opinion the events that are most likely to be researched and re-searched are primarily the meat grinders at specific places that have left a deep mark into the minds of the public through their losses (e.g., Somme, Verdun, Stalingrad). Inevitably these are rather static. On a second place would come those events with a large impact or significance such as particular actions or offensives, successful or not. These may be localised but not necessarily. Other than these the interest decreases very quickly, especially with the passing of time.

Chris, try to contact the guys that wrote the articles on the site below for permission to use (parts of) their text for your project. Romania in WWI

I thought you meant interest in a broad sense, not limited to Britain and US. Then I agree that there is virtually no public interest in battles that had other actors. Only the specialists or the enthusiasts would venture into the 'uncharted territories'. And this is valid the other way as well. You would be surprised (or maybe not) that interest in the Western front among nations in the East is as little or even less than that of Western nations in battles in the East. Western nations did fight in the East, even if not on the same scale as in the West. The most important contribution (in Romania at least) was the French military mission led by Gen. Berthelot, but I have also found reports of Brits taking part in the fights. I wonder how much is genuine interest and how much is publicity-driven interest. If one is continuously bombarded with books and articles on a particular topic, then the chances of stumbling upon something else decrease to ... nil.

I beg to disagree, Rick. As I said before, in my opinion it is the post-WWII attitude towards WWI that led to a decrease in the interest for the events of the Eastern Front. And this worsened as time took its toll from among the WWI veterans. I cannot speak for other countries, but this is not true with respect to Romania. After WWI there were many cemeteries established and maintained in Romania for the soldiers of many nationalities fallen in WWI. You can take a look on ONCE for a list (though still incomplete). Kevin had also posted images from the smaller cemeteries in Transylvania. With respect to battlefield tourism, a major problem in the interwar period, if not the most important, was the affluence of the veterans. Many soldiers that fought on the Eastern Front were peasants who could not afford, both in terms of money and time, a trip to the old battlefields. But ceremonies were organised regularly by the authorities.

This was indeed the case of Gustav Smekal. Apparently he was awarded the Commander's cross of the Swedish Order of the Sword in 1906. He was still listed as a colonel in 1911, but in 1912 he appears as a major general.

GTO was a general public physical education program and its name translates into "Ready for Labour and Defence". The name gives away its ambitions: to have the general population in a good physical state, both for work and for defense. It originated in the Soviet Union, but exported after WWII to the communist countries. See on Wikipedia some information on the Russian GTO.

I admit that the interest is not as large as for the Western Front of WWI, but I wouldn't say that no one is interested in the Eastern Front. There is definitely interest among people whose countries were involved in the conflict. In Romania for example names like Mărăşti, Mărăşeşti or Oituz ring a bell for many in relation to WWI. But there are some aspects that made the battles in the East not as advertised as the ones in the West. The most important I would guess is the fact that the countries there were communist for many decades and according to the official ideology WWI was "only an Imperialist thingy not worth discussing. The only thing worth mentioning was the great, the only, God's gift to peasants and workers (oops, no God in atheism), the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 when everything started. Before it there was nothing." Another aspect is that both parts for some of the battles in the East ended up in the camp of the vanquished. Czarist Russia succumbed, the Bolsheviks sued for peace to the Central Powers who were in turn defeated in the end of WWI.

They were used well into the 1990s if I remember well.

I think they had specific badges, but as awards I presume they could have received the national orders and medals.

National militia, Rick.

Thanks Kevin for the details of this unknown (at least for me) episode of WWI.

Thanks Kevin. Was this written on the monument or you have the details from another source? Anyhow, there are no major contradictions between the different sources available as they all mention that the ship suffered an accident at landing. I wonder whether the ship bombed Romania or Serbia. There are reports of Zeppelins bombing Bucharest in WWI, but if I remember correctly, they used to come from Bulgaria.

RPR=Republica Populară Rom?nă (Romanian People's Republic) (1947-1965) RSR=Republica Socialistă Rom?nia (Socialist Republic of Romania) (1965-1989) In 1965 with Ceauşescu's accession to power, the state changed its official name.

Apparently I did not read very carefully, but it's the LZ56/LZ86 above. While searching on the net I have found a site where it was said that the crew of the front gondola suffered a fatal accident.