Sergei

Another collector was forced into learning Russian When you look at a page from the document I suggest you print not just that page but also the next one, and also the very first pages from the file which should give details of whoever compiled the doc, the unit etc. Exciting stuff! Sergei

First go to podvignaroda site and enter the name of the recepient in the database.See what happens. Do you speak Russian? Sergei

Just to elaborate on the very last bit in Rick's narrative: he (the Sergeant) took a prisoner and delivered him to his regiment. He was originally recommended for a Red Banner. Sergei

Rick, I bet you are, perhaps in the language that has been been with you since your childhood. I am trying to be helpful as much as I can, I know that I am not being very systematic but the research seems to be coming in faster than I can read it! Where on Earth are the other Russian native speakers!? Sergei

To try and get his education record sorted out, he had 7 years in a 'primary' school which he must have completed by the age of 14. Then he did a so-called Школа фабрично-заводского ученичества, or ФЗУ, that is an establishment that gives a 14-18 year old a profession and simultaneously a secondary education (the emphasis, of course, being on the technical skills). Sergei

Ed, I take it 'выступление' has been has been sorted out - the same word, incidentally, is used by the theatre goes, as in 'выступление в театре' i.e a theatre pefomance. The second missing word is 'проявленные', that is 'revealed' or 'shown'. Sergei PS Sorry for being careless here, the second part of the sentence should then read "... boldness and resolution shown (revealed) in fufullment of ..."

First, without knowing proper terminology: Sep 1943 to Oct 1945 - Inspector of 'political department of Corps?' (the original is 'polit-otdel korpusa') - 107th Rifle Corps, 4th Ukrainian Front Second, I believe these two entries should be read together (quite commonly they used to show start and end dates for a job/post): Oct 1945 - Secretary - 501st Artillery Brigade Jan 1946 - Party ? - 318th Guards Rifle Division, city of Mukachevo Then it becomes Secretary of the Party Commission of 318th Guards Rifle Division, 501st Artillery Brigade, City of Mukachevo Party Commission is different from Party Committee, by the way. Makes sense? Sergei

There's a bit in the cigarette case inscription that's gone missing in translation. I think Ташкент. Ср-Аз ж.д. stands for the Tashkent Middle-Asia railroad (railways). The DTO is probably an abbreviation for Department of Roads and Transportation, the ODTO I have never heard about but my guess would be 'Special Department of Roads and Transportation'. How and why the two departments were working together for 5 years (which this case seems to be celebrating) is beyond me. Sergei

William, I do appreciate what you said, in my (admittedly tiny by comparison) collection I have medals that have been researched to heroic accomplishments and I also have medals that will never become researchable (like a Soviet Combat Service medal wth a s/n under 6000, i.e. from the 1939 era). But the prized item in my collection is the unnumbered Combat Service Medal, a long-cervice award (15 years), technically a piece of scrap silver, except it was given to my father. See what I mean? Sergei

Christian, The Soviet system has never been so mechanical. For example, your assumption that an Army officer would go through the standard 10-15-20 years medal award scheme is not true. Sergei

Just a thought - could we have everything to do with this auction in a separate thread? I think this has been a sufficiently important developement for collectors to merit an independent line of thinking. I have to say, I was appalled by this auction. It seems to me that the people of Mongolia have been sold short (once again!). I just could not believe it when I saw the prices for the items sold from national reserves. No national banker should be allowed to do things like that!!! I do hope that it was a part of a business transaction with "the Northern Businessmen" coming soon to do something good for the benefit of the people of Mongolia. Apologies for too much emotion on the 'Gentlemen's Forum'. Sergei

Hi Alfred, Although not immediately relevant to this award, I am going to email to you a couple of photos from the present-day Kirovograd (it's in the chain Kremenchug-Aleksandriya-Kirovgrad your hero went through and it just happens to be the town I grew up in). Feel free to treat it just as a curiosity. Sergei

Yeah, the writing is quite unpleasant. I could not figure out the name of the village nor the region in the Smolensk district he was born. Nothing of the sort exists in the modern Smolensk area so it'll be an effort. But I agree with the PUN interpretation. The modern version of PUN is 'punkt upravlenija navigatsiej' or 'navigation control center' which is really a device on the airplane (in some cases at least). There is also an organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists with the same abbreviation but that's irrelevant (I hope). Sergei

Ed, I wish I were more coherent, but as I said, the sun (erhmm, the pint?) is beckoning! If there's anything you'd like tidied up, just ask - only a few hours later, please. Sergei

Yeah, this forum! Since there seems to be no active input on previous posts, I will just carry on talking to myself, clearing up in the process some misunderstanding with regard to a particular term in a citation. I admit, I should have done that sooner but the relevant volume was buried deep in a storage cupboard. The citation uses the word яички which is quite hard to find in a small dictionary and which a friend of Ed's had associated with an informal (childish) usage of the language. Here's the story as complete as I am prepared to tell today when the sunshine outside is beckoning. яички is a plural of яичко яйца is a plural of яйцо Most dictionaries do not do plurals. Next, if you buy one chicken egg in a shop or order one in a restaurant in Russia you ask for куриное яйцо (this is how they would appear on the price list) or куриные яйца if several. Asking for куриные яички is okay(ish) but the waiter will start thinking that you are tipsy enough to shift into the less formal language. In children's literature, fairy tales etc. the use of the word яичко as a diminuative for an egg is common and perfectly viable. If a football player get hurt, a TV commentator will say 'a kick in the groin' in English or 'удар в пах' in Russian. A few-beers-later football fan will say 'a kick in the balls' in England or 'удар по яйцам' in Russia. The last too forms, even though they utilise accceptable vocabularly, are out of formal communication. Medics refer to the relevant parts as testicles in English. My 1986 version of the Soviet Encyclopeadic Dictionary has the following entry: яичко - a male sex gland in mammals and humans. It is possible that the medical vocabularly has been latinised in Russia in recent years and this usage has now been abandoned but as far as I can see the citation term яички for testicles was neither unduly coloquial nor impresise. Off to my garden now to have a beer and a яичница. See how we could co-operate if no-one was making hasty presumptions? Have a good Sunday, Sergei