new world

Throughout Russian history we observe figures that are both great and tragic. We see man and women contributed enourmously to development of Russia, but their achievements are often shadowed by the cost, especially human cost. Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine II, Lenin, Stalin - these all are great leaders of Russia. Take Peter and Stalin - both managed to transform Russia from a backyard of Europe into major world power. Yes, there were sacrifices - think of thousands of laborers who died while building city of Petersburg in the swamps of Neva. Think of even more laborers who vanished on Stalin's projects. No one denies there were shocking and tragic losses. But one needs to keep in mind the realities of the period. Just think about it - Soviet Russian managed to achieve in 10-20 years what took the rest of the world centuries. He also was at helm of Russian when fighting in WWII. From this prospective Stalin can be viewed as great leader. William

Stamp for Khmelnitsky looks weird. Plus, order of Khmelnitsky to a Sergeant? William

front

Polar Star with low SN 96, just sold to a collector in Russia.

Entries for Khmelnitsky 3 cl and Red Banner do not belong to this order book. William

And to finish on a funny note - these were custom made: Master of Sports in Litrebol

Three badges: - Honored Coach - two badges Distinguished (Zasluzheniy) Master of Sports After the fall of USSR some former republics adopted their own Master of Sports titles (ie Russian Federation, Ukraine, Georgia). They still exist today.

2 badges: - Master of Sports of International Level (Maser Sporta Mezhdunarodnogo Klassa) - Honored Master of Sports

Some images found on the web: two Master of Sports badges and Kandidate of Master of Sports

"Master of Sports" was very special designation during Soviet times. Basically the title was given for conisistantly achieving certaing performance results (ie run 100 meters in XX seconds). Athletes who were bestowed such title proudly wore their badges! In addition to "Master of Sports", there were related titles: 1) Candidate Master of Sports (one level below Master) 2) Master of Sports 3) Distinguished (Zasluzheniy) Master of Sports 4) Master of Sports of International Level (Maser Sporta Mezhdunarodnogo Klassa) Distunguished and International Masters were given to the medal winners of international competitions. There were aslo designations for the coaches of accomplished athletes. I have a badge for "Honored Coach" somewhere. Hope this helps, William

Any luck with the research for these awards? William

Other things / collecting fields also suffer from fakes and unethical sellers...

front of sn 8888

Common Polar Star, but with very interesting serial number - 8888!

Dave, Also, if you compare serial numbers of the books from your web site and xerox copy - they are almost exactly the SAME digits, just shuffled around. Amazing what Photoshop can do. William

The one at Nota Bene apparently has some enamel restoration...

Ouch! What's next - Sukhe-Bator for $5,000? William

Reverse William

Another Academy badge from 1948, serial numbered 171

I remember buying two almost mint Nevskys for $300 a piece. Seller had several and let me choose... William

Bob, small correction to your list - starting price on Markov auction is $1,400. $1,750 is estimate. William

During the last auction representatives of the "big dogs" were seen bidding like crazy. It seemed the price didn't matter at all, like there was no limit for these people. The goal was to buy at any cost... how can you compete against something like this?

Judging from last Markov's auction majority of items will end up in Russia / Ukraine. On last auction few buyers bought majority of interesting items. Prices that they paid were beyond of what most of western collectors were prepared to pay, I wouldn't be surprised if this will be the case this time around. William

Kev, I have similar war bonds at home - I forgot the denominations, will have to find them and post scans. William

Georgiy Konstantinovich Zhukov - 12.08.1969. medal #22