Andwwils

Ohhhh . . . shall ask . . . however unlikely.

Because of my complete lack of language ability, I can't say for certain what the id was for, but it was definitely your man. It was a photo ID with Karapetyan in his uniform from shoulders up wearing an honored employee badge and his ribbon bars. The pass was signed by Petr Smakov (sp?) and was red with hard-binding. You should be able to get some scans of it from the guy at collectrussia.com... maybe even track it down and make the new owner an offer they can't refuse.

Ed,

One of Karapatyan's (sp?) identification documents from 1952 was offered for sale on collectrussia.com a few months ago. Did you see that? It was priced at 340.00 and now appears to have been sold. -Andrew

Are Nazi-era German coins being faked? These used to be common as dirt at coin shows in the United States up until about 10 years ago.

Gentlemen,

A great thread, very informative. Personally, I can not express an opinion on "Come and See" in terms of being a good or bad film. I can only say that it is one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen.

I was glad to see "Burnt by the Sun" mentioned. This is a really good one. I would like to recommend "The Inner Circle" which is a true story based upon the experiences of Stalin's movie projectionist. Bob Hoskins' portrayal of Beria, alone, is worth the price of admission.

Another worth mention is Ballad of a Soldier" which I think holds an unusual distinction. This film was released in 1959 at the height, or depth, of the Cold War. It's acceptance and acclaim in the west, particularly the USA, was astounding (and very politically incorrect). Another one from that era which I remember (God, it's been fifty years!!) as being quite good is "The Cranes are Flying". Neither of these are the usual slam/bang war film, but have considerable merit - both won numerous awards.

Grab a bowl of popcorn and enjoy a good movie during one of these long cold winter nights!

Best wishes,

Wild Card

I agree, "The Inner Circle" is an excellent film. They even went through the trouble of finding character-actors who actually look like the historical figures they're supposed to portray. They did their homework all around, even Stalin's pipe-motions are historically acurate (from what I've read on his pipe being a weather-vane for his various mood-swings.)

That is a strange coat to be wearing during a visit to the White House. It had to have been a gift from someone on the American side of the state-visit. The image I had in mind is of Brezhnev sitting on a couch with a cigarette between his fingers on his left hand while speaking to Ford. While he's speaking to Ford you can see the smoke coming out of Brezhnev's mouth.

Smoking in government buildings is strictly forbidden in the United States today. Doing so in the White House in the presence of the President would get you tackled by the Secret Service. State leaders today have to take their smoke-break outside.

Speaking of Leonid Brezhnev...

I recently saw a picture of Brezhnev smoking an unfiltered cigarette - at age 68 - in the White House with President Ford.

Anyone see the irony in such an image, especially in contrast to today's American culture of anti-tobacco? Great image for thought, if only I had it in jpeg form.

Nevermind me, resume your other discussions.

The man's name appears to be Franz Bohm, with an umlaut on the "o" in his last name. Last rank that's visible from the scans is Hauptmann (1.7.1943). Received his EKI while serving with II battalion of Luftwaffenachtrichten Regiment 32. Extensive service in both staff, combat and combat-related units it appears. Battle entries are interesting as well. Very nice pass.

There's a good book out about these, very definitive if you can get a hold of a copy:

"The Interallied Victory Medal of World War One." by Alexander Laslo

These victory medals have always appealed to me and they weigh a ton compared to the WWII medal.

I love groupings like this. They allow you to see a person's life, or at least one aspect of it, in near entirety. Very much a human interest thread. Was Leiste in uniform during WWII? A lot of these older landwehr and reserve officers born before 1880ish tended to get medical discharges as the war continued to drag on into the mid-1940's (and as they pushed 65 and in some cases, 70.) If he did serve during the war, it's almost a sure bet that he made Major's rank. Would love to see more of this grouping. Thank you for sharing.

Very odd set of boards. Could be something related to the forestry service. Not a military set of boards (IMO) so civil-service? Is the purple tint original to the piping? Try pushing up on the bullion through the buttonhole slits through the backside (if it's not 100% secure). You can then see if the bullion braid is purple died all the way through. Whatever they are, I've never seen anything like them and they're probably quite rare.

Very nice display. Is that a DAK unit soldbuch?

"Certificate of Inaptitude" could have been a confusing title for a discharge document if this sailer had to present it to a non-French speaking Allied serviceman. Very neat soldbuch.

I think the NCO in the first photo has a wounded/broken left arm. Looks like he's got it in a sling and is wearing his tunic over it. That's why (I think) he only has the top two buttons buttoned. Three ribbons in his buttonhole? Could be a wartime soldbuch photo given the general angle. I agree, neat photo. I do not think he's volksturm.

Anyway, when I think about it, submitting a name, dob and hometown to the US archives won't get you anywhere in retrieving records...unless you're blessed with an archivist who is passionate about their work and with records that haven't been carelessly destroyed over the years. The Soviets really scored a victory in the Cold War if their archives are as intact as some of the threads on here suggest. I was curious as to the extent of what can and cannot be retrieved.

He seems to have survived the pre-war purges entirely since he got an award during the war itself. A lot of the Yezhov-era NKVD folks who were too "zealous" in their revolutionary vigilance against internal subversion became purge victims themselves after the Bukharin/Iagoda trial in 1938 or thereabouts. It would be interesting to know exactly what this person was in charge of wherever he was stationed...cleaning toilets and checking security clearance requests, issueing routine id cards to God only knows what. Neat little grouping.

You can serve more than 30 years active duty if you switch into the warrant officer or commissioned officer hierarchy. Prior-enlisted service can be used to waive the age requirements for active-duty OCS and direct commission officer indoctrination school in all of the branches I believe.

So, you could theoretically spend 30 or more years as enlisted, apply to OCS and become a 50 year old 0-1 and serve until you reach 62 and then get mandatorily retired (unless you're stop-lossed ) or you can separate after your enlisted service, acquire a professional degree and then go back in as a direct-commission officer and serve until 62 and then ...

Bottom line: If you're aware of the loopholes, time it right, don't get disabled out and are willing to meet the educational requirements you can put in well-over 30 years of combined and maybe even continuous military service in the US Armed forces - especially the Army, Navy and AF...the Coast Guard and Marine Corps might be harder as the Marines don't have direct commissions and have very, very few 30 year NCO slots and the Coast Guard is extremely small and only direct commissions JAG types (which are never hard to recruit).

Sorry to dig this thread up!

Brandt is wearing two Army Long Service Ribbons on his ribbon bar in the 1944 photo, which leads me to think that he had continuous service from 1908 up till the end of WWII (if he wasn't killed in '45). SO, him being a mere "Captain" eqivalent in rank, even after 36+ years active duty makes sense, I think. Talk about a dead-end job , but a nice photo. He could have gotten the clasp to the Iron Cross earlier in the war, not necessarily in the East. No way to know for certain.

Hi Rick,

I'm very much a newcomer to Soviet research, but is there any way to get research done on individuals like this through the current Russian authorities without having this person's various order numbers handy? I mean research in their archives based on name, rank, hometown, other pertienant information? I'm just curious about this.

-Andrew

I think it was authorized into the mid 1950's or so. The way this person chose to mount it suggests that they received it sometime before Korea, but after WWII, so a 1949-1952ish timeframe makes sense. It's not an authorized award these days, but back then whomever fixed this bar up was either ignorant of the regulations regarding the placement of the medal or just one to make a fashion statement. I think now, I'm not sure so don't hold me to it. The China medal is definetely not awarded today, very much an obsolete ribbon in the modern US military.

The China Service Medal should be the second ribbon, right after the Good Conduct. It (the China Service Medal) takes precedence before the American Defense, regardless of when it was earned.

"Israel" as a family name may not be too unusual. If it were his first name, then yes I'd bet he had some Jewish lineage. Anyway if he were of Jewish descent his Wehrpass would have shown something to indicate this if it were discovered post-issue. There's a good book entitled "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" that goes into those of Jewish lineage in the German armed forces during the Third Reich pretty well.

I remember watching the color film of the Victory Parade years ago and seeing the German banners thrown before the masoleum of Lenin. The strongest display of symbolism is of course the Liebstandarte AH Banner that is pictured in the stamp, in the film it's thrown on the pile along with all the other "common ones." The standard of Hitler's personal bodyguard at the feet of Lenin...very powerful statement, very emotional imagery.

"Das Kapital" is a very dense work. Unless someone has a good 3 to 4 weeks to spare, I'd suggest just reading the abstract. The works of Lenin are much more manageable.

It's a real irony that an auction is being conducted to sell an automobile that once belonged to a Soviet Premier.

I can see two pips on his shoulder boards, so he was an Oberfeldwebel when this photograph was taken. No long service decorations are present. The sports badge is a good sign that he was in a field-division type unit.