Lapa

Christophe, I don't believe that I am; that is the information that has been going around here for a few years already. Marc

HSU: Hero of the Soviet Union HSL: Hero of Socialist Labor Marc

Christophe, I have even seen it live I am afraid that your information might be erroneous. They are currently taking it down. They decided not to blow up the building as it is too close to many other important ones, and instead to take it apart brick by brick from the top. It should take another couple of years to clear the site. Marc

:unsure: ??? Marc

Christophe, That is interesting! And where are they rebuilding it? Marc

Bob, Zeige is unreliable when it comes to genuineness. These days, such an amount is way too much or too little Marc

Christophe, Thanks for that. I must say it is somewhat sad that the local authorities decided to destroy that "Soviet Cathedral", it was quite unique, and definitely an icon of times past; on the other hand, the open perspective from Teatralnaya Ploschad to Okhotniy Ryad will be something special. I just hope that, somehow, someone saved parts of the inside decorum. Right, back to our topic. Let me sleep on it, and I'll come up with an easy question tomorrow. Marc

Belaruski, Let me put it this way: everything offered is ALWAYS genuine... Now, it is up to you to determine the "level of genuineness" Marc

Bob, Who wouldn't? At that price, it would be a steal Marc

Christian, When is the last time that you saw a real HSL available for sale? As far as I know, they go today for significantly more than $3,000. Marc

That is, until he registers again under another name Marc

Christophe, I believe that the building on the right is the Hotel Moskva, and the one on the left is the State Duma. Now as to the photographer, could it be Khaldei? Marc

Congratulations Marco, that's definitely him! Yes, he's been a local celebrity for a long time, even way before the Moscow Olympics. So, your turn once again Marc

Rick, You are a master of wordmanship! I wholeheartedly agree with your position (although I swim in another pool than yours) and I couldn't have put it any better than you did. Marc

Komarov, N. P. Marc

Thanks Marco It looks like we are too fast for Christophe to keep up with the totals Anyway, here is a reaaaaaaaaaally easy question: What was the full name of the 1980 Olympic Games mascot? Marc

Rick, You'd be surprized by the amount and variety of fake documents. 99.5% of NKVD documents that you can see are fake. Have a look at the Soviet Awards forum, these are regularly shown and discussed. Marc

Rick, Since the late 1980's, the vast majority of issued caps do not have a date anymore. Marc

Tom, I cannot answer your main questions, but I can tell you with 99.9% probability that this kit is not French, but Swiss. Marc

Paul, That is way too schematic. The NKVD was a huge organization, part of which was made up by "the Bad Guys"; but firemen, and even road repair crews, were also members - albeit less glamorous for most - of the NKVD. Marc

IMHO, there's good and bad in what was shown, but most would fall in the second category (basically everything with those magic 4 letters, the year 1941 was also a bad vintage ) Marc

Marco, Right, there are Marshals and Marshals, then So, our man is Aviation Marshal Sergey Aleksandrovich Khudyakov (Серге́й Александрович Худяков), whose original name was Armenak Artemovich Khanferyants (Арменак Артёмович Ханферянц). He was from an Armenian family. He was arrested in Chita on 14 December 1945, and charged with treason, misuse of his position, and use of a false identity (he used the name of a friend that was killed during the Civil War). Marc

Marco, A grand total of five Marshals (Tukhachevski, Blucher, Egorov, Kulik and Beria) were executed by firing squad (some sources say that Blucher died in prison). Of these, the first 3 were purged before WWII, and you indicated that Kulik was not the one. That leaves only Beria (Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria in Georgian), who was Georgian (actually Mingrelian), although the date does not correspond, since he was arrested in 1953, following Stalin's death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshal_of_the_Soviet_Union Pre-war Marshals WWII Marshals Marc

Congratulations on your first win, Marco So, your turn to ask a question. Marc

Christian, Long time no see That was an interesting suggesting, and the line of thinking is definitely the right one, but unfortunately for you, that is not the person we are looking for. So, here is one more hint: During their offensive on Moscow, the German mounted a specific aerial operation in an attempt to get rid of our character. They scored a direct hit on the place where he was, and reported to Berlin that the "problem" had been dealt with; however, within 15 minutes, they found out that they had not gotten rid of him. This attempt led the Soviet authorities to relocate him in Sverdlovsk in the fall of 1941. Marc