TacHel

You have to understand this particular award was a short lived transitional design and is no longer awarded. There's a new Order of Friendship. Also, the original Soviet design had the center portion with the hammer and sickle in colour, the transitional design has no colour to these symbols.

The organization in question calls itself the ex-presidium of the Supreme Soviet. They are incredibly well connected politically and have loads of cash. It is so bad that even serving members of the military and MVD wear these medals on their uniforms!

I would've understood better myself had they opted for the double headed eagle without the royal crowns (with scepter and orb). It seems they never really gave it much thought and simply reverted to pre-communist heraldic emblems. The badge below is the cap badge for the border service's air component, to me, it makes "a bit" more sense.

The document for the Medal of Admiral Gorshkov. It bares the stamp of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense.

The cruiser "Kharkov" (later Baku for a short time), heavily modified with a flight deck enabling it to carry both helicopters and short take off fighters, was renamed the "Admiral Gorshkov" on 4 October 1990.

Biography Sergei G. Gorshkov (26.02.1910 - 1988) - Soviet Admiral, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1965 and 1982), laureate of the Lenin (1985) and State (1980) awards, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union (1967). Born in the town of Kamenetz-Podolsk (now part of the Khmelnitsky region in the Ukraine). Joined the Navy in 1927. Served on ships of the Black Sea Fleet from 1931. Received command of a patrol boat in 1932, then command of multiple destroyers. In 1939, he was given command of a destroyer brigade, still in the Black Sea Fleet. He was given command of a brigade of cruisers just prior to the outbreak of WW2. During the defense of Odessa, he commanded the Azov fleet and led the landings in the area of Grigorivka. In September 1942, he was given overall command of the Novorossijsk defensive area. He returned to command the Azov fleet in February 1943 and in 1944, was the military commander of the Danube fleet. January 1945, in command of a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet. Between 1948 and 1951, was the Chief of Staff, then Commander of Black Sea Fleet. 1955, was deputy naval chief of staff and chief of the naval staff in 1956 and vice chairman to the Minister of Defense of the USSR. Elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Died in 1988.

The Medal of Admiral Gorshkov was instituted on 27 January 2003 by decree of the Defense Minister. It is awarded to members of the Navy for great personal contribution to the development, production, testing and putting into operation of ships, submarines, aircraft and other military equipment intended for the Navy in a timely manner and with high quality; running tests on ships, submarines, development of new aircraft; for the introduction of new constructive solutions to significantly improve the combat capabilities of weapons and military equipment; the successful development of weapons and military equipment.

Good Lord! Where did all of this come from? And here I was expecting to spend an all nighter just getting things rolling... Seems there has been interest for quite a while by quite a few people! :beer:

Yes please. Even with a somewhat lukewarm reception at first, there is enough new interesting stuff going on to keep people interested, IMHO, for some time to come. Who knows, it may even get some people to look at other things than swastikas...? :rolleyes:

Thank you dear lady. Right on the money once again! :cheers:

Oh... Duh... I've got a pic of that one somewhere... I'll find it...

Bingo! See pic below. The Russian Federation awards include many Soviet era pieces with the hammer and sickle removed, some Tsarist stuff brought back and many many completely new designs. Matter of fact, I presently have over 200 of them identified and still going... :speechless:

WOA! I feel something stirring! Hope it isn't simply gas... :rolleyes:

The abuse was quite mild and is already forgotten... And it honestly was better than absolute indifference. Now you'll better understand the time elapsed from my original join date to my latest posts... :(

Well... Not exactly a wave of enthusiasm is there? Is there really so little interest on the subject in this forum? :o

Any particular reason why there's no section on modern Russian Federation awards? (or did I miss it?) I've been actively researching this field for many months now and have compiled it on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awards_and_de...sian_Federation (still ongoing work) I have also been actively updating the OMSA database, although there is still much work to be done, many pics to be sorted, medals to be identified etc.

His autobiography is entitled "Stuka pilot" and is an excellent account of air to ground and air to air combat on the eastern front. And yes, an incredible pilot who went up the ranks from leutnant to oberst in under 3 years and earning every combat award around. He also flew the FW-190 towards the end of the war. But as a few have already commented, this man was a hardent national socialist! He clearly and openly blames the lies of generals over the ineptitude of Hitler in his book. And his post war record speaks for itself... Why do you think he moved to Argentina?..

Incredible!! Outstanding!! I know some museum curators who would foam at the mouth if they had but a mere fraction of your collection!

I assure you I am in no way offended by your comments nor would I even presume to question you on that subject. You are absolutely correct, and I've learned over the years not to argue with people that are right, saves a lot of precious energy. I have no interest whatsoever in EVER reselling any of my medals which FYI, now number over 700 from most major nations (1793 to today). I take great pleasure in exposing them and getting people interested in history, and from my personnal experience found that it is easier to get them interested when what they look at is pleasing to the eye. I also have medals that are "in their juice" and black as pitch... But those are for my personnal viewing pleasure. The ones I do expose to the general public look like this. When I do kick the proverbial bucket, if my son shows no interest in my collection, they are already hearmarked in my will as going to a museum. So they'll always be for public viewing. Cheers!

Ralph, I have never before seen a Silesian Eagle with crossed swords. Can you shed some light on it? Special meaning? Jeweler's copy? Bestowee's modification? I'm really curious! Cheers, Frank from Canada

Salut Christophe! The swords are similar to the larger ones but not quite that large. And not quite so perpendicular to one another. The smaller swords I can easily find, I know a dealer who sells about 7 different models for the ribbon bars. Here are a couple of my sets: Cordialement, Fran?ois

Good day gents! I'm new to these forums and so far am really impressed. I have several large German Imperial sets from Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and Wurttemberg, that I just completely remounted. Full cleaning and new ribbons. I know, to the horror of some of you who prefer old medals "dans leur jus"... But heh, I prefer them this way. I like medals to look as close as possible to the state they were in the day they were first bestowed. I often display my collection and people generally prefer seeing history rather than having to be explained what those black blotches with frayed ribbons are supposed to look like... The one thing that so far I have been unable to find are crossed sword ribbon devices for some of these awards. Not the devices for the undress ribbons, but the larger ones that were placed on the ribbon of the medal. I have a few dozen web sites of German merchants but so far have not found a single one with these devices. Any help would be greatly appreciated!