Ed_Haynes

Choibalsan died 26 January 1952. Here, as a grumpy (grumpier?) old man, he seems to have made space on his overcoat for all five (unnumbered?) ORBCs.

This previous picture must be - from before 1945 when the Order of Sukhbaatar was instituted (Choibalsan would eventually get three of them, two for his two "hero" awards) - and from before 1946 when the hero star was redesigned into a more "Soviet" award This picture must date from after 1946, as he wears the new designs and and cut back (to make space?) to just four of the new (post-1945) design of the ORBCV. He has also messily added a victory over Japan to the single (victory over Germany?) Soviet WWII medal that he wears indistinctly in the above picture. As the victory over Germany was created 9 May 1945 and the Japan medal waited until 30 September 1945, maybe there is a chronological hint here?? When were they actually distributed to "allied states"?

The war is over (I think this is from the Victory Parade?) and - he gets his Suvorov 1st class - 8 September 1945 - he gets his second hero - 20 September 1945 - he gets a new Soviet medal for the victory over Germany (?) - he remounts his Soviet medals

And a similar shot with his second Lenin.

Oops, missed this one. Please mentally insert before the previous one. Sometime before his second Lenin. And five (5!) apparently unnumbered OBRMVs.

Sometime toward the end of the war, Choibalsan dresses up and poses with lis "little buddy" Tsedenbal. See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5489&st=25 He has acquired a second Lenin (after 1943) now worn on suspension and here wears his marshal's star.

Sometime (toward the end of the war?), he poses with his Northern Buddy Zhukov with a somewhat abbreviated set of awards. See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5489&st=7

And one with his hat on, shown at http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5489&st=0

OK - - in 1940 he turns in his OBRMV and Polar Star badges for the new design - 10 July 1941 he gets a badge for his "Hero" title - sometime before 1943 he gets his first Lenin - sometime he gets the Tuvan Order of the Republic While he received the rank of Marshal in 1936 (a useful tool for some of the photos above?), the star wasn't introduced until 1940. But Choibalsan didn't always wear it! So . . . maybe . . . 1941/1942?

An interesting image. Shown before at http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5489&st=18 Four (but unnumbered?) pre-1940 ORBMV, his pre-1940 Polar Star, he has now added his second (numbered) Soviet Red Banner. An image ca. 1939/1940?

You want muddy? The cover photo of an undated biography, Монголын хувьсгалын алдарт их удирдагч улсын (маршал) єрлєг жанжин нєхєр Чойбалсан. If you wish to practice your bichig, the whole file is online as a PDF at http://www.chriskaplonski.com/downloads/choibalsan.pdf

About the same time??? Speaking out. I am having trouble with the awards here. Can clearer eyes squint a bit?

And here the chronology gets messy . . . . Here he is with Brotherly Northern Friends. See http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5489&st=16 One Red Banner (1922), one pre-1940 ORBMV, and his pre-1940 Polar Star. Maybe 1939-ish?

Not much later, but with a new uniform and a (very?) new medal, his RSFSR Red Banner (March 1922). The full picture shows him side-by-side with an over-dressed Marshal Budyonny (Battushig, p. 13).

A bright-eyed and svelte young Choibalsian with his mates. Battushig (p. 15) captions this "Choibalsan with comrades after the graduation of the military academy in Russia 1922". Seems fair. No medals yet, but soon!

As an adjunct to my our efforts at detailing Soviet awards to Mongolian leaders http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=10329 and our depiction of awards in wear http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5489 I have been trying to disentangle the awards chronology or Marshal Choibalsan, using available photos. With advance apologies to those whose photos I have "borrowed", I'll present here what I can find and solicit more images and more information, especially a refinement of the chronology to these photos that can be cross-referenced to a chronology of his awards. When/if records become available, we can see how well (or badly) we have done?

Reading (in "spare time") through the History of the Mongolian People's Republic (USSR Academy of Sciences/MPR Academy of Sciences, 1973), I have found a few extra data points, added above. I expect to find more. The book, by the way, is really worth getting and reading. Highly recommended! Has been reprinted by the University Press of the Pacific, ISBN 0-89875-035-0. Delightfully nostalgic ideology in places: "Marxism-Leninism teaches that not every revolutionary situation leads to a revolution. . . ."

Agreed. Nice and I see no problems. And a couple of interesting date/number data points too!

Dave is right. It is always better, and not significantly more expensive, to go for full research.

Red Cross and St. John??

Real kukris were (and in the Indian and Nepali armies today still are) of local manufacture, unmarked. There are villages that specialise. (Gorkhas still in anachronistic British service get them through a Kathmandu-based wholesaler who gets them made, to a different set of patterns -- smaller and lighter -- in the same villages.) The sama makers and villages also provide them for local consumption, as everyday-use items (and I am told them have been supplying the now-victorious Maoists too). I have never seen one named but, then, I have never seen one that had been used by a native (of the British Isles). The name of the British officer -- if that is what it is -- might be traced in relevant Indian Army Lists?

The problem is, I don't think stamps on pictures were as universal in Mongolia as they were in the Soviet Union, so their presence or absence is not as useful a diagnostic tool. This picture, however, stinks like six-week-old buuz! A lovely booklet spoiled, or at least harmed. And how to remove the offending (and dumb) photo? Especially in a booklet that already seems to have pretty bad water damage.

Other words fail me. Well, actually, they don't. But I don't want to get censored . . . .

Bumped at the request of one of the forum denizens.

But isn't the SOS a "general militaria and all other stuff" show and HEAVILY German 1933-45? Personally, I value the ODM focus of the OMSA. But we're getting -- sorry.