NavyFCO

Very well said! I think the "end of the road" has come for some of us older collectors, such as myself in the very near future. I still enjoy Soviet awards, but I find that I cannot afford many of them anymore. I can now only buy the items that I once turned up my nose at 10 years ago as "the little stuff". Unfortunately for me, I didn't have much interest in lower items then (or bought so many that I eventually lost interest in them!) nor do I have interest in the items that I can afford anymore. I have moved into collecting WW1 US Army uniforms (my old love) and have established a very large quality collection (30+ uniforms, all documented) for less money than a single HSU group would cost!!! At the same time, very little new stock has come out of the FSU. I used to get two to four groups PER MONTH from Russia/Ukraine/etc. and many of these groups were direct from veteran's families. Those groups started trickling off in mid-2004, and as of about 2005, I haven't bought a single group directly from the FSU. I still love the research aspect of Soviet awards, but even at that, I am getting tired. I have seen too many "killed up to a squad of Hitlerite soldiers with his gun" citations! I plan to still maintain my "nitche" collections - posthumous Soviet awards and Soviet awards to foreigners because there is still the excitement of finding that rare award, and I have yet to encounter much competition (especially with what I am willing to pay) from collectors in the FSU. Shortly, I will be parting with my last groups, and will put my two last groups (very well documented straight-from-the-veteran heroism groups) in storage. I have contemplated selling my Soviet reference collection, but have been too tapped at work to spend the time coming up with a list of the 200+ books in it! Maybe one of these days. Although it's the end of the road (for the most part) in Soviet collecting for me, I am glad to see that there are still many new collectors out there who have the excitement that I once did. I think that's awesome. I hope that other collectors will be able to experience the fun I have had with Soviet award collecting over the past 15 years - it's been a great ride! Dave

With that thought....... slava1stclass: how many Cavalier groups do you own? Could you post what you have over in the researched section? I'm sure all of us would like to see the gems in your collection. Dave

Guess again!

I don't know... I would think that if I had the money I would buy all the XXX (you insert what it is) groups that I was interested in. I started collecting WW1 uniforms in March. Am I content now that I have 28 of them? Of course not. Will I be content with 50? 100? 200?????? If I was ever content with something, there would be no point in collecting it. If I were a billionaire and I liked HSU groups, I would buy all that came on the market. I know one US collector that has (had?) over 30 HSU groups. Was (is?) he tired of them? Doubt it. Same with an overseas (non-Russian) collector I know with 15 HSU groups and 15 Cavalier groups.... the only reason he's no longer buying is that the price has gone through the roof on what he used to buy (he's not an oligarch). But this gets back to the fact that I don't think the oligarchs are the only ones buying these, otherwise they wouldn't be sitting on Igor's website for so long. I know with various WW1 units that I am interested in, I buy the uniforms, no matter the price, as soon as they are listed on dealer's websites. They might sit there for a while otherwise, but not with me as a buyer. Like I said before, I do know of some oligarchs that collect (one was in competition with a friend over a uniform - my friend lost, of course!) but I agree with all that it's Russians with money in the middle class who enjoy the medals (and hopefully the history) that are the new collectors. If the "new" collectors (as they are "new" money) enjoy the history as much as we do (and I know some of them that I know do) then I have no problem with them buying everything back. After all, this is THEIR heritage, as much as I think the stuff is really cool (and have thought for many many years!) Christian: You are thinking of Lord Ashcroft in England who buys all of the Victoria Crosses. Buying one of those makes even the price of a Suvorov 1st look like pocket money!!!! Dave

Actually, if you get the research on it, that might spur on some more memories for the veteran. I would LOVE to have a group where the vet could explain to me what his seniors were like (the guys that signed the citation) how the award ceremonies were, and so on. He might very well appreciate the research because he might enjoy reading again some of his deeds during the War. I think it's a win-win situation, and it would be well worth anything you invested in it. Dave

Of course!

I have Eisenhower's award card and the Victory is not numbered on there, whereas his Surovorv 1st is. Dave

It was actually purchased by the owner of the website legitimately from the Eisenhower Library for use on his website. The cost (when I bought mine for my article) was $11 per .jpg. Dave

I was thinking this morning about the "oligarchs" to whom we ascribe the raise in prices on high-end Soviet awards, like this latest Cavalier group. What I find very curious is that these expensive groups will sit for sale for a long time with the two "big" dealers (one US, one in Europe) that I know of before being bought. With that said, if you had unlimited funds (like the oligarchs) and you decided to start collecting Soviet awards, would you not simply buy everything that was offered for sale, until your collecting interests were satisified? I have sold items (mostly high-end uniforms) to "big money" collectors before on several occasions and they typically buy whatever I have, and whatever else I can find from them - as well as anything my friends want to sell! Money to them isn't a factor - their interests are in assembling the largest collection possible. In the same way, as I have sold off my Soviet collection, I have re-invested the money in other interests, buying up considerable amounts of the other items simply because I had the money to do so and bought some really great stuff (so far). So I wonder if the prices might not be more blamed on the rising Russian middle class rather than the rich oligarchs? While I know of at least one oligarch collector by name (I haven't dealt with him before, but I know what he collects, and it's cloth) I am not sure all how many collect (or even invest) when we have these kinds of groups languishing months on end before being purchased. Just some food for thought... Dave

It was awarded to Khoperia, David Ioramevich. The link that has his irreproachable service medal document is: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8276 So far, no response to my question in that thread, so I'm asking the question here. I'd rather not have to pay for research that isn't mine or that I want. Dave

All: I have the research (AC + citation) for this award. I don't have it. I think someone on this forum might as I have seen some other documents from this fellow on here. Please let me know! Thanks Dave

I received the research to this group (who owns it, by the way?????) and another group that I requested research on LAST JULY. Oy! Dave

So my question is...... how the heck did I end up with the research for this guy's For Valor medal today????? Any thoughts??? Dave

That's a question only you can answer. If you must know about a document group and are willing to shell out $55+ to research it, knowing full well that you'll probably not get that out of 95% of groups, that's up to you. I have researched several document-only groups to HSUs and famous generals, but that's because the research added more to the story. For example, I researched Koldunov's group as even without the Lenin Prize, it's still worth a lot of money and the research really adds to the history of it. Dave

He received the OGPW1 in 1985 because he was a wounded invalid. That was the award that the invalid soliders were supposed to receive in 1985 (though it didn't always happen). If you see a late Red Star, Glory 3rd or OGPW2 and a 1985 OGPW1, you can be almost 99% ensured that the person was wounded during WW2. The catch-up award was one for wounds, and the OGPW1 was awarded by Ukaz for invalid veterans. Dave

It's a bit unusual to see the long service awards to a career enlisted person as well. That was one of the things the Soviet military lacked greatly, and instead depended on the training of their officers to carry the day. Dave

Looks like "Fomenko" to me!

I think it would be well worth researching this award number to see if everything makes sense. What I think might have happened was that the veteran lost his original medal, lamented losing it, so on the 30th anniversary of him earning the award, his daughter got him this medal. Obviously the ribbon is wrong, but chances are the serial number is correct as family members did have access into the Archives during the days of the USSR. If you can confirm that this fellow was awarded a For Valor medal for the fighting around some town (whatever we can figure it out to be) or if (even better) he was an officer and you can get his personnel file to show that he had a daughter named Vera, this could be a real winner of a medal! Dave

Hard to judge 100% from the pics, but it appears to be a nice righteous piece! Dave

All: I have recently started collecting WW1 US Army militaria after 20 years of collecting WW2. Part of what really fascinated me about this time period was my lack of knowledge about the War. This became particularly evident when I was walking through Trieste, Italy one night and saw several memorials to WW1 US Army troops! I never knew that WW1 US troops had been in Italy! I have since become interested in the 332nd Infantry Regiment, which spent it's war in Italy and across the Adriatic in what is now Croatia and the surrouding areas. However, in my research thus far, I have yet to find what unit was actually in Trieste. No histories of the 332nd mention them being in Trieste. Does anyone know if the 332nd ended up in Trieste (or at least passed through)? If not, does anyone know who might have been there to garner the memorials that are still there? Thanks! Dave

I'm going to say that they're unissued pieces, and my gut tells me that the 1st class is bad - but I caveat that by saying that I'm not an expert in either the 1st or 2nd classes. I can say that back in 1996 I saw an extraordinary set of these for sale at the Great Western show in California and the seller was open about the fact that they were "exceptional" copies, that he had brought out of Russia back in 1994/95. That to say that they have been making these for quite a while now! Onto something I DO know about... the 3rd class may well be an issued one from the late 80s or early 90s. I would say that it's probably worth researching. Also, the Homeland 2nds with the 800 series numbers all seem to be awarded in February 1978, and of course Homeland 1st 7 was issued, but it probably isn't this one. If you could post up larger pics of each award, that would be great. Dave P.S. I'm the author of the article you read.

Splitting groups is definately an interesting topic. Playing devil's advocate here, when you think of it, any way you look at it, all groups are split up. Even if they come from the original veteran, and it was everything that he had with regard to medals, uniforms, documents, etc., it is still split apart from other items from the family. For example, I have had many Soviet groups with large amounts of civilian documents. Were I to split the group into two parts on eBay - one part civilian documents, and one part military - I would be looked at as splitting the group. But what if I had turned down buying the civilian documents from the veteran in the first place? Would I then not be just as guilty??? Another thought is the complexity of many large groups, with regard to many different kinds of items. A typical group will have medals, documents and uniforms. It is rare to find a collector who will collect all three items, and particularly for a large (or valuable) group, the actual value of the group may be well out of reach of the vast majority of buyers if left combined. Thus, many people split off the uniforms, and sell them to uniform collectors; split the medals and sell them to medal collectors and so on. That is surely splitting a group, but if the person can't afford to keep it (say the person paid the veteran well for it initially) and the chances of finding a single buyer are very very slim, what other course of action do they have? What angers me is when someone attempts to keep a group together, but the seller insists in splitting it. For example, a large group of uniforms, medals and photos sold on eBay to a notable dealer. I would have loved to have bought it, but it was way, way, way out of my price range. About two months later, the same dealer had one of the two uniforms with the group listed up on his website. I contacted him and asked if he was selling just that uniform or if he was selling any other items from the veteran. He told me that he had just listed the uniform up on eBay, but the other uniform of the two was also available. He was keeping the medals for himself, and had sold a pile of loose insignia. I was angered a little, but still was okay because I could at least afford the uniforms, and couldn't have afforded the entire group. So, I worked a deal with him for both uniforms, and we agreed to a price. Just as I was about to tell him that payment was enroute, he told me that the uniform on eBay had gotten a bid on it, and because of that he couldn't take it off the auction. Now mind you it was about two days into a seven day auction, and the opening bid was about 10% of the actual value of the uniform! I told him that he could still take it off eBay by cancelling the bid that was placed on it, but he refused. And with that our deal fell through. It's that sort of thing that really peeves me because I tried to keep together at least what I could from the group, but he completely disregarded my efforts in doing so, only hoping to get the maximum amount of money for the uniform on eBay. (Ironically, I won the eBay uniform, at a value of 40% of the price we had agreed on during our previous negotiations!!!) Just my thoughts... Dave

The first ribbon on the uniform in this thread is this very medal! Nice! http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=17304

I'm here for you! I actually noticed it as I was offered one in part trade for Chief Marshal of Aviation Koldunov's Lenin Prize. Gotta admit, a Lenin Prize for building the air defenses of the USSR has a bit more "historical interest" than a single Kutuzov, but.... Dave

NB had (has) one for $8500. Dave