NavyFCO

Sounds good! Keep tabs on it!

Thanks Paul! Now you're talking with the details on the Red Star. It sounds pretty incredible at this point...especially getting it directly from the veteran. That was my dream of dreams when I was collecting Soviet awards! As far as value...geeze...the sky's the limit on this one. Really what someone would be willing to pay, especially with the other medals. Sounds like a real "wow" group! Dave P.S. you SHOULD have bid on some of my medals! LOL

You're hearing crickets for a couple of reasons: First and foremost, who the recipient was is a huge factor in the value. General officer? Private? Truck driver? Artilleryman? Special forces? Second, what's the citation? Is it for direct heroism against the enemy? Or is it a long service award? (Yes, I know they didn't have "official" long service awards at the time, but it was not unknown to "fluff" an award with a citation to award it to someone who had many years of service...) Third, the market for Soviet awards is completely unpredictable right now. I'm watching stuff go unsold on eBay that would have sold for 50-100% more, just a few months ago. What this might have sold for last year is probably not what it will sell for now. Just my thoughts... Dave

Of the groups I regret selling, this was one of them. Probably my favorite HSL group.

I had heard a rumor of a fake PMcD certificate, but I've never seen one before. If something did seem questionable, he's still alive and kicking and I'm certain he could verify the certificate if need be. I do think some folks might be getting too suspicious about fakes...there's not always a goblin behind every corner. I bought out a small collection and sold almost all of it on eBay last week. I lost my shirt on the auctions...the stuff sold for about 75% of what I paid - and that was with me paying what I thought were "low end" prices! Egads! Anyway, one of the buyers (of a common medal) contacted me today wanting to return a medal because he thought it was fake. I've seen and handled around 700-800 of these medals (actually orders) since starting to collect in 1992, and in fact, this one was in a single US-based collection since 2001...but he's convinced it's fake. Oh well...I'll happily take it back because I think it sold for too little. His loss...

This doesn't quite apply to Glory Cavaliers, but just in general...I listed a bunch of medals on eBay last week for starting prices lower than the recently closed auctions I found (that's how I figured the starting price, based off what things had sold for recently). They closed last night without a single bid. I was pretty dumbfounded! I bought a small collection and will probably end up losing a lot of money on the deal...I got so frustrated I listed everything at $9.99 to get at least something back from my investment! Ouch! Seems like the market has really taken a nosedive of late... (good for collectors...not for a guy trying to sell medals!) (P.S. I don't know why my post is quoting Liopa...sorry about that, I meant to only quote USSR's question!)

Alex- Thank you so much for the kind words! I truly appreciate them! (If you could give it a review on Amazon, that would be great!) Dave

For those interested in buying a copy, it's available on Amazon now (as well as many other places, but most people buy from Amazon!) http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Seas-Red-Stars-Recipients/dp/0764348299

I think the price it sold for ($665) seems quite good. When normal 2nd Class Glories were hitting in the $400 range, one to a full cavalier for slightly higher...not bad at all. I haven't been paying close attention to it, but I think the market is dropping considerably...I bought some low-end awards for what I thought was a "steal" only to do a bit more research and find they were only slightly under market value. Ah well... Almost good enough for me to start collecting Soviet again. Or not...

It's alive! Just got the first hard copy from the publisher last night! They should be available for delivery in 4-6 weeks (this one came via airmail, the others are coming via sea...) Almost there! Dave The price on Amazon is really good right now for pre-orders...just for what it's worth... http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Seas-Red-Stars-Recipients/dp/0764348299

That's okay...I'm the author and I'm still waiting. It was supposed to be out in August, but there were some delays and now it looks like it will be out in November. Such is life in the publishing world - it has been 18 months since I turned it in to the publisher.

Hi Paul: The top word is what appears to be his last name: "Parash..." I unfortunately can't read it. If I still had my HSU set, I could look him up though. The next set of words is who the photograph is of, which is Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Para-whatever and whatever for his first name (my ability to read handwritten Cyrillic has gone way down, apparently!!) It is then signed by the chief of staff of the 226(?) Independent Artillery Division, 235th Something Artillery Brigade, and then signed by him with the unit seal. As far as value, images of HSUs used to sell well in the past; I can't comment on them now. Back when I sold off my photo collection (in 2006) I was getting $15-$20 a piece for HSUs. Non HSUs were really tough to move, even at $1 each. When I sold my last batch of them, I think I got about 50 cents each for them on average. However, prices are far different now...I just don't know how different they are. Hope that helps! Dave

Looks like a standard wartime Legion of Merit. Unfortunately, without a name, there's no way to say it belonged to anyone, Soviet, US, or otherwise (even with a name, but without some other sort of provenance, it's still just a name and a wartime issue LOM.) There was nothing "special" about LOM awards to foreign officers...they were exactly the same as the ones issued to US personnel. In this condition, and missing the ribbon and brooch, I'd say it's worth about $30 US. Hope that helps!

Paul: Sorry, I completely missed your request to translate the name. D'oh! Anyway, everyone on the translation/editorial/writing staff at RIA received the BoH and the supervisors and managers received the RBL. The Moscow Olympics was a really big deal, so they got the award for their news coverage of the event. My manager had been with RIA for several decades and had several awards of both medals. However, she was rather intimidating so I never got up the courage to ask her what they were for! Dave

Incidentally, what's the date of the award? Not that it will help, but you never know! Most of my co-workers at RIA Novosti were awarded BoHs after the 1980 Olympics. Yes, I will admit to geeking out and asking them about their award ceremonies and so on.

Looks Georgian? These used to be researchable...not any more...

This is one Legion of Merit that was awarded in 1943 from the stocks of the Military Mission to Moscow. It is a sterling medal. The vast majority of Legions of Merit found in the US that are with the Soviet certificates were "mated" sets...when all of the citations and certificates came from Russia in the early 90s, they were only the documents, the medals did not come with them. Medals have been added to them by collectors and dealers over time. I have only seen a small handful of "real" medal and document sets, and all of those have come out of Russia. Out of curiosity, what is the reason for your question? Have you found a Legion of Merit to a Soviet officer? ' alt='' class='ipsImage' > ' alt='' class='ipsImage' > ' alt='' class='ipsImage' > ' alt='' class='ipsImage' >

Here's a very thorough thread on here about them:

Looks like a standard Army general's uniform from the 1980s or so. The shirt (at least the really bad shoulder boards) doesn't go with it. Hope that helps!

Amazon is running a pre-order sale on them. This is a bargain price for the typical Schiffer book. And, of course, I know it will be a good book 'cause I wrote it. (Not to mention visiting 121 families and photographing their medals and documents!) http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Seas-Red-Stars-Recipients/dp/0764348299 You'll just have to wait till August to get your copy...but if you don't mind saving $19 in the process, now's a good time to buy it!

Hopefully one of our Russian-speaking board members can help...some of these appear to be engineering terms and I'm not familiar with them (much easier to translate the normal "He killed XX Germans with his mortar...")

From my records, it looks like I acquired this group in September 2005, got the research back in January 2006, and sold it in January 2007...probably to Ralph!

Forgot I had this...the citation for his MM...

Good to see an old friend again!!!

That's definitely an odd one...and yes, the Nevsky was awarded after WW2...but I've seen stranger, actually being worn by veterans. I'd honestly be more comfortable with it if it were on a green Russian Federation uniform rather than a Soviet one...but I don't think this is a necessarily impossible set.