NavyFCO

Rick- Thought you'd enjoy these! The second General was gone by the late 60s. I think he passed away in 1967 or thereabouts (without pulling out my HSU books!) For Luchinsky, I love his early awards - RBL in '28, and an RB in '29! It's no wonder that the last time his group was offered up for sale it was in the neighborhood of $425K!!! (That's quite a nice neighborhood, mind you!) Fun stuff! Dave

Here's the award card for General Colonel Obukhov. Much less highly decorated than General of the Army Luchinsky, but you can still catch the drift... an impressive guy! Hope you enjoyed these! Dave

Here's his final one. This was for his Homeland 2nd, just as the USSR was falling apart. Unlike the first one, note his signature on this one. Goes to show that time is no respector of person or accomplishment!

Here's one from 1980. Not much on it, though it it highlighted by his October Revolution. I wonder how many other high-level generals were on that Ukaz? Might be a good starting place for Rick's serial number database... The ones around that number were probably awarded to some big fellows!

Here's the "continuation" award card for his medals and a few later ones... Note his bold signature on the line there. Must have been a very powerful, dashing fellow with all that chest candy!

In the spirit of my previous thread where I showed the citations for these two amazing fellows, here are their award cards! I just got these in the mail today from the archives. Quite interesting, I think! First, here's the earliest award card from General of the Army Luchinsky. Look at all those first class awards! Dave

Gulko's hats are also on the market (or are at least in collector's hands somewhere.) I had both his dress blue and green hats in my collection as well. Dave

Neat topic! I used to take the Metro to work every morning and come home in the evenings. I've got a lot of good stories from my many many rides on the metro! I have always liked these metro worker badges... I think if I could ever find a group with one documented in it, I think I'd have to splurge and buy it!!! Dave

I haven't had a problem finding them. I just bought eight from the Baltics for a very reasonable price. The seller had a good number more - I just couldn't afford to buy them all! Dave

To answer your questions... Labor Orders are researchable. BUT, you need to have the order book with them that lists the Ukaz. The Ukaz can be found and photocopied, and that will sometimes give you an idea of what the award was awarded for. Also, there were several newspapers that listed all award recipients and would have a small blurb about what the awards for for at the top of the list. Sometimes, the researcher can even find a few other newspaper clippings regarding the award. Unfortunately, without an order book, there's no way of researching just a plain, single labor award. For all military awards, you don't have to have an order book. Awards given out prior to WW2 are very difficult to research unless the person had WW2 service. Very few of these records are kept in Padolsk, so it's hit-or-miss - and mostly miss especially on the lower awards. There's actually only one person who does the research - I'll PM you his name and contact info. Good luck! Dave

I don't think it's so much the splotchy typing but the fact that the majority of these darn things are on the real thin (Rick, you know what it's called) type of paper that's almost translucent. That's why you get so many funky photocopies where the letters are backwards, there's signatures where typing should be and the like... because they are showing through from the backside! Many of these documents tend to "wrinkle" over time and thus they made for seriously crappy photocopies. Plus, it's not a far off guess to suppose that Padolsk isn't loaded with the most technologically advanced photocopiers... Dave

Nope... Never owned that one, but had it been offered to me I surely would have bought it! I'm a sucker for ethnic award groups! Dave

Rick- I don't believe that "counter instructions" is really the correct term. I am by no means an expert at Russian, but it seems to me that he led a forced (or pressed) counterattack against the German forces. It seems to me that perhaps the unit commander was KIA, he took over (as the commissar this would make sense) the troops had been falling back, and he "pressed" them into a counterattack that saved the day. That's how I would translate it. I really don't think that he disobeyed orders... something like that didn't get you nominated for awards! I really should know what award that he was nominated for since I used to own the group, but I can't remember off the top of my head and I'm not going to cheat by looking at photos of it on my hard drive! My best guess: Order of the Red Banner Dave

Well, I've researched a few hundred awards, so here's my opinion... OGPW 2nd Class #815628 ... I'd research this one fifth OGPW 1st Class #130658 ... Research this one first Medal for Combat Service #5055 ... Too early to research Order Red Star #818952 ... Might not be bad for a third or fourth Order Red Star #1865385 ... Research this one third, though there's a large chance it could be for long service. Order of Glory 3rd Class #677891 ... Research this one second, though I can just about guarantee that it's for wounds. Order of Badge of Honour #128359 ... unresearchable w/o order book Order for Service to the Homeland in the Soviet Armed Forces, 3rd class, #123167 ... unresearchable If you're looking for a combat valor citation, you have a good probability of not finding it amongst these, unfortunately. But then again... research is always worth the gamble to me! Dave

What's funny (well, not really, more ironic than anything...) is that I owned BG Gulko's uniforms a while back. It's amazing how all this stuff got split up! Dave

I think that the kit appears to be the items grouped together by the importer. Pretty nice, as it is probably a pain to find everything individually! For a while in the mid-90s, my dad had his dealer's license. We could get everything at wholesale (we bought a bunch of the M1 carbines at $110 each!) and I always wanted one of these, but he always told me "no" because of the lack of availability of the ammo. I think they were $85 each for "handpicked" ones from the importer...now I wish I had bought one! Dave

It's 'cause I love you man! Seriously, Rusty, you bring up a good point about the starburst on the screwback OGPW. Note the lack of detail on the tip of the rifle barrel amongst other spots... Looks like it was cast recently and poorly to boot! Here's a scan of some from my collection in various states of wear. You can see that they all have much more detail than this one. Dave

I've got some bad feelings about some of the medals you posted, but I'll let some of the better-eyed fake detectors among us make the call on them (Rusty, your turn!) I will comment on the screwback OGPW1st though... Selling for under $300 is about right. I buy them for $250 each, and have close to 20 in my collection at the moment waiting for research. I would not have bid on this one because it looks like the back of the gold starburst was polished down and renumbered. On all of the ones I have (and the 50+ that I've owned in the past) all of the gold has had some texture to it on the back - and this one appears to have none. The hanging OGPW is bad... I don't like a lot of things about that one. With regard to the Nakhimov medal, if anything I don't like the numbers on it for starters. Of course, I haven't had one in my collection for over a year, but I've owned a lot of these in the past and none with numbers like that. And if it sold for anywhere under $1000, you know it's bad - these normally run in the $1200 neighborhood. By the way, the one with the chains that you mention is the Ushakov medal - which runs about $200 above the Nakhimov. Now for the two medals, I don't have too much of a problem with the group. I'd need to see better scans of it, but it's about what I'd expect from a group like that. Of course, I wouldn't buy it unless I had the chance to return it if the research came back bad... I've seen groups that had very good fake documents even back seven and eight years ago. One rule of thumb buying Soviet medals on eBay... Real ones tend to realize market prices or more, and the fact that most of these here sold for under market value should put up red flags everywhere. Just my two cents. Dave

Not that I've been looking for them, but in 14 years of collecting this stuff that's the first Otlichnik document I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing it!!! Dave

I think he lived up until the early 1990s, but can't confirm that. Given that his awards are in my collection let's hope that he's not still alive! If I ever get the time, I'll scan his collection and post it up on the "researched groups" section. Dave

He was awarded: Medal "For Valor" Medal For Military Merit Red Star Patriotic War 2nd Military Merit w/o number Patriotic War 1st (jubilee) He also had the Honorary Railroadworker, as well as all the "typical" jubilee medals. Interestingly, his family couldn't find his For Valor medal when my contact bought the group from them. It's an awesome group and one of my "keepers" anyway, but it was sad that one of the medals was missing. About three months ago, a small envelope showed up from Russia... There it was! It only took nearly two years to arrive but the group is now "complete." Dave

Rick- Duh! All that time and I never bothered to look at the darn buttons! Of course they have the Soviet seal on them instead of a star! So he WAS a general officer! Okay... Now I'm kicking myself for selling it... even if the other guy DID have his other award! Paul- I think I've sold more nice stuff than 95% of Soviet collectors will ever own in their collections. Some I wish I still had, but at the same time, I had to have the money to buy more... Dave

Inside his order book:

Paul- The wound stripes aren't documented anywhere in his group, not in his order book, by any other award document in his service history or in his personnel file. The only mention I can find of them is in the following letter: *** Second Report Report of the Senior Political Instructor Andreev, Vasily Ivanovich 16 November 1942. To the head of PURKKA, member of the Military Council Comrade Scherbakov Report My request regarding being appointed to do political instruction work in the armoured trains union was passed on to you on November 8 of this year. As far as my professional experience is concerned, I am a railway electrician. Since 1935, I have been working in the economic, administrative and party lines of work. By my higher education degree, I am a junior aviation specialist. On 16 July 1941, as a volunteer political instructor/soldier, I was dispatched to the Leningrad Front. I served as a Communications Engineer, and the Commander of the Communications Unit of the 313th Artillery Regiment of the 115th Rifle Division. In December, I was transferred to the infantry as a Company Political Instructor of the 638th Rifle Regiment, and in January this year, I was appointed the Military Commissar of a Rifle Battalion. I took part in battles from August to April of this year. On 10 April, I was heavily wounded in my face: My lower jaw was destroyed, and I lost all teeth in the upper jaw. I was discharged from the hospital on 18 October this year. Possessing a physical impediment (prosthesis in my mouth) I am no longer able to serve in rifle units as I cannot eat solid food, even bite bread crusts, and each time I eat, I have to wash my prosthesis to avoid inflammation. I am asking you to grant my request as I am familiar with railway service, and I will quickly learn the new type of fighting and will be able to crush the enemy with no lesser strength. In the beginning of April this year, I was to be attested and appointed Battalion Commissar and given the rank of a Captain by the leadership of the 638th Rifle Regiment but I was wounded soon after and was evacuated far away from the front line. On 7 July this year, according to the order across the units of the 115th Rifle Division and on the order of the Military Council No.284 from 18 June 1942 of the Volk. Front I was given the rank of Senior Political Instructor. I am asking you to honour my request. *** He was in hospital from April through October of the same year having his face rebuilt. Talk about a guy who really earned those wound stripes! Dave

Here's the happy fellow in a photo dated 1989, though it looks much older than that, wearing his badge on his uniform. No wound stripes though...