NavyFCO

I'm interested to see what is in this fellow's research when it comes back. When I owned the group, I could have sworn I researched it, but I can't find anything in my research files on it. It was a nice group though - and only one of two that I've owned with the red Occupied Germany stamp in it. One question that I have is if anyone has seen any proof that the red Victory Over Germany award card was issued only to the participants in the Moscow parade? I have owned a number of these, and they have dates ranging from June through August 1945, and have had numerous different unit stamps- from regiments up through fronts. One group I had was to a General Major who was a "big player" in the war against Japan and his document was dated while he was in Siberia... Did they fly him to Berlin for the parade and back? I'm doubting that. They brought in cadre from a number of fronts, but if you read through some unit histories, the majority of the "bulk" units in the parade were made up of training units from around Moscow. I have a group to a tanker Captain like that at the moment, who I am certain was a participant in the Parade, as his unit history indicates that they were in Moscow on training duties during that time. My doubts about these being issued for only parade participants stems from two things... First, the number of different dates that you see on them- some even before the "big" parade took place. Second, the number of units that issued these out. For the second, there's a slim chance that each cadre from each front received X amount of documents to hand out to the participants, but would they really bring all their admin people, stamps and the like all the way to Moscow just to stamp the documents up? It's possible, though I'm not certain how likely it was. For the first, why all the different dates? And why some with dates BEFORE the parade took place? I would think that most would have dates all within a few days, if not a week or two of each other, but several months? Could there also be the possibility that a limited number (the Soviet's version of the "collectors edition"... okay, just kidding!) of these documents were shipped to the various fronts, as this was the intended original form for the Victory Over Germany medal? Then, they later switched to the non-red version as it was probably deemed uneconomical to send out all these well-made documents. That could be a good explaination as to why you see these documents with June through August 1945 dates on them, and then the later documents with dates ranging from August 1945 onwards, as the units ran out of the red initial issue ones. ALSO, the only red documents I've owned have been to either senior officers or administrative types... the first ones that would have had the documents issued to them, as they were the closest to the personnel section issuing the documents. Thus, to sum up my theory... These red documents were the originally intended document for the VoG medal. After all, the VoG medal was a HUGE deal... The Soviets had just defeated the greatest enemy known to man! But, after an initial "run" of say, half a million, they discovered that they weren't cost effective to produce and so they switched to the thin card examples. The red versions though were still shipped to the fronts in limited numbers, and were issued out until the stocks ran out. Most of the guys that received these red ones were staff officers (anyone seen one to an enlisted?) who were the first in line to get their medals documents because it was an easy walk over to Comrade Medal Issue's desk and get your paperwork. Once they ran out of these documents, they switched to the white version and that was that. The reason so many of these ended up with Victory Parade participants is that they wanted the VoG medal worn at the parade. Since it was illegal to wear medals that aren't documented, they used these red documents to issue them to the parade participants that were stationed around Moscow, even though bundles of them had already been shipped to the various fronts for issuance. Thus, according to my theory, Comrade Dubrovin never left Berlin. He was there on the administrative side of the 1st Belorrussian Front from March/April 1945 through occupation on into 1946. Being that he was an administrative Major, he was one of the first to get his VoG medal issued, and thus received the red card instead of the later one, which would explain the date and stamps of his local unit on this card. Now, a few questions for you all... Does anyone have any of the later non-red document for the VoG dated either June or July 1945? AND, has anyone owned one of these red documents to a combatant? That might help shed light on my proposed theory. Dave

That dude ROCKS! I love the beard! What's funny is that he'd probably look pretty young without the bushy glade growing on his face! Wild! Dave

This is another naval aviator, Aleksandr Tolmacheyov. He has a beautiful array of awards for a naval officer, including Odessa Defense, Sebastopol Defense, and Caucasus Defense - in addition to his two Lenins and Gold Star!

Here's an interesting fellow, Filipp Gerasimov, a naval pilot. He was awarded the title of HSU on 14 June 1942. As the above fellow, he also converted his awards, but this time to match his screwback Lenin. A fairly impressive amount of awards for a Senior Lieutenant! Dave

I finally pulled out my HSU photo collection. I've scanned a couple that I thought were interesting. Here's a nice one to a young lad named Kalinin, Stepan. Interestingly, he converted the Lenin to screwback, even though it was awarded on 24 March 1945! Dave

Here are scans of an entire general's personnel file, from cover to cover. There was only one photo in this file. I think the number of photos depended on how often the file was "purged" from old photos, etc. I have seen up to five photos from one file before. General Arkhipov Personnel File Dave

I had a nice family purchased group once to a fellow who had been an Air Force pilot prior to WW2, but for some reason (perhaps medical) became an admin officer during the War. He had a long service Lenin, Red Banner, Red Star, Military Merit medal and then had a second Red Star. I was pretty excited to see what the other Red Star was for, since I figured that the rest of them were for long service. When his records came back, I found out then that he had been the admin officer for the air division, but interestingly, he was awarded the Red Star for his writing of the unit's battle histories! Necessary, but "boring", even though his unit had a stellar combat record. I sold the group and about a year later, a fellow offered the research (and one of the documents from the group) up for sale on another forum. I was livid, of course, having spent $125+ on the research, only to see it split from the group! However, he had sold the group to a dealer who didn't want the research, evidently because it wasn't "exciting"! How sad is it that someone is willing to split apart a group in order to sell it based on the "merits" of the group, in order to forward the notion that he had been a pilot in this rather famous unit, when in all irony, his awards were given for being the person that made the group famous on paper? Dave

Rick- I think this fellow wasn't so uncommon. He probably joined the Red Army in maybe 1942/43, spent six months in officer training, another year in the Vistral artillery school, and he made it out to the front in maybe 1944/45. He probably saw some action, but nothing remarkable, thus no pressing requirement for a decoration. He probably made Captain by the end of the War (not unusual for them to be Captain after a year or two) and then was promoted to Major shortly after the war - could even be right before the photo was taken. AS far as the boards are concerned, they're probably hand-me-downs from another officer... I can't tell you how many times I've lent my insignia out to an officer who was either a recent promotee or forgot their insignia. The theory probably was: "Hey, better to have a photo taken with the right rank rather than one with the old rank..." At the same time, with regard to his action during the War, he could have ended up in one of those units that was in the "Reserve" for most of the end of the War, or in one of the front line training units. At the same time, he could have been an artillery officer detailed as the aide to the Regimental/Divisional Commander, could have been the Adjutant or personnel officer for the Regiment/Division... you can go on down the list... There were millions of officers and men who served valiantly on the various fronts but never fired a shot from a weapon. After all, SOMEONE has to be there to handle the transportation, logistics, pay, training, etc... Plenty of guys actually saw action during the War, but for whatever reason, only a minority of them recieved awards for their service. We get rather cynical after a while always looking at and researching groups that have gallantry awards... But go figure... If they had 35 million people in uniform during the period of the Patriotic War, not all of them earned awards - even with close to 2 million Red Stars given out for wartime service, that's still only roughly 5 percent of those that put on a uniform for the Soviet Union during the War. And at that, think of the multiple awards, etc... Anyway, just a few thoughts... I think this guy was probably the more common veteran of the Patriotic War than we actually think he is... Dave

Rick- To look for what? I did separate out all my HSU recipient photos. I was lucky enough to amass a considerable collection from a fellow (well-known author) who decided to part with all his HSU photos after completing several books on HSUs. Dave

Rick- I don't know what the scrawl is, but that's for sure him... Not many HSUs were awarded a Glory (or two) as well, and he was the only Karasyov to be awarded both a Red Banner and Glory 3rd. So, someone messed up something, somewhere! Dave

Rick- Fyodor Grigorievich Korobkov was born in the city of Spassk on 7 June 1898. He joined the Red Army in 1918, and the communist party in 1925. He had served in both the First World War and the Civil War. The pre-WW2 years see him serving either in instructor or student roles in his education as a pilot, and at the outbreak of WW2 he was serving as the Deputy Commander of the Air Forces of the Navy with the rank of General Major of Aviation. He was KIA on 24 April 1942 and was posthumously awarded the title of HSU on 14 June 1942. His final award talley was: 2 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor from Uzbekistan. Dave

Rick- Time to invest in the two volume HSU book set... Pavel Denisovich Paramonov was born on 25 October 1925 in Rostov Oblast. He joined the Soviet Army in 1943 and was in the fighting from Feb 1943. He served with the 473rd Artillery Regiment, 99th Rifle Division, 46th Army, 2nd Ukrainian Front and was awarded the HSU for crossing the Dunai near the city of Erchi (Hungary) on 5 December 1944. He was awarded the title of HSU on 24 March 1945. He retired from the military as a Major and died on 13 August 1970. Aleksi Markovich Karasyov was born on 20 December 1920 in Pskov Oblast. He joined the Soviet Army in 1940 and was in the fighting from June 1941. He was a machine gunner with the 412th Rifle Regiment, 1st Rifle Division, 70th Army, 1st Belorussian Front and was awarded the title of HSU on... conincidentally...24 March 1945! He died on 9 January 1964. Dave

Guys- I won't be able to get any of my pics until late this evening, so in order to keep things flowing, I defer my question to someone else... Go ahead! Dave

Of course, that uniform belonged to our dear Comrade, Marshal of the Soviet Union G. Zhukov, who led the Soviets into Berlin. If I'm not mistaken, that's his uniform from Karlshorst (sp?) Museum? To answer the questions.... Stars: Four Gold Stars of the Hero of the USSR (very impressive!) Ribbons: 2 Orders of Victory (perhaps even more impressive than the Gold Stars!) 4 Orders of Lenin 3 Orders of the Red Banner 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st Class XX Years of the Red Army Now the real challenge (and it's not bad) would be to ID the ribbons from the bottom five rows! Dave

Back about 5 years ago, a Soviet awards dealer sold the Glory Cavalier group to one of the flag raisers on the Reichstag. I believe the group sold for something in the vicinity of $5000 - an amazing amount of money for a Soviet group back then! Dave

I think that all depends on who you ask... I have a great photo of the teachers at one of the schools of "musical arts" in Leningrad and it's impressive to see the vast number of teachers with HSLs, Lenins and RBLs! If I can find it, I'll post it up this afternoon. Dave

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the back of the general's photo, but I do recall that it was from the mid 70s. Note that he does have the 50th Anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces, so it's at least post-1968. I really do seem to recall a 1972 date on it though (not that I haven't owned like 2500 photos, so I could be confusing it with another...) I'm surprised you didn't pick out the Chinese medals on the bombardier! I owned his entire group and he was never awarded the 100th Anniversary medal (unless it was completely lost with document). Sadly, all of the documents (and this photo) have strangely dissapeared. I opened up the box I thought I had them in one day and they were gone........ To this day I have no clue what happened to them! Dave

At least with her name and the Ukaz date you can find out for certain what she got it for. It may be for something more exciting than milking cows... perhaps teaching ballet or the opera perhaps? Dave

And a second....

Here are a couple that I found in my files.....

I'll look through my files to see what I can find from what I've owned, but unfortunately most of my groups were scaned without the jubilee medals! Ah well.... Dave

What's funny is that the Afghanistan vet with the For Valor and Military Merit actually has more combat decorations than the "well decorated" WW2 vet with his jubilee OGPW! Dave

I don't mind the group. I'm not a fan of the re-numbered OGPW, but at the same time I've seen them before without the "D". I have both seen and owned groups that have all been duplicates. I still wouldn't buy the group without a guarantee of authenticity and return rights. Dave

Rick- Doug is the one that bought it... It's just that I was the one who sold it initially after getting it from a dealer here in the US. Dave

Another... For some reason, I never scanned this group (or I lost the scans of it...)