NavyFCO

Here's the citation for 2618 (above): AWARD CITATION 1. Last Name, First Name, Middle Name: Kravchenko, Ivan Ivanovich, G-098751. 2. Military Rank: General Lieutenant 3. Place of Service: Deputy Commander of Independent Military Training Forces, Conscript Training Detachment and Conscript Training for the North Caucuses Military Region. Recommended for: ?For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR? 3rd Class. 4. Year of Birth: 1920. 5. Nationality: Russian. 6. Party Membership: Member of the KPSS. 7. Service in the Civil War, in later Battles in Service of the USSR and in the GPW (when and where): Served on the 1st Ukrainian Front from February 1944 to May 1945. 8. Have any Wounds or Contusions in the Great Patriotic War: None. 9. From Which Time with the Red Army: Since October 1938. 10. Which Call-Up Station: Volunteer in the 230th Mountain Rifle Regiment, 83rd Mountain Rifle Division - Instructor. 11. Received Which Awards (from which order): 4 Orders, 7 Medals; Order of the Red Banner for the achievement of military and political success in training, Ukaz PVS 1968. 12. Home Address: Rostav-on-Donu, Prospect Budennovski, House 76, Apartment 18. Short Concrete Description of Excellent Military Action or Service. Lieutenant General I.I. Kravchenko is characterized positively in his service. A demanding, proactive, and disciplined general. Possesses good management, methodological, and leadership abilities. Manages training at the military schools and military departments at civilian higher education establishments in a skillful and competent manner. Conducts demonstration seminars with officers at the military higher education establishments on a high methodological level. Knows the nature of the modern combat and operations. Is able to competently evaluate the situation and make the best tactical decision. Continuously works on enhancing his own military, political, and technical knowledge, as well as actively participates in public and political life. Skillfully engages the Party cell of the section. Often conducts lectures and makes reports for the military schools' personnel and faculty of the military departments at civilian higher education establishments. Is modest in private life, morally stable and ideologically consistent. Deserves to be awarded the Order 'For Serving the Homeland in the USSR Armed Forces', 3rd Class. Discussed and approved by the Military Council of the Military Region on March 29, 1975, minutes #2. COMMANDER, NORTH CAUCUSES MILITARY REGION COLONEL GENERAL (signed) D. LITOVTSEV

Finally, the inside of the book and the back of the award.

Here's the order itself. Obviously worn with pride! What I love about it is that everything is 100% original... No changed ribbons, hanger, or anything like that.

Here she is. Probably was fairly attractive as a young lady, but just imagine what she had lived through up to this time...

All: Here's one of my favorites. I have owned this one for years (I don't even remember where it came from) and thought about selling it numerous times. What saved it was the forelorn look on the photo of the recipient. She looked like she had been through so much and for the money I could get from it, it would be sad to see something bad happen to the group. So, I kept it in my "junk box." Years later, I found out that we could research labor awards and I gave this one a shot. Turns out this young lady was a middle-grade teacher at School No. 59 in Arkhangelsk. Pretty neat! There were several hundred other teachers that were awarded the ORB at the same time on an Ukaz dated 14 December 1944. Now, interestingly, after reading through some of the labor award research in these threads, I took another look at the research. I never looked past the initial Ukaz, and just today I found that there were several photocopied newspaper articles about her included with the research! I will post those up as I get them translated. Fun stuff! Dave

And the fronts. Not much different between the two. Interestingly, the earlier one weighs in at 66 grams, the later at 62 - a noticible difference, even when holding them. Dave

Here are two that I have. Both belonged to generals: serial number 0383 belonged to a General Major, and serial number 2618 belonged to a General Lieuteant. I have the citation for the latter one - if I can find it I'll post it up. Dave

I think there are a couple reasons for this award. First, Glories could be awarded by division commanders. When in a rush to get an award approved, or if the senior unit was unaccessable, then it may well have been considered prudent to award what could be awarded, rather than wait (though this one took long enough to award!) Also, the fact that it took so long to award may have been because she ended up in hospital for some reason and her unit couldn't get the award to her in time, which meant the delay in the awarding. Finally, Glories were a BIG deal when a soldier returned home. By this time, Red Banners and Red Stars had been significantly "devalued" as long-service awards, whereas to earn a Glory you had to actually be in combat... It was much more prestigious to go home to the old village wearing a Glory as a "real" combat veteran vice a Lenin/Red Banner/Red Star trio as a long-serving "benchwarmer." Were I a betting man, I would say she was nominated for the Red Banner and the award was sent up as such (or at least a Red Star.) Honestly, a Red Banner seems a bit excessive for the citation, and from my thought process above, I think that the opinion was that the Glory was a better combat award. Anyway, while the award was being routed through the chain of command, she ended up in hospital and the award was rushed through, to be bottom-lined by the division commander in order to get her at least "A" award before she was gone from the unit permanently. Well, she left and the award never caught up to her. Thus the reason it took so long to catch up - it was probably lost in filiing somewhere, she was unlocatable, and by the time she could be found (or perhaps she heard from another vet that she had been nominated for it?) it was 45 years later. Still, remarkable! Dave

Since I've owned about 3000 photos over the past decade, I've found that they've come from several sources. First, most came out of the archives. Many of the original service records had more than one photo, often two, three or more. Somehow, direction came out (probably dollar motivated) to dispose of the extra photos. I'm not sure if this instruction was completely followed exactly - it appears that many service records were simply raped of all photos available. I can only imagine the number of photos that were released into "the wild" at the time! Second, I believe that a good number of them came out of local military archives. It appears that military regions stored the personnel files for the personnel within that region and they too collected the photos of the officers to update the files. After the fall of the USSR, many of these records remained in the archives now belonging to individual countries. Some of these former republics couldn't give two cents for old Soviet records and just dumped those as well. So, the whole record (photos included) ended up out on the market. Third, it looks like officers were also able to keep some of their record photos (perhaps they had a chance to view their records from time to time and "purge" them of old documents) and they got to keep the old photos. That's why you occasionally see photos with unresearched groups. Finally, earlier in the 90s, when research first started, it would often come back with the original photo of the recipient. Nowadays that doesn't happen, but I saw it quite a bit years ago. If you'd like to see scans of an entire (lengthy) personnel file to a twice-HSU general, please follow this link. http://www.forvalor.com/Ark.htm On my website I also have some original citations as well for viewing. Dave

Ed- Terrific group! I remember seeing it on the table before you bought it. Had I only known then what was under the table paperwork wise, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. Ah well... Win some, lose some! Personally, I think this is one of the best Soviet groups out in collector's hands. Dave

Rick- The late research was partially my fault... I found it nicely nestled in a batch of later research. I thought to myself: "Hmmm... this group doesn't sound familiar..." and then it dawned on me! Off into the mail it went. Glad that it could add to your overall research! Dave

Very nice group! Glad you're happy with it! Dave

Jens- I believe your crab was an awarded one. The only way you'll know for sure is to research it. The ones 110000+ are the only ones I know of that were released (can you imagine how many thousands were released???) that are unresearchable. Dave