NavyFCO

I just got in the research for this very interesting little group to a tanker.

His awards include:

Red Banner 428547

Red Star 2933147

OGPW 2 714487

Military Merit Medal 3056309

He also has a Victory Over Germany with "Victory Parade" book, Victory Over Japan, XXX Years medal and a jubilee OGPW1st.

He joined the Red Army in February 1934, and trained until October 1934 to become a mechanic-driver on a T-26 tank. In 1935, he commanded his own T-26, and in 1938, he was commissioned as a tank officer. He took command of a tank company in the 29th Light Tank Brigade, and during that time fought in Finland as a T-26 tank company commander.

When the war broke out, he was commanding a heavy tank company in the 43rd Tank Regiment, 22nd Tank Division. Interestingly, even though it was classified as "heavy", the division was only armed with 235 T-26 tanks - the same tank as the "Light Tank Brigade" above!

The Division had the unlucky distinction of being DIRECTLY on the border on 22 June 1941, and when the German artillery barrage that began Operation Barbarossa began, they were attacked while still in their barracks!

Most of the artillery for the division was captured immediately by the attacking Germans of Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group, never having a chance to fire. The infantry dispersed into the Pripet marshes, leaving the tanks to operate on their own. By 1000 on 22 June 1941, the Division had lost 175 tanks, with only 60 remaining operational!

On 19 July 1941, the remnants of the unit were trapped in the Minsk encirclement and were destroyed. Our Lieutenant managed to escape, however, and made it back to Soviet lines. What's the good Soviet thing to do with escaped troops? Send them to the Stalingrad Tank School! Here, he commanded a company of motorized tractors (perhaps for artillery?) and later commanded a company of officer candidates all the way until July 1943.

For two months, he commanded a T-34 tank company in the 2nd Reserve Tank Regiment, and finally took them out into combat on 18 September 1943. Unfortunately, fate would deal it's evil hand again and less than a month later, outside of Poltava, he was heavily wounded on 12 October 1943. Because of the wound, he remained in hospital until March 1944, when he was then transfered to become a student at the Leningrad Highest Officer Tank School. Continuing his education he then transfered to the 1st Officer Tank and Motor Vehicle Training Regiment of the Red Army from October to December 1944.

Why send someone highly trained back out to the front, when you can make him guard the HQ? That's exactly what happened next... He was sent to be the Deputy Battalion Commander in the 201st Tank Brigade. Though the 201st was carried as an active unit on paper, it was in reality a training unit for the Moscow Military District, and it remained east of Moscow until Victory Day in May 1945.

During this time, he qualified for his 10-year For Military Merit medal, which was awarded in March 1945. As you can tell from the tone of the citation, he was THRILLED to be at the unit...

Was assigned to the Brigade as the deputy Tank Battalion Commander on 9 December 1944. At that time, he displayed discipline and knowledge of tactics. However, he now fails to exhibit any initiative in his activities even notwithstanding the low level of discipline in the battalion as well as cases of breaching military discipline by the officers as well as by the NCOs (enlisted). The procedures for standing guard in the battalion, for which he is personally responsible, are not in order.

Morally stable. Has authority with his personnel. Does not require re-training.

Conclusion: With some assistance he will be successful in the deputy Tank Battalion commander position. For the continued service in the Red Army deserves to be awarded 'For Military Merit' Medal.

Though the writing of the citation is relatively adverse (the first adverse one I've ever seen!) my translator says that the tone of the citation isn't that bad, as they put it - if it were truly adverse, our Lieutenant would have been sent to the Gulag instead of given a medal!

Interestingly, he was a participant in the Victory Parade in Moscow, as undoubtedly his unit was as "spit and polish" as they came!

Things sped up a little with the start of the War against Japan though and in August 1945 the unit fought against the Japanese for the short battles on the "other" front.

The War ended, but not the career of our unhappy Lieutenant (note that he's been a Junior and Senior Lieutenant since 1938!) and through a unit transfer wound up in the 21st Tank Regiment, who apparently had a bit of pity on him. Two years after the end of the War, they nominated him for a Red Star, which then became a Patriotic War 2nd Class. Interestingly, this is NOT a delayed citation, but an actual citation written well after the end of the War!

Comrade Prokvatilov, since assigned to the position has showed himself as a disciplined, skilled, exacting officer with good initiative. He is serious and conscientious in relation to his official duties, pays much attention the well being and political {position} of the battalion personnel, and supervises maintenance of the unit?s materiel and weapons.

He has fought against the Finnish invaders, in the Patriotic War and war with the Japanese. He repeatedly displayed courage and bravery in combat; his right hip was severely wounded during a bombing in the town of Poltava, when he was assigned as the Tank Company Commander with the 41 Guards Tank Corps.

For his displayed courage and bravery, having been severely wounded in the battle for the Soviet Motherland and having no governmental awards for combat honors, he deserves to be awarded the governmental award ? the Order of the Red Star.

I don't know what happened to him following this. By 1955, he was a Major and was in command of a tank battalion in the 42nd Guards Tank Regiment. I would not be surprised if he was retired as a Major in 1958 having put in 20 years commissioned service. He was awarded a Red Star for long service in 1950, and a Red Banner for 20 years in 1954. He never received a long service medal, which he would have received in 1959 had he still been in the service.

A rather interesting group to a fellow who "came back" as it were from being a rebel to being a decent officer!

Dave

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

Many thanks for your input Guys,

Just to clarify, as a rule of thumb which types of orders are unresearchable without the accompanying book?

Dave, that's a shame if I can't research the Military Merit, as it's a nice low number. Is this due to records not being kept that early?

Finally, do you have any recommedations as to who I should get to do the research?

Cheers

Gilbert

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

Splotchy typing

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

Oddly enough, Dave did NOT apparently ever have this in his paws

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

Dave,

Thanks for putting me on the spot

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

Well, I guess I got the reverses in the first post. Here is the document for the military badge.

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

Any word on how long he lived? Unfortunately, based upon his wounds and dietary restraints I do not see him living to a very ripe age...

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

What awards are listed there in his book?

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:

Dave,

That is an awesome grouping! Is that photo still attached to his awards book? If so, what medals and orders are listed?

Were the wound stripes documented as awards in the books?

Paul

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