NavyFCO

Steen-

Here's Obukov's service history through December 1944 (the date of the award that this citation is for.) I believe this should help!

If anyone would like to see more of Obukhov, let me know and I'll post his citations.

Dave

I was wondering whether your material includes any information on what tank brigade Obukhov commanded 1941-42. Also does it mention which Tank Army he was the assistant commander of in 1943?

Steen-

I believe I have at least one or two long service citations to Obukhov with his service history. I'll check when I get home today and post it if I have one.

Dave

That's all for now. I wouldn't want to get on folks' bad sides by making a huge thread right off. I have more citations, for Generals Luchinsky and Obukhov if you'd like to see them.

Enjoy!

Dave

Here's Ludnikov's last award, Red Banner "5" number 354, awarded 22 February 1968. He was serving as Chief of the Faculty at the General Staff Academy at the time of awarding.

Here's Ludnikov's Hero of the USSR citation. Nothing like you'll see for a mere mortal soldier (which normally run at least a full page) or better yet a pilot (average of two to three pages!) this one is quite short and to the point. He was awarded the title on 16 October 1943, recommended for it by General of the Army Rokossovski. At this time, General Ludnikov was in command of the 15th Rifle Corps.

Here's one you don't see every day. The citation for a Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd Class, awarded to General Ludnikov while he was Commander of the 15th Rifle Corps on 10 January 1944.

Here's a Red Banner to General Ludnikov. He earned this serving as the Commander of the 15th Rifle Corps, 13th Army. It was awarded on 27 August 1943, and was Red Banner "2", number 3958. The author of this citation was General Lieutenant Pukhov, and the final approving authority was General of the Army Rokossovski.

Here's another Lenin to General Ludnikov, while he was serving as Commander of the 138th Red Banner Rifle Division. This one was dated 22 February 1943 and he was awarded Lenin number 12704. The writer of the citation was none other than General-Lieutenant Chuikov!

And another Lenin to General Ludnikov. This guy was awarded on 21 February 1945 and was Order of Lenin number 25554. At the time, he was serving as Commander of the 39th Army on the 3rd Belorussian Front.

That was all there was to Voroshilov (unfortunately!) Even paying "extra", that's all that came out of the archives citation-wise.

Next, we've got some of the citations to General Colonel Ivan Ilyich Ludnikov. Quite a fellow, ended up as an HSU with 3 Lenins, 4 Red Banners, 3 Suvorov 1st Class, Suvorov 2nd, and Bodgan Khmelnitsky 2nd. Not a bad final tally!

First, let's start with one of his Red Banners, downgraded from a long service Lenin. This one was awarded on 3 November 1944 and was Red Banner "3" number 155. At the time of this award, he was serving as the Commander of the 39th Army. The author of this citation was General of the Army Chernyakhovskii.

So here's the first one. Not really spectacular, but still... Like I've said in a previous post, you knew you were cool in the USSR when you got your own Ukaz. Sooo... Here's the Ukaz (no citation, this was all there was!) for the second HSU title to MSU Voroshilov! This was awarded on 22 February 1968.

I've done a bit of research on some of the uniforms I own and have ordered research on them. Being that they are all HSUs, I haven't ordered the award card. While this has saved me a good bit of dough, I don't have the award numbers unfortunately!

Anyway, I thought that you all might appreciate seeing some of these award citations. Due to the physical size of the citations and in trying to keep them readable (and downloadable!) I've only posted just the text itself, but will try to post some pertainent info that goes along with each.

Also, given that my Russian skills are okay, but not great, I haven't translated these. After all, I can't make it too easy on everyone! Seriously, I have to pay to get the translations done right and I just haven't been able to spend the cash to get them done. So... Time for some fun!

Hope you all enjoy these!

Dave

To which Wartime-Order would you compare the "crab"?

I'd say it was most like a Red Star or a OGPW2. While I've never seen a Crab awarded for valor, I have seen lots of Red Stars and OGPW2s awarded for training and behind-the-lines administrative work.

Dave

Do you have ever researched one of these in higher serialnumber-range like 80-90.000? Did the value of this Order decrease with the time as well, like it happened to other Soviet orders like Red-Star and Red-Banner?

Gerd-

Good to be here.

I've never researched one of the higher numbered ones, though Luchinsky's was probably in that range - I just don't have an award card for him. My feeling is that anything under 100000 is researchable. Everything else is tryable, but I wouldn't depend on getting research back.

As far as them being "devalued", I don't think this became the case. It's wasn't really a "prestigious" award to begin with like the Red Star and Red Banner and the citations that I've seen from the 1970s compared to those of the late 1980s are pretty much the same.

Dave

Typical! papa's looks like a "well, he's still breathing" award of the sort so beloved in the Brezhnev era!

I've got a few more like that. In the USSR, you knew you were cool when you finally got your OWN Ukaz! When I get off probation, I'll post up some of the citations for awards to some of the "big boys" (that I have research for, of course) for their awards.

Dave

Here's another one, but to a different Luchinsky - I believe his son. This fellow was a Colonel serving as the Commander 61st Training Motor Rifle Division in 1974. Sorry for the postage-size scan, but this is the biggest I can post at the moment.

Here are a couple more Homeland citations. First is the citation for the Homeland 2nd Class to General of the Army Luchinsky. It is dated 26 December 1989 (merry Christmas general!) and it was awarded by Ukaz of 22 Feb 1990.

By the way, I've probably had 400-500 citations come through my hands, but this is by far the tightest writing I've ever seen! Sorry for the size (I'm still on probation) but even at 110kb, I don't think there's much reading to be done!

Dave

What was the date of award? 127,703 should have fallen around 3 November 1944 BUT what's all that "screwback" solder doing on there? Has this been rescued from the hands of an Evile Retro-fitter?

Rick-

The Ukaz date on the Red Banner is 14 August 1944. He also was awarded OGPW1st 39808, Red Star 947978 (long service), Red Banners 241042 and 317219 (long service.) It appears that he soldered on the screwpost himself, and then later removed it. He didn't do it to make it a "screwback" award. Most likely, he did it to solder on a hook or screw in order for it to stay on his uniform, as was common with some pilots and tankers.

Dave

Rick-

I would post up the newspaper articles, but they START at 600kb just in order to make them large enough to read!!!

I think that this might be a case in point where she got this as a 20 year service award. We'll see when the articles get done being translated!

Dave

This is a neat citation that I just recently got in. I picked up this Red Banner from a dealer in Europe about four months ago for around $45. Not a bad price nowadays, I don't think! So, I researched it and here's what came back...

AWARD CITATION

1. Last Name, First Name, Middle Name: Tsibulevskii, Matvei Davidovich

2. Military Rank: Guards Major.

3. Place of Service: Deputy Commander of Political Detachment, 174th Guards Rifle Division, 57th Guards Rifle Novo-Burskoi Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd Class Division.

Recommended for: Order of the Red Banner.

4. Year of Birth: 1904.

5. Nationality: Jewish.

6. Party Membership: Member of the VKP/b/ since 1924.

7. Service in the Civil War, in later Battles in Service of the USSR and in the GPW (when and where): In the Great Patriotic War since 22 June 1941 on the South-West Front

8. Have any Wounds or Contusions in the Great Patriotic War: None.

9. From Which Time with the Red Army: From 1919 to 1925 and since 1932.

10. Received Which Awards (from which order): Medal ?20 Years of the RKKA?, Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class from Prikaz 8 Guards Army 219/n 6.05.44.

11. Home Address: City of Chkapov, Chmoskintsev n 2a. Wife Motovskaya-Tsibulevskaya Ida Yakovlevna

Short Concrete Description of Excellent Military Action or Service.

For the mass heroism of the regiment?s personnel. Comrade Tsybulevskii, in the leading role as the representative of the Communist Party personally led the regiment to victory in the severe battles at the Dnister bridgehead. This brave fighting was under the direct control of Comrade Tsybulevskii, he used regimental personnel and raw reinforcements to fulfill Comrade Stalin?s order #70.

Having crossed the Dnister, at dawn on 11 May the regiment was attacked by the counter-attacking enemy. Our personnel were caught under drenching artillery fire, strong attacks of enemy aviation that didn?t even stop for a minute, massed attacks of enemy infantry which came one after another further supported by enemy tanks and self-propelled artillery. This intense attack created a situation that required intensive will and utter devotion to the Motherland, particularly as the raw troops began to falter. The attacks continued through both 11 and 12 May, where our troops were punished by 32 enemy counterattacks with the continued support of 25 to 30 enemy tanks.

During this time, Comrade Tsybulevskii, employing the materials and personnel at hand, destroyed 16 tanks, 2 self-propelled guns, 3 armored personnel carriers and over 1500 soldiers and officers. In his role as the Deputy Regiment Commander, Guards Major Tsbulevskii?s victories had an enormously decisive role in holding the bridgehead over the Dnister.

After skillfully distributing his party and political staff throughout the combat sectors, and ensuring the correct number of communists in combat, Comrade Tsybulevskii repeatedly appeared at the at the decisive points in the fighting on the front lines and inspired the soldiers with his Bolshevistic word and personal example of heroism and bravery. On 12 May the enemy, employing a tremendous amount of tanks and infantry began to press on a single unit. Comrade Tsybulevskii appeared at the unit, and shouted: ?The Guardsmen do not retreat! Ahead! For the Motherland, for Stalin, follow me!? Rushing forward into the enemy guns, he carried our soldiers and officers with him. The adversary was thrown back and crushed. The objective was controlled.

Skillfully arranging his political staff, Comrade Tsybulevskii was able to further support the frontlines by ensuring the non-stop flow of ammunition to the regiment. Major Tsybulevskii M.D. deserves the governmental award ? the Order of the Red Banner.

Commander of the 174th Guards Rifle Regiment, 57th Guards Rifle

Novo-Burskoi Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd Class Division

/s/ Guards Major Kolmochorov

He received his Glory 3rd class on 20 February 1945, 2nd class on 31 May 1945

and 1st class on 20 December 1951. I am sorry that I cannot properly translate

the more detailed information; but hope that this little bit is helpful.

His three numbers were:

1st Class: 1168

2nd Class: 19286

3rd Class: 297869

He entered the Red Army in November 1942 and was on the front in December 1942. He was a gunner in an SU-57 attached to the 22nd Self-Propelled Artillery Brigade (4th Tank Army, 1st Ukrainian Front.) Interestingly, he was awarded two 3rd Class Glories (one on 15 October 44, the second on 20 Feb 45) and a 2nd Class on 31 May 1945. It was his second 3rd Class that was traded in for the 1st Class on 20 December 1951. He was demobilized in 1945 and worked as an administrator in a movie theater in Padolsk. Ironically, Padolsk is home to the Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense - the mecca for reserching awards!

Dave

Rick-

It's good to be here and share some of this useless info.

This baby (2618) isn't off the same Ukaz as Vozachenko's, but it was part of the next Ukaz, dated 30 March 1975. So, that puts nice range limits at least on the Ukaz for his, and now possibly for this one...

Dave

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.