Chuck In Oregon

There was some interest in my post on the Red Cross hero group and one other medical post. I promised yesterday that I would start a dedicated thread, so here goes.

I'll start with this one. It is an expensive high-quality variant of what would otherwise be an ordinary (but nonetheless impressive) badge of the Imperial Red Cross. This one must have belonged to a very senior member and/or a very wealthy one, maybe both.

It is solid gold, total weight is 15.60 grams and 3.5 x 3.5 cm (1.75") in size. Transparent red enamel over a pebbled pattern. The cross and pin are both proofed and maker marked. It came in this nice period case from a turn-of-the-century Tbilisi jeweler's shop. I can't know if it originally came in this case, but the case came with the badge when I bought it. Metal and enamel are in perfect condition.

Chuck

Beautiful Grouping! I do love the Lifesaving/Medical related items!

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Hi Paul

Well, that does it. I'll start a Red Cross/Medical Service thread this evening. I've got a few nice examples in that field to share. I trust you'll post your things too.

Chuck

Hi George

That was a very nice thing to do. Thank you and thanks to Mark, too. Do you suppose we can get the postcard translated too? Does Staff-Captain Rudakovskii have a first name?

I am very pleased with this little group. I haven't seen a reference to a gold version of the medal, but that's definitely what this one is. I have read that it was awarded only to women. That makes me wonder if this was a unique awarding to a man. I am having a little trouble imagining how this was worn from a ribbon, not to mention wondering how and why they decided to award this particular award to a man.

I didn't mean to say that this is the Imperial Red Cross's (or equivalent) highest award, but I do think it was their highest award for valor. There are some other awards for service and merit, as I recall. Since I have a few, maybe we should start a thread on them. What do you think? I have heard that there are collectors who specialize in Red Cross items. Some of them are bound to have some nice things to share.

OK, thanks again for helping make this man's heroism known to the world ninety years after the fact. That's the kind of thing that really gets my blood flowing in our collecting hobby.

Chuck

No, Mr. Gvasalia has already been dead when this document was signed. The clerk has the same last name (makes you wonder what the clerk felt when signing this, dont it?) Ah, the joys of a totalitarian regime...

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Hello Vadim

Thank you for that. I was very puzzled by it and I tried to work out how that might have happened. I admit, the same-name answer never occurred to me.

Welcome to the forum. I'm looking forward to your contributions.

Chuck

<<The photos I have from Georgia look more like mountain areas of Mexico.>>

Georgia has every type of terrain, from jungles near the coast, to high deserts, tea plantations, beautiful wine grape valleys, huge forests, great mountains ... you name it. One thing you see pretty much everywhere is some trees, or at least a little brush. This place looks more like the moon. I mean, there is nothing growing anywhere but a little grass. I bet it was hard to feed the horses off of that. Sort of put the kabosh on foraging for the troops, too.

I am pretty certain this is north-central Turkey in these photos.

Chuck

OK, this is the last picture and it may be the real deal. At least they're keeping their heads down in this very neatly dug gun pit, just below the military crest. It surely has a commanding view. I doubt if anything but artillery could move them out of a position like this one. Still not a tree to be seen in all this area, not even a stump. What a place for a war.

Has this thread been too much? Maybe photo overkill? I can understand it if you think so. Tell me and I'll try to think of another way to share my other album.

Chuck

Here are two gun firing positions just barely scratched into the ground, if that. In the near position you can see a gunner and loader. In the farther-away position, you can see a gunner, loader and maybe a gun boss/section leader with his arm raised. One thing for sure, there wasn't much in the way of cover and concealment in this area. Not a tree to be seen anywhere. I think the officers may be observing a training drill here.

The happy band again, on yet another rocky hillside. Their TO&E must have been just those four MGs and supporting equipment and I suspect that this is all there is to their entire unit. You can see the wranglers (I'm sure they didn't call them that) holding their horses in the back. I think that's the CO again, standing between two other men in the back row. That looks like his horse on the right. The loyal pooch is still in the front row.

This is the same firing (command?) pit. Now the other loader (gun boss?) has his right hand raised. You can see the CO again, right hand near his mouth. You can see that his sword is actually a shaska, a traditional Caucasian weapon. They have re-sighted the left MG to fire more toward the front.

This looks like one of the MG sections at work. One of the loaders appears to have his hand raised as if to give a command to fire. However, I think this must be another posed photo. I think that's the CO there, with the sword, leaning on his right arm and looking to his front. One thing, it's a very neat firing pit, even though dug in some very rocky-looking ground. They must have had good discipline and plenty of time.

And here's the happy band, all unlimbered and gathered together for a picture on a barren hillside. You can see what I think are Maxim and Browning machine guns. However, since I'm not a machine guy, they may be something quite different. It still looks cold there. You can also see the eternal unit dog in the front row. I think that may be the CO in the front row-center, just to the right (as you look at it) of the dog.

This is the same unit, making their way through an orchard just outside a village. The same guy, riding the same horse, is in the lead and you can see a shadow that may be the photographer's. Heavy coats while on the march and no leaves on the trees, but no snow, make me think this is a late fall or winter scene.

I'm going to share an entire photo album. I only speculate from the photos that the first owner/photographer was a company commander.

Even the Turkish Front is only an educated guess. This looks like a Georgian or a Georgian-Armenian unit of heavy machine guns.

There are a total of eight photos. Well, nine if you count the tiny cut-out photo of his sweetheart on the front cover. That is a very endearing side of this man.

The pictures tell the story. This was a hard and lonely life. In the cover picture they are leaving a town or garrison that you can see in the background. My guess is that's him on the beautiful lead horse in the picture on the front cover, below.

Hello Dave

Yes, they do kind of look like torpedo tubes, now that you mention it. That wouldn't have occurred to me, though, without you mentioning it. They just looked like weird barrels of some sort to me. I defer to your naval knowledge and I appreciate you sharing it. I don't think that I knew about center-mounted torpedo tubes, either.

Yes, the hat badge is silver. I'm told that might have been for an officer specialist or senior technician/warrant officer equivalent. Is that correct? His family was pretty convinced that he wasn't a combat officer but that he definitely was an officer of some sort, and they specifically mentioned chartmaker.

I like your story about the family you lived with in Russia. I wonder how the father managed to survive and even thrive. I mean, it stands to reason that they didn't liquidate all of them, but I know that at least in Georgia, they sure as heck tried. Your friend's family was an unusual exception. Was there a story behind that?

David, I like groups with family histories that go with them. I only have a very few, but I'll share what I have and pass along the stories to the extent I know them. I hope to see others do the same.

Chuck

Levan continued his naval service through the Great Patriotic War. However, nothing lasts forever, not even the careers of loyal naval officers who served in at least three wars -- Russo-Japanese, The Great War and The Great Patriotic War. Shortly after the war, during the purges of former Tsarist officers, Levan was arrested and executed as an enemy of the state, based on his service as an officer in the Imperial Fleet.

NB: Corrected in Post #8.

Levan was rehabilitated in 1958. What that meant in practical terms, as best I understand it, was that his family regained whatever party privileges they might have been entitled to and they were no longer barred from whatever social services might have been available. They could work, receive health care, buy food and so forth.

The late-era pension reforms provided a pension for the survivors of rehabilitated executed persons. Of course, you needed a document to prove that was what you were. No, there was no end to the insults. That meant that many Soviet families needed to apply for duplicates of their ancestor's long-lost rehabilitation certificate.

That's what this last item is. It's a 1986 duplicate of Levan's rehabilitation certicate, issued by the Tbilisi Red Banner Caucasus Military Region, and it entitled his family to their meager pension.

One more story of a lost soul.

Chuck

The second photo, the one of the gun crew, came with this group but I can't explain it or tie it in with Levan. We might speculate that it is on board his ship, or one of them, but there is no way to know for sure.

Levan continued his naval career on past the revolution and became a naval officer, rank unknown, in the Soviet Fleet. That is his hat badge you see here.

That's Levan Oganesovich Muradbekov you see there in the first photo. On the back of the photo is a note to his sweetheart, written from Port Arthur in 1904. He's obviously quite smitten with her.

The badge is probably his ship's badge, probably a custom piece for the ship's officers. I don't know for sure, but I think so. It's an eight-rivet piece, solid silver with a solid gold letter and crossed silver anchors over a blue enamel cross, or more accurately an X. The badge is in perfect condition, no damage to either metal or enamel and with only a normal patina.

There are no proof or maker's marks. One might speculate that it was made in a local Port Arthur jeweler's shop. Sailors need something to do while they're in port and shopping is on that list. He has scratched his initials at 10:00 on the reverse.

According to his descendants, Levan was a naval mapmaker or chartmaker. They weren't exactly sure except that it was something like that.

Like most of us here, my history readings have been replete with accounts of various and sundry atrocities, purges and holocausts great and small. However, I remember my very real shock when my close friend and counterpart in Georgia first told me the story of his family.

As I wrote previously, his grandfather was executed in 1923 for being a former White officer. His uncle was executed -- they still say liquidated -- for "harboring anti-Soviet thoughts". God forbid, and could you possibly make that up? His father was expelled from university and lost all of his party privileges for being a relative of an executed "enemy of the people".

There is not a doubt in my mind that I would not have survived those horrors.

Chuck

... And here is the letter. The stamp is the same as the award.

Chuck

I simply cannot read the cursive in either of these two documents. At the risk of great embarassment if I'm wrong, I'll tell you what my conversation notes of the time say.

The postcard is a picture of the recipient of this award. I didn't write down his name and I can't read it. Yes, I'm an idiot. He is writing home and saying that he is all right after being wounded while escorting some wounded soldiers back to a hospital. Pretty much an "I'm OK, don't worry" letter.

The second document (next post) is a 1915 letter from the Imperial Red Cross that accompanied the award you see here. It says that he is awarded the highest Red Cross medal for bravery in saving a group of wounded soldiers under his care and bringing them safely to a hospital.

This award is in outstanding condition. The circle and pin are silver, the pin is proofed and maker marked. The cross is gold and proofed. The enamel appears to be the highest quality transparent red enamel over an interesting design in the gold. There is no damage or wear to any portion of this badge. Except for some patina, it is perfect.

Avers 5 shows an 1878 example of this award as item #216. However, it says it is (or was then?) a woman's award and that it was silver and enamel, with no mention of gold.

I believe that this is a documented presentation of the very highest award that the Imperial Red Cross could bestow. However, I am always willing to be corrected and to learn more.

Chuck

... And here is the reverse.

... And here is the front side of the execution confirmation order.

Sandro Ivanovich Gvasalia was 38 in the summer of 1923. He had been condemned to death and was being held in Senaki Prison in Georgia.

This first document is a June 27, 1923, decoded order from the Georgian Cheka (ChKG) in Tbilisi (Tiflis) for his execution.

The second document (next post) is dated July 2, 1923. It is a report from the ChKG to the Poti Politburo (Poti is an important Georgian Black Sea port and it was the equivalent of a regional capital) that Gvasalia had been executed. Note that it appears that Mr. Gvasalia was required to sign his own death warrant. Of course, I may have this confused, but that's the way I read this and it's what my notes say.

The folds and staple marks along the edges suggest that these documents came from Mr. Gvasalia's own file in the archives.

Mr. Gvasalia may well have been a criminal. However, it is possible, and even likely, that he was a former White Russian officer or sergeant. After Georgia capitulated in 1921, there was supposed to have been an amnesty for White soldiers. Well, that didn't exactly happen. What did happen was that most White officers and NCOs were rounded up and executed in and around 1923 and many of the ordinary enlisted men were exiled. The grandfather of a very close friend of mine was executed in this purge.

If this kind of document is offensive to this forum, I will be glad to pull it. Otherwise, Mr. Gvasalia's execution comes to light 82 years later, here at GMIC.

Chuck

Thank you, Dudeman and Rusty.

Chuck

In the top left photo he is wearing the GTO-2nd Step badge you can see here. Not one like it, this exact one.

In the top right photo he is wearing a Voroshilov Shooter's Badge. I have several, but one didn't come with this group. The same for the Jubilee Medal for 50 Years of the Soviet Militia that he is wearing in the bottom right photo.

Then there are the bottom two badges. The one on the left is a DOBROKHIM badge and the one on the right is a Ministry of Sports badge. I have never come across either of these badge variants before or since, not in books or "in the wild". Have any of you seen them?

The condition of the bottom two is poor, that of the top badge is excellent, as nice an example of this badge as I have ever seen. I cannot reconcile the discrepancy. I have only seen the condition of the bottom two badges come about in two ways. The first is after having lain under polluted water in a wet Tbilisi basement for decades, which I think accounts for these. The other is as a dug item, most commonly a grave-dug item. But why the excellent condition of the GTO badge? Was it in a drawer upstairs? I haven't a clue.

Chuck