Bob

I have an award booklet for one (elsewhere on this forum). Off the top of my head, it looks very much Soviet produced as well.

I have an award booklet for one (elsewhere on this forum). Off the top of my head, it looks very much Soviet produced as well.

Interesting... and if they would source badges from USSR... why not also medals?

Well - I hope for the best. I acquired it from the source of other sources (i.e. in Berlin) whom I'd put quite some faith in. Let's see what comes out of research (i hope).

Some better scans. This is a heavy little gold award! Still looks Soviet to me!

Yep - with such a huge landmass and small population, they managed to do pretty well for themselves in not being crushed.

That's all - I hope somebody knowledgable can decypher anything useful from these doc's while I await research. I also just submitted a seperate research request. My Russian boss came with a bag of orders/medals to work today. After long nagging by me she got her mother to look them up in St Petersburg. Her grandmother fought in the Finish war and later defended Leningrad. Subsequently he did chemical research related to rockets in a "secret" facility. Unfortunately most of the awards had vanished over the years however 1 red star still survived (along with some assorted other stuff) and that will provide best chance of finding something in the archives as I also have the name. Nothing beats the excitement of awaiting research on a person that you have a direct relation to! Plus, his surname was... Zhukov!

inside

Here we go...

OK, point taken - hope I didn't step on any people's toes Reminds me of similar debate I have with my Russian boss sometimes... in the company I work for, she insists that Mongolia should be part of our sales region of former soviet countries... I keep pointing out that Mongolia was never member of Soviet Union... at which point she always points out that Mongolia may not have formally been part of USSR but informally did as Moscow saw fit... and then typically I get an ice cold look that Russian women seem to be pretty good at

I guess they'd count. On the other hand... they were essentially Soviet medals/orders, right? I.e. USSR was "occupying" the country so it's not like Afhanistan (like Mongolia or DPRK) sourced them from Soviet mint purely for procurement related reasons.

Poland caught me by surprise - my limited exposure to them never gave me the impression that much soviet symbolism was used in Polish awards. Love those Yugoslav stars by the way! I only have a 3rd class one of soviet manufacture (but WITH award document apparently awarded to a Russian).

Couldn't you just sell the house instead?

Herr Zulus - looking at your awards from your "my collection" thread. I'm stunned you haven't gone out to get research for all of these yet! The stories behind them must be very interesting!

Thanks for the insight Steve. I guess it's about time I give Alexei a try then. I've always been extremely satisfied with the level of service when he was selling awards on a more frequent basis so good idea to also go with Alexei on research now.

Well, I've learnt to be patient with research requests. I have an order of red star out for about 2 years and still waiting... which is probably not a good sign Too bad as it's in the range of red stars awarded to Mongolians. The one red I have managed to get researched took well over a year.

Hopefully I can provide clarity tomorrow. One of the stamps of his other medals specifically mentions Vilnius and I believe may also indicate something related to the unit he was in. Mail is off to Alexei - keeping fingers crossed!

Ah yes, forgot about Yugoslavia. Have a partizan red star (with doc) myself - one of the Soviet made ones. Any other countries?

+2 Unfortunately (or: fortunately?) Albanian awards hasn't been much of a hit yet with the rest of the collecting community but the few enthusiasts are sure to want to help!