Bob

The entrance hall... you can understand the main theme of the museum:) Lot's of goodies in this building I can assure you!

The good stuff is coming... Minsk... a rainy afternoon... off to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. A GREAT museum! Not the concert hall on the left, nor the socialist workers meeting center or something like that on the right... but the inspirational building in the middle.

First, some pics from a small little museum on the war in Afghanistan in the city of Vitsebsk (north of Belarus). So small that they're not really that used to getting visiters but still worth the visit (just wish I could read Russian) and the entrance fee isn't exactly a disincentive

Will be giving some highlights of Belarus as far as related to phaleristics. First, some pics from a small little museum on the war in Afghanistan in the city of Vitsebsk (north of Belarus) Second, some pics from the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk. Highly recommendable. Third, some pics from the Brest Fortress in Brest of course. Also highly recommendable. And finally, while travelling in Lithuania, I stopped right across the border with Belarus in a town near Drushkininkai called Grutas. There's a very nice park there jam packed with old Soviet time period statues... Lenin, Stalin, etc. galore. Also has some very nice exhibitions and you can eat traditional Soviet food from the good old days in the cafeteria:) Great park to wander around, enjoy the socialist realist art and take pics:) Will post pics step by step over coming days. The best at the end:)

Mongolian Organization Decides to Award Order to Kim Jong Il Pyongyang, February 9 (KCNA) -- The Guidance Council of the Federation of Peace and Friendship Organizations of Mongolia on Jan. 18 decided to award its highest order "Star of Friendship" to Kim Jong Il on the occasion of his birthday

SOAS News Mongolian Order of the Pole Star Award 15 Jun 2007 Emeritus Professor C R Bawden FBA was recently awarded the Mongolian Order of the Pole Star by the Mongolian President on a recent visit to the UK. The decree was awarded for Professor Bawden?s efforts in developing relations between Mongolia and the UK, especially in promoting Mongolia, its history and culture to the world and for his contributions to the Mongol state. ------------------------ Perhaps GMIC should be getting a Polar Star for contributions to phaleristic research related to Mongolia!

NSDAP? SA? SS?

Then you are also aware that his pre-Dutch background in Germany is not exactly spotless? I agree, he could have stayed behind but chose to flee the Netherlands instead. A convenience many others did not have.

Curious: so what drove you to collect TR as opposed to, say, militaria of brave fighting men of Poland for instance? You are German? One thing I have to give to the Nazi's, they were certainly good at building and consitently communicating a strong brand image. I suspect that is some of the appeal for many TR collectors?

If I recall correctly it was around USD 3.000

Yes, please do

interesting: 2 mongolian awards (very expensive!) and top left a medal with Paulus + Zhukov on it (odd combination) sorry, this is not north korean but wanted to give context of where it was found...

here's the interior of the store in Minsk that I bought it from, that is, close up of their medals cabinet

and last pic any korean speakers here?

sorry - here's first pic of inside admit it... this guy does not look Korean:)

Here she is

Can numbered Korean awards be researched?

Must be - didn't see an award for sale at all. Just back. Will scan/post korean award tomorrow... and also pics of some great museums (with lots of awards:))

Minsk is great! Certainly very different (i.e. more "life") than last time I was here about 7 years ago though. Also, striking is that the entire country is now virtually paved... the road network (I am here by car... Brussels-Vilnius-Polatsk-Vitsebsk-Minsk-Brest (tomorrow)-Hrodna and than back home again). I liked Minsk a lot last time as well... there are people that can't stand it because it's so modern (due to WW2) but I rather like the fact that it's so spaciously set up with parks, wide roads, river and of course that beautiful Stalinist architecture on the main artery through the city:) I'm afraid - for nostalgic people like me - it's going to be harder and harder to travel to countries and have a bit of an old fashioned Soviet experience. Interestingly enough, I have yet to see 1 single Soviet award for sale... saw some (extremely overpriced) Mongolian awards for sale and also some pre-socialist russian awards but nothing soviet at all (besides some pins and stuff).