Bob

And in the Stalingrad Panorama Museum I was able to see an award document!

I know - not a good pic... looking in close up it looks like (surname) Prodimizva

Even more...

MOre

Here we go, a nice series from the Stalingrad Panorama Museum... last pic: Skanderbeg! Must be pretty rare for a Soviet to get an Albanian award!

Slightly more detail

Here's what looks like a very old book

Wrong thread, but nevertheless nice to see this... look at the number of Mongolian awards this guy got: - 3 SB's - 1 hero star Pic was hanging in the Kalach-on-Don regional museum outside of Volgograd. A wall with all local guys who made it big during the GPW.

Just came back from a trip to Volgograd / Stalingrad and surroundings for May Victory day celebrations. Also did a side trip to various sites outside of the city... including to Kalach on Don (close to where the Russian fronts came together to surround Paulus. A delightful little museum there... with some interesting Mongolian items. First of all, please refer to above mentioned honorary badge numbered 266... I came across a documented one in this little museum! And to, what appears to be, a pretty important guy. Sorry for low quality pics... bad lighting, glass plate + digital cam one generation too old!

Awaiting research...

And a nice one related to Soyuz 39

Complete set

Close up

Here in custom fitted box

Dimensions - ribbon: width of 20.00mm and height (excl ring connector) of appr 14.40mm - gold star itself has thickness of appr 3.35mm at center and 2.20 at star tip - gold star has max widt of 17.4 (star tip to star tip) - total = 17.8gr, star only 13.25gr Dimensions thus not being fully in alignment with what is currently in Eric's book. Unfortunately unnumbered/unmarked... although I'll request from source the "story" behind the star and - if possible - will share here. This is probably the first time that a scan of a real star (i.e. not from book) is made available on internet!

Custom fitted box

Open blue box

Open red box

Blue box

Red box

Visiting Volgograd/Stalingrad and the Stalingrad Panorama / Museum surprised me... a group of awards to - presumably - a VIP Soviet... WITH a 1st class Skanderbeg. Pics soon to follow.

Am visiting Volgograd right now and - unfortunately - not much to find so far in terms of medals... although oddly enough I've come by a boatload of overpriced run of the mill Mongolian awards... incl quite some polar stars and even a Deputat badge

I visited Chernobyl and Pripyat while touring through Ukraine by car. Smuggled into the exclusion zone by a local maffia guy who was running the steel reclaim operation from various old reactors there, runnning the gasoline distribution and all transportation in the Chernobyl area. Had a blast - up to 100 meters of the reactor. Fun in the Chernobyl bar sipping away cognac with the locals. You can also visit it officially as a tourist but requires paying $$$

I think I'll stick to the Mongolian section we have quite here. It seems to be the principle place for all lovers of Mongolian awards so don't quite see a need for spreading the knowledge over more places.