Christian Zulus

Dear Gerd, many thanks - 2 rows . It is interesting, how he wears the stars: HSU - HSL - HSU HSU - HSU Best regards Christian

Dear Ed, you are right: Brezhnev was completly mad about orders + Hero titles. He received so many orders and Gold Stars (4x HSU, 1x HSL, +++ all the Stars from the "friendly nations"), that he would have needed about 3 (three) uniforms to wear them at once. It is almost impossible to wear Brezhnev's 5 Stars in one row . Does anyone have a photograph of the late Brezhnev wearing all the 5 stars? As Dolf mentioned, comrade Brezhnev was THE medal collector. Imagine the market value of his (complete) collection . If he would be still alive, he would be the No. 1 in our collectors community . It might have been a "Gold-Star-Swap" between CCCP & GDR, but I think, that Mr. Honecker never dared to wear his HSU in public, if he would have received one. Many thanks Doc, that you will do some investigation into the topic: Honecker & HSU. Best regards Christian

Dear Doc Riley, many thanks for putting the aspect to foreign - specially german - HSU-recipients and your additional postings about these group of people . Richard Sorge, Stalin's most important spy, is another famous german HSU. He got the title 1965 posthumously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sorge Walter Ulbricht, the "founder" of GDR (he looked like a clown and spoke in a rather strange and odd manner), got his HSU 1963. O.K., he was the inventor of the "Berlin Wall" ("Antifaschistischer Schutzwall"), but a HSL would have been more appropriate . BTW: Ulbricht is one of the most underrated figures in the history of Socialism. In fact he had rather interesting concepts in economic policy and social policy. As you pointed out already, comrade Schmenkel was a meritorous Soviet partisan, who was executed in Minsk by the Nazis. I think, that he deserved his HSU, due to the regulations of this title. Stasi-chief Mielke participated in the "Spanish Civil War", but that had been all. During WW II he lived in the underground, but was not a partisan at all. So I think, that he got his HSU not for deeds during the war, but for some successfull operations - there had been, due to Markus Wolf, a lot! - at the "Secret Front". As you wrote, he got his HSU in secret, which points to espionage. Sigmund J?hn was the 1st german cosmonaut in space, so he got - like cosmonauts from India, Syria, Cuba, etc. - his Gold Star automatically. I found no evidence, that Erich Honecker got a HSU. Honecker had been one of the "smallest lights" in the history of Socialism and if he would have really got a HSU (for what?), it would be a scandal . Best regards Christian

Dear Mr. Chairman, GMIC is your property and you make the rules - no discussion about it. So I will abolish all traces of humourism or ironic comparisons in my future postings at your platform. Despite the fact, that my style of writing is not appreciated by all members of GMIC, I assume, that my previous contributions at your platform are of a certain phaleristic interest and somehow valuable contributions to your platform. My motivation for participating at GMIC is obvious: You have established the most serious platform for collectors of Soviet awards concerning phaleristic aspects + documentation & research. I regard me as a serious collector of military history - Soviet Union + Yugoslavia - and I can easily proof it. Mr. Chairman, may I deposit a big wish of mine: Would it be possible, to install for the 2 Soviet & Eastern Bloc sections some sub-groups. Not so many as in the section concerning awards & materials of the period in german history usually called the "Third Reich" (I hope I named it in the "correct" way ), but it would be very helpful to have some structure in our 2 sub-groups. The collectors community for SU-awards is rather large and still growing. Many thanks for your support in advance. Best regards from Vienna Christian Zulus

Gentlemen, Dave brings in very interesting aspect, which I have also noticed in the memoirs literature: Soldiers - I think specially officers -, who did not receive any award during the GPW (and survivied), got just after the war an Order of the Red Star. Might be an explaination for the hughe number of issued Red Stars . What is your experience with that habit? Best regards Christian Zulus

Dear Gilbert, it might be the "Victory over Germany"-Medal . Maybe someone of our Russian members could translate the documents . Best regards Christian

Dear Ed, we are playing nicely together - no problem . Best regards Christian

Dear Doc Riley, I don't want to be sarcastic at all, but I want to emphasize, that this special section of GMIC is named "Soviet & Eastern Block Orders, Medals & Decorations" and that a large number of GMIC-members from Europe - specially from the former Soviet Union - would not have agreed with your special list of cities, who deserve the distinction "Hero City", you published a few postings before. Many thanks for your "revised" list of "Hero Cities" . I feel sorry, if you regard my comments - or maybe other postings by members with their roots in Slavonic Europe - sarcastic. Maybe we are ironic, but never sarcastic or offending. We don't "hate" people from the USA, but we might feel closer to US-citizens like Noam Chomsky, than to George W. Bush . And the role of the US-Administration at the European War Theatre during WW II was a little bit "mysterious" - specially after the death of Roosevelt. The "Cold War" had been a concept of the USA and not of the CCCP! We collect Soviet awards and we love Soviet awards - this should be our basis. To collect Soviet awards is a difficult and tricky (so many fakes!) business, which costs a lot of money. So the manners among the collectors community should be always friendly and helpful . Best regards Christian

HSU vs. Glory (Full Cavalier) Gentlemen, according to the regulations of the award and the practice, HSU was never a pure military award. The Order of Glory had been a pure military award for heroic deeds in the line of fire. I share the opinion of "slava1stclass" and the well known SU-Awards-dealer from NYC: A "Glory-Trio" is the supreme heroic award among the SU-Orders. Hero Cities Dear Doc Riley, o.k., then you will except the official list of the "Hero Cities" . WW II had been won at the Eastern Front and NOT via the "Second Front" in France (one year too late!) or the collaboration of the Western Allies with SS-Obergruppenf?hrer Wolf (frequent meetings with Dulles in Switzerland), SS-Butcher Heinrich Himmler, etc., etc. 75 % of the Wehrmacht & Waffen-SS had been terminated by the Red Army. So a certain number of places in the former Soviet Union have the right to be called "Hero City". Tula is not Huntsville in Texas . We have in our collections the medals for the "Defense of Leningrad" and "Defense of Stalingrad". Their name is not "Defense of Saint Petersburg" or "Defense of Wolgograd - or Zarzyn". So I stick to the old names. Best regards Christian

Hero Cities Gentlemen, if someone knowns only a little bit about the history of the GPW, there should be no discussion, that the listed cities deserve the title "Hero City": 1 Brest (Hero-Fortress) 2 Minsk 3 Smolensk 4 Kiev 5 Odessa 6 Murmansk 7 Leningrad 8 Tula 9 Moscow 10 Sevastopol 11 Kerch 12 Novorossiysk 13 Stalingrad For my taste, the list is correct and comprehensive. Consider what happend in the fortress of Brest, remember the battles at Kerch-Penisula or the importance of the city of Tula for defending Moscow! For the SU-Awards-Collectors-Community ("SUACC") Leningrad will always be Leningrad and Stalingrad will always be Stalingrad: Our focus is at the GPW - and the names are "correct" for that period . My humble opinion. Best regards Christian Zulus

Dear Dave, many thanks for your great insight informations about the US-Navy. I am focussed at WW II and the early "hot" period of the "Cold War", so I didn't knew, that the rank of a Commodore as a "1-Star-Admiral" vanished. So the US-Navy returned to the German (3rd Reich) system, where you had the "Kapit?n zur See" (Captain 1st rank) with the "title" Commodore + the big gold star at the cuffs. O.K., the rank promotions of comrade Kandybin had been in right (minimum) time, but the promotion to the positions - i.e. Brigade-Commander (= "Commodore") in the rank of a Captain 2nd rank and at the age of 42 - had been rather quick - it's just my opinion and experience with Soviet military history. I assume, that most of the US-Navy-officers at the age of 42 are rather far away of the high-ranking commanding position comrade Kandybin had . Best regards from the city of your (old) familiy Christian

Dear Jim, many thanks for the "excellent" examples! I think, that these awards are casted - as you can see at the surface - and not struck, like authentic medals from the mint. But such casted fakes are rather easy to dedect. Some days ago I spoke with a friend of mine, who owns some establishments for producing - high grade - juwellery in Europe and Asia. He told me, that for the forgers it would be no problem to produce strucked fakes of Soviet awards in the future. It's just the matter of a (rather small - in comparison to the profits) investment for the machinery and the new machineries for strucking medals or coins are rather small in space. So it might become a "hard life" for new collectors of Soviet awards . At the moment a large part of the forgers/dealers in the Ukraine and the Baltic States work still rather "primitive", but this might change. There is already one order, Motherland 1cl, where an expert hardly can say, if it is genuine or a perfect fake: http://www.historicalresearch.com/authentication.html (they also include Motherland 2cl, but I think, that a mocked up 3cl to a 2cl might be easier to dedect, than a mocked up 2cl to a 1cl). A Motherland 2cl has still a market-price (well above USD 1.000,-) and a Motherland 1cl has almost no market-price - it's also rather rare . What should the collectors community do, if the Russian Mint starts to produce - genunine (!) - Suvorovs, Ushakovs, etc. for the market? The larger Russian military units sold also their stocks of Motherlands (+ matching documents) during the 1990s. Best regards Christian Zulus

It is a pity, that comrade Kandybin didn't receive a Order of Lenin for his 25 years in service in the Soviet Navy, but only the Military Veteran Medal . But that procedure was correct according to the regulations in the 1960s. On the other side, the price for the group would have been much more expensive with a Lenin instead of the Veteran Medal . Best regards Christian Zulus

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