Christian Zulus

have you guys seen the result of the last Carsten Zeige Auction. The Lenin tractor version sold for $100 000 + buyer's premium. Have a look here at the other interesting orders that have been sold.

www.zeige.com

Dear Bryan,

many thanks for reminding us .

The Tractor-Lenin was sold for EUROs and not for (cheap) USD .

I list some results in USD including buyers premium and VAT.

Zeige showed strange results (and strange items) in the military-hero-section:

- one HSU wasn't sold at all

- another HSU went away - rather cheap - for about USD 6000,-

- a Glory 1cl went away for about USD 4300,-

As I already posted here at GMIC, I am not happy with all 3 items .

Some other results within the "normal" market-trend:

- Tractor-Lenin almost USD 200000,-

- (ordinary) Screwback-Lenin almost USD 16000,-

- (normal) Lenin almost USD 3000,-

- RB#2 USD 3000,-

- Suvorov 2cl USD 31500,-

- Kutuzov 2cl USD almost USD 22000,-

- Nevsky type 3 (!) USD 4350,-

- (ordinary) OPW 1cl USD 1100,-

Another three rather strange items:

- Uzhakov-Medal USD 630,-

- Nakhimov-Medal USD 590,-

- Meritorious Pilot of the CCCP USD 590,-

Zeige's website is also in Russian language .

Best regards

Christian

Gentlemen,

yesterday GMIC-member from Vienna "Josef Rietveld" http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showuser=645 traded his YU-made "Medal for Bravery" to me - boxed & ribbons :

Best regards

Christian

Skirts? That's the least of their problems. What about the stilettos? Absolutely no shoe discipline whatsoever across this formation...shocking and unheard of in a professional army. Where will it all stop?

Gentlemen,

I guess, that is common in most of the Armed Forces around the world, that the shoes are rather free to choose and also the length of your skirt (if you are female or Scottish ).

You can make out at that posted pic, that the length of the skirts are all different:

O.K., if it's not against the army regulations, why not stilettos & mini-skirt for the duty in the office .

As long, as the legs are o.k., I can't see any military problems ... Otherwise I could be a factor of "demotivation" for the troops, if they are forced to look at "not-so-perfect" legs.

Gentlemen, motivation is an important factor in the Armed Forces .

Best regards

Christian

Thank you very much. Great badge and document you show, in that link. You have a great collection.

Dear Snoopy,

many thanks .

But it was cheap & easy to build up such collection in the early 1990s - I had luck, to start so early with collecting Soviet awards.

Best regards

Christian

Hello,

Raid Bank of Tiflis at 10.30 hrs

Ordered by Lenin, done by J.W. Dschugaschwili, Tovarish Kamo and many others to get money for the Bolshewiks

90 injured, 40 dead

Regards

Frank

Dear Frank,

congratulations - perfect and correct answer .

Question #187 is now your turn .

Best regards

Christian

Question #186

We'll be waiting with unabated expectation

Gentlemen, another easy question in the style of Marc:

1. What happened on 26th of june 1907 ?

2. Where did it happen?

3. Who was involved? (here, you need to give me at least the names of the two main participants)

Best regards ?

Christian

The Soviet Avards looks to have very good quality.

Dear Nesredep,

all of my items are 100 % authentic & genuine - and of a high standard of preservation. Only about the 2 "Excellence Badges" (Sniper & Submariner) there is a discussion about the authenticy, as it is shown in the threads.

Best regards

Christian

As you correctly suposse...the hammer with thw RBO2, goes to....2400USD!!!, the winning bidder has only a feedback of 26...a newcomer!

Miguel

Dear Miguel,

many thanks for your information .

It happened, as I told you in my PM .

Maybe that newcomer is one of the Russian collectors ?

Capitalism still works (at least somehow) and nothing is free .

Best regards

Christian

Christian,

OK!

You got that one nicely pinned down. Your turn.

Marc

Dear Marc,

many thanks .

I have to think about a new nice question .

Best regards

Christian

Nice, Christian. Thanks for the effort to put these up. Nice to see all them in one place!

Dear Ed,

many thanks .

My small & humble collection is no match to your collection, with it's numerous documented & researched sets .

Best regards

Christian

Nothing to add, except these are superb and outstanding pieces!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!!! A collection like these would today be very very hard to gather....

Dear Christophe,

many thanks .

Besides the fact, that some items of my collection would be hardly obtainable now, I couldn't afford to buy such a collection now.

Best regards

Christian

You soviet collection is pure quality! I did not see a single "common" item in the lot! The photo of Comrade Yevgeny Dolmatovski is nothing less than stellar, and is one for the reference books!

Dear Paul,

many thanks .

I also have (almost) the whole range of "common" items in my collection .

That photograph can be rather often seen in GPW-books and also at a French book as cover.

Best regards

Christian

Right, guys, let's get the ball rolling again.

As usual, this should not be overly difficult

1. What happened on 24 May 1940?

2. Where did it happen?

3. Who was involved? (here, you need to give me at least the names of the two main participants)

Marc

Dear Marc,

On 24th of may 1940, in Coyoac?n, a neighborhood of Mexico City, Leon Trotsky survived a raid on his home by Stalinist assassins led by GPU-agent Iosif Grigulevich, Mexican painter and Stalinist David Alfaro Siqueiros and Vittorio Vidale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky

O.K. ?

Best regards

Christian

Dear Snoopy,

that's really a nice flag .

Best regards

Christian

Dear Snoopy,

you can see the old type of that badge + the Photo-ID-Card here: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtop...st&p=248668

You have the new type.

Best regards

Christian

Dear Bryan,

you have an excellent YU-collection - much better, than my own one .

Looking for a documented & researched Lenin-screwback (military!) + a documented & researched Nevsky type 2 (maybe both in a group ) you will have the choice: Either a well-preserved second-hand Porsche, or these two items .

But the FoN - even documented ones - is still rather moderate priced and that order IS a beauty .

Best regards

BTW: I have neither a Porsche, nor a Lenin-screwback .

Well for my part I never paid those prices because I started collecting in 2004, so I never took profit of the break-up od the Soviet Union neither the Russian financial crisis in 1999. I paid my Red Banners around $100 - $120 which "old" collector said these were "insane" prices at the time. I must have spent the half of my student loan in my collection and I still lack many pieces in my collection that I regret I didn't bought from (Alexei) Nota Bene before he closed his shop. Now I regret, because at the time I didn't really have to money to spend on those items. I'm not even sure if I will get one day a Lenin order or a Nevsky order. I don't even have the Friendship Order. Too bad.

Anyway, I'm happy with what I have got during my studies and it' now s a shame that the prices have gone really insane.

Is Soviet collecting really mainstream by now or it's just the fluctuation of the Russian market?

Dear Bob,

I can't find any logic in Markov's behaviour, because he should be interested to collect the money after the auction - it's his buyers premium .

Usually you should get after the auction an e-mail, saying: "Congratulations, you have won the bid, please transfer USD XXXXX to the bank account XXXXX."

Maybe one of these Russian collectors paid even more for your items - after the end of the auction -, then you ? So your items might be already in Moscow or St. Petersburg .

As we know, some GMIC-members already had some bad experience with Markov ...

Best regards

Christian

Dear Andrew,

Speaking of Leonid Brezhnev...

I recently saw a picture of Brezhnev smoking an unfiltered cigarette - at age 68 - in the White House with President Ford.

Anyone see the irony in such an image, especially in contrast to today's American culture of anti-tobacco? Great image for thought, if only I had it in jpeg form.

Nevermind me, resume your other discussions.

Did you have that photograph of the "Washington Post" in mind:

Well, comrade Secretary General looks a bit like a pimp daddy .

At least, a rather strange coat for an invitation at the White House ...

Best regards

Christian

Dear Brian,

many thanks for your "first-hand" contribution and for your interest into our discussion .

At the 18th of april 1947 the British did much more harm to that small island for birds, as your father and his comrades did: They blow up 6700 tons of explosives in a cave for submarines. That had been the biggest non-nuclear explosion in the history of mankind and changed the landscape of Helgoland .

Best regards

Christian

Hello Gentlemen,

I have been following this thread with interest.

Having been born just after the end of the Second World War I have no first-hand knowledge of what had gone on. Of course I also had no first-hand knowledge of any propaganda that we may or may not have been fed. I have read a lot of material on this subject and there are so many opinions written that the more I study the subject the less I seem to know. Or at least that I can accept as truth.

As a child I thought as I was told, that "we" were on the side of right and "they" were totally evil. Now even my father who flew bombing missions over Hamburg has his doubts that they were doing the right thing. He flew in the last Canadian mission of the war in Europe and bombed the small island of Helgoland. There was a small air base situated on the island but there was no fuel left for the fighters stationed there. My father said that they dropped so many bombs on that island that it should have been blown below the waterline (sunk so-to-speak). He has always said that they murdered those poor German Airmen for no reason what so ever. I guess we can all second guess ourselves about the past.

Cheers

And thanks for an interesting post.

Brian

Dear Wild Card,

why to apologize ? That thread was thought to be humoristic and an Irish soldier and an Austrian soldier exchanged their points of view about WW II in Asia 1945 + the policy of the US-Administration at that time in a rather sober & academic non-offensive style. And a GMIC-member from Russia meant, that it wasn't o.k., that the US bombed a country in Europe some years ago. What's wrong ? GMIC shouldn't be translated into "Gentleman's Mobbing Interest Club" . Rick brought the thread back to the humoristic track - and that's fine.

Listen, the Serbs didn't bomb the beautiful Adirondacks. It was the opposite way: The US bombed Serbia. BTW: Central Serbia has a rather similar landscape as in the Adirondacks .

I feel sorry for your father in law and your uncle, but I guess, that they hadn't been in the position to take any influence into the policy of the US-Adminstration. I can tell you rather similar stories from my family and I guess, that Sergey might tell you also rather similar stories from his family during the Great Patriotic War in Russia. I stated in my posting, that the US-Adminstration wanted to prevent a 2nd Ivo Jima. So, where is the logic content of your statement ?

I am not against the USA: I love President Roosevelt, I like President Carter and I have great admiration towards the history of the United States of America - specially in the age of the 18th century, when your people invented democracy.

Best regards

Christian

Gentlemen,

I believe that an apology is in order and I would like to make it. In reaction to post #5, I foolishly took the bait, made a ?smart? reply in post #8 thereby turning what had been a rather fun and clever thread off into what has now disintegrated into our biannual harangue on everything that is wrong with America.

Mr. Zulus, my wife?s father was wounded fighting ?against the monster in it?s own cave? on Iwo Jima; as was my son?s Godfather. I wish that you could have had the opportunity to inform my father?s brother as to how ?ineffectual? his twenty-four missions over Germany were, when he returned home after being a German POW for over two years - and that?s just the beginning.... I would appreciate if you would save your political drivel for one of the many chat rooms that would thrive on it; but in the future, at this site, I for one, would like to ask that you check your guns at the door and keep the politics out of it.

Incidentally, I thought that post #1 was quite humorous; but judging from the new uniform styles that have been introduced in Russia lately, I think that Ed Haynes might be on the right track in post #4 - shades of President Nixon?s disastrous, and mercifully short lived, Hollywood costumes for the White House Guards which had no place in American culture. The difference is that reaching back to Czarist uniform styles at least relates to an era of their history (which they may choose to accept or reject, that?s their business), which certainly produced some of the most handsome uniforms ever.

Again, Gentlemen, I apologize for causing this thread to become the victim of a political hijacking and the resulting lectures that we have had, admittedly by choice, to endure.

Regards,

Wild Card

Dear Rick,

great picture - many thanks for posting .

Best regards

Christian

BTW: Remember, most of my threads with a certain (European) humoristic point of view have been either blocked or delated, because some GMIC-members with US-passports felt offended. So, to prevent blocking or deleting, I am writing my postings in a more or less sober or academic style. There is still some (European) humor shining through, but usually not offending some GMIC-members with US-passports (there are still enough US-GMIC-members, who like my postings and inputs ). It might seem useful to create some "GMIC-Humor-Regulations" ...

Impressive Awards Collection,thanks for sharing.

All the best

Dear Nesredep,

many thanks for your appreciation .

In comparison to other collections, mine is rather small & humble - I still miss a HSU, Labour Glory 1cl and an Odessa-Medal in my collection and from the range of the really high-end generals/admirals orders I only have a Kutuzov 2cl in my collection . In the early 1990s I tried my best, but now, I don't have that amount of cash to take part in the run for the missing high-end items ... The collectors from Russia have a bit more to offer ...

Best regards

Christian

Dear Sergey,

many thanks for sharing these great pictures with us .

There really has to be a lot of "metal" in the soil of the Rzhev-era - Zhukov's greatest defeat .

Best regards

Christian

Well said.

Many thanks, Paul

Best regards

Christian

Dear Matteti,

you are right - let's say, there is a 50:50 chance that it is a true battle award .

Anyhow, have a look at the website http://www.russianglory.com/soviet_orders.htm , always known for good items at (rather) moderate prices. The paid price for that RB still looks rather fair, I guess .

The RB is an important order in the history of the CCCP - and there is a big demand for that order in Russia.

15 years ago, you got the ident RB for USD 20,-, but now - according to the economic laws of supply & demand - the price tag moved up to USD 600,- or more.

That's capitalism !

Best regards

Christian

Hello Christian. Not so sure it's a battle award. Could well be for 20 years of service.

According to my data, the number is in the range for November 3, 1944 long service Ukaz. Only research could provide a conclusive answer.

114934 03/11/1944

127731 31/07/44

133595 19/10/44

139041 11/1944

140534 11/1944

143574 08/1944

155077 06/06/45

155357 03/1944

172456 08/1944

173253 11/1944

177574 03/11/44