Soviet Captain-Lieutenant Vladimir Vasil'evich Vas'kovsii

[Ed_Haynes]

OK, right now, go get your copy of "The Hunt for Red October". Watch the first 25 minutes.

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Are you done yet? OK.

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Now? Good.

The medals:

Edited September 12, 2006 by Ed_Haynes

[Ed_Haynes]

(Note the long service medals, please. Let me know if you want closeups on the badges.)

The document, cover.

[Ed_Haynes]

Name page.

[Ed_Haynes]

Award page. (And an odd late document to these novice eyes.)

[Ed_Haynes]

The long service document.

[Ed_Haynes]

And the interior.

[Ed_Haynes]

Award record card (front):

[Ed_Haynes]

Back.

[Ed_Haynes]

The recommendation.

[Ed_Haynes]

Reverse. The recommended award was altered.

[Ed_Haynes]

Translation of recommendation from the researcher:

"Comrade Vas'kovsky V. V. while being a security officer of the Special Department of KGB USSR showed himself an active, disciplined, and responsible officer. He actively participates in works of the local party chamber and is a candidate of local party bureau.

"He participated in five long-haul voyages. In November 1982 as K-424 crew member he participated in the development of new tactical procedures, including the use of an atomic submarine under the ice fields of the Central Arctic. That included fourteen ice-breaking surfacings done by K-424. He did a great amount of work to ensure the state security amongst the crew of the submarine.

"Both in everyday life and during the long-haul voyages, he spends all his energy maintaining high combat readiness of the atomic submarine and strengthening personnel?s military discipline.

"His active work helps the Command fulfill combat missions aimed at the defense and protection of the state interests of the USSR.

"For successful fulfillment of Command's tasks and developing new tactical procedures for use of atomic submarine?s weapons from under the ice fields of Central Arctic he deserves to be awarded with the medal 'For Valiant Labor'."

TRANSLATOR?S NOTE: Everywhere in the original text when referring to an atomic submarine they actually use abbreviation "RPK SN", which stands for "Underwater Missile Cruiser of Strategic Use". For the sake of ease of understanding I have replaced it with more common "Atomic Sub". Also I used the word "voyage" to describe submarine's 80-90 day fully autonomic dives since that sounds closest to the original text. However, those also could be called "trips" or "missions".

All other wisdom welcomed!!

Edited September 12, 2006 by Ed_Haynes

[Guest Rick Research]

Yegods! UNDERWATER KayGeeBee!!!

Probably better not to ask (publicly, anyway ) how THAT came out!

[NavyFCO]

Fake!

Just kidding. This is a very nice group that I had the pleasure of seeing a few months back. If only I had lots of money dear Ed wouldn't be the new owner... A very cool group!!!

Dave

[Stogieman]

Hi Ed, another very interesting group. I see that all three LS awards were made on the one document again... but I do not remember seeing them actually numbered like that before. But I have only seen the older (WW2) era LS books, not something this late.

I prefer the book.... the movie was OK, but it didn't touch the book...

[Ed_Haynes]

I prefer the book.... the movie was OK, but it didn't touch the book...

Agreed, but I thought the flick might have been close at hand.

A shame Tim Curry (Dr. Frankenfurter) was not the KGB officer (Rick?? ) but he pays out early on. Not enough takeaway pay?

[Ed_Haynes]

Oh . . .

. . . on K-424, see:

K-424 - Severodvinsk - serial no. 355 - laid down 30.1.74 - launched 11.2.76 - completed 30.12.76; 9.9.76 damaged during trials; accepted into the Northern Fleet 5.2.77, attached to the 13th Submarine Division; 1977 to 1978 22 R-29R test firings (with K-441); 21.12.87 to 16.12.88 under repair; from Mar 1988 attached to the 31st Submarine Division; decommissioned 28.3.95

From: http://orbat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=26...8f2a34e294740b0

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

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/slbm/667BDR.htm

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/wrjp1251h-ussr.html

http://bellona.org/english_import_area/int...issioning/28335

[Paul R]

Where are you finding these great groupings?

[NavyFCO]

Where are you finding these great groupings?

One of our mutual friends actually has found quite a number of nice (and quite rare!) groupings like this. I was lucky enough to see these all in person back in April, but at the same time I was offered two posthumous award groups, and since that's what I primarily collect (and didn't have the money for everything) I passed on these. Sometimes it would be nice to win the lotto so you could afford everything! But at the same time, if I were to buy up everything and keep it, what would everyone else get to put in their collections?

Edited September 12, 2006 by NavyFCO

[Riley1965]

Ed, I love it !!! Great set and most interesting story behind the research.

Doc

[Ed_Haynes]

Question: Originally recommended as a Medal for Valiant Labor. How do we understand this?

[Guest Rick Research]

That was actually quite a weird thing to have recommended him for, and it appears to have gone up several approvals just on the basis of "well, if that's what they want...."

Officers sometimes got Badges of Honor or Red Banners of Labor for ... well, not sure exactly. Activities more economic than military/defense economy/defense production?

But a labor medal given to civilian workers for what was not only MILITARY but significantly top secret military merit makes what he got more appropriate.

It doesn't seem like a very exalted award to the guy everybody had to pretend to like, but perhaps there is some significance to the number of voyages and an MMM was normal after 5 long distance atomic sub voyages?