Republic of Cuba Medalla "Por la Victoria Cuba R.P.A."

[Stogieman]

Medalla "Por la Victoria Cuba R.P.A."

Medal For The Cuban Victory, People's Republic of Angola. Campaign Medal, in research.

Example of the medal ribbon:

[Stogieman]

Example of the Medal:

[Taz]

Award Critaria

Awarded in recognition of the outstanding attitude maintained during the fulfillment of the International mission asked of them, in defense of the revoulutionary conquests in Angola and in the interest of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

[Megan]

Obverse & reverse:

Does anyone know when the medal was instituted?

Edited December 22, 2007 by Megan

[Taz]

Does anyone know when the medal was instituted?

Megan,

At the mo only that it was one of the Medals Founded by the Concil of State after 1980.

Regards Eddie.

[Ulsterman]

very cool.

[Ed_Haynes]

For background, see http://www.urrib2000.narod.ru/ArticCarlota-e.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Civil_War and http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/angola/fangola1975.htm

Edited December 24, 2007 by Ed_Haynes

[Paul R]

Another great medal. Ed, the background information makes for a much higher appreciation of what the medal represents.

[Stogieman]

Example of an award document for this medal:

[Ed_Haynes]

An interesting book review:

From: H-Net Staff <hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu>

Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 8:32:35 AM

Subject: H-Net Review Publication: 'A Russian View of the Angolan War'

Igor Zhdarkin. We Did Not See It Even in Afghanistan. Moscow

Memories Mockba, 2008. Translated by Tamara Reilly. 399 pp.

Reviewed by Elaine Windrich

Published on H-SAfrica (November, 2008)

Commissioned by Peter C. Limb

A Russian View of the Angolan War

This book is to be welcomed as an alternative to the usual accounts

of the Angolan War by South African participants and their

apologists. For here is a Russian version, by a military officer,

Igor Zhdarkin, who served as an advisor/translator to the Angolan

armed forces known as FAPLA (For?as Armadas Populares de

Liberta??o de Angola), the military wing of the ruling Popular

Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). His account is

published as part of a collection of memoirs in the series Oral

History of Forgotten Wars by the Africa Institute of the Russian

Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Unfortunately, in the introduction,

Gennady Shubin, senior research fellow at the institute, does not

indicate what other ?forgotten wars? are to be included in the

series or why they have been so labeled.

The English section of Zhdarkin's recollections (consisting of the

final 150 pages of the 400-page book, the first part of which

comprises the Russian version) consists of two major parts: a diary

kept by Zhdarkin from October 10 to December 3, 1987, as military

interpreter of the 2lst FAPLA brigade, and the author?s ?oral

narratives,? or tape-recorded memories, produced at the Africa

institute since 2000-01. Unfortunately, the ?Notebook-Diary? in

part 1 is a great disappointment because the author?s daily

?recollections? come to an abrupt end in December 1987, before

the crucial battles for Cuito Cuanavale had even begun. As his final

entry (dated December 3) reads, ?our brigade is in its positions in

the forest. We are awaiting a possible enemy attack and we have no

idea of what will happen next? (p. 302). Nor does the reader know

what happened next, since Zhdarkin disappears from the scene of

battle, only to return to Cuito Cuanavale after the South African

Defence Force?s (SADF) initial assaults on the ?Tempo Triangle?

have been rebuffed in 1988. None of these decisive battles, which are

recorded in great detail in the South African accounts of the war

(irrespective of their triumphant distortions), are mentioned by

Zhdarkin. Only in a later commentary does he explain that he returned

to Cuito Cuanavale on March 11, 1988 (after more than two months at

the FAPLA base at Lobito), adding only that, ?I cannot say why I

returned. But I was summoned there? (p. 368). Then, from the final

reading in the diary, the book leaps into the ?author

commentaries? recorded in Moscow from 2000, separated only by a

song written by Zhdarkin in Cuito Cuanavale in December 1987.

Even with this abrupt ending of the diary, the daily entries should

not to be underrated, since they contain a vivid account of the 1987

battles for the control of the Uni?o Nacional para a Independ?ncia

Total de Angola (UNITA) stronghold of Mavinga, which reached a climax

at the crossing of the Lomba River toward the end of that year. For

this is where FAPLA was forced to withdraw under heavy bombardment by

the SADF, which had intervened to save their UNITA ally from

annihilation. Once again, UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi claimed the

victory for his forces, and even his U.S. benefactor, President

Ronald Reagan, intervened with a message of congratulations for the

?heroes of the Lomba River.?

But none of these particular events are recalled in the book as the

diary opens with the retreat from the Lomba River crossing. From

there, Zhdarkin and the 2lst brigade began their long march to join

the other FAPLA brigades, which were regrouping in the aftermath of

the disastrous rout to prepare for the defense of their key base at

Cuito Cuanavale. The retreat was indeed a harrowing experience, as

the title of the book reveals, since FAPLA troops were under

continual bombardment by the SADF, along with the sniping, mining,

and other harassment by the UNITA forces on the ground. As the author

relates, even the Russians who had served in Afghanistan had never

experienced such ?horrors? as the barrage of SADF artillery

across the Lomba River. Under fire from the G-6 guns and the Mirage

and Buccaneer aircraft, FAPLA brigades panicked and deserted the

field in flight, leaving behind their Soviet equipment in a graveyard

of tanks, trucks, ammunition, and other materiel. At one stage of the

retreat (according to Zhdarkin), they were even bombed with

?chemical weapons containing poisonous gas,? against which they

had no gas masks for protection (p. 269). Finally, and after nearly

two months of retreating under fire, the author was able to join the

Soviet advisors of the 59th and 16th brigades awaiting the defense of

Cuito Cuanavale.

The commentaries that constitute the second part of the book contain

a wide range of subjects, beginning with an account of the training

and preparation of Soviet advisors for service in Angola and ending

with an explanation for the Angolan defeat in 1987. In between, the

author reveals his views of the participants in the conflict,

including FAPLA, South Africans, and Cubans, and the Soviet

advisors? interactions with them. Some commentaries are in the form

of questions to and answers from the author, including those that a

tourist or visitor might ask, such as the prevalence of snakes (how

many did you see?) and alcoholic beverages (how much did they

drink?). But many more questions are concerned with the types of

Soviet weapons used and their effectiveness for the Angolan terrain,

which are shown in the photographs in the book.

The most revealing commentaries are those concerning the author?s

opinion of the participants. On first impressions of Angola, he found

Luanda ?more horrible? than other places he had visited. ?Just

a pile of ######,? he described it, as he viewed ?the dirty airport

and the ragged women and children on the floor? (a scene also

observed by this reviewer) and the piles of rubbish covering the

streets of Luanda (p. 314). As for the Angolan soldiers, they were

?unsuitable for war.? Not only were they ?afraid to take part

in combat actions,? they were also unwilling to follow the

?reasonable advice? of their Soviet advisors (p. 341).

Consequently, it was necessary for the advisors to tell the Angolans

that they were wrong and beat them up accordingly. As the author

explains, because many Soviet advisors were not familiar with ?the

peculiarities of the black Angolan mentality,? they often found it

difficult to relate to them and obtain results (pp. 312-313).

In contrast, the author does not say anything ?bad? about the

South Africans. ?They fought well and competently because they were

whites, because I myself am white and because South Africa related to

us as whites to whites? (p. 369). He was also impressed by the

?ultimatum? delivered to Soviet soldiers inside the shells fired

by the SADF artillery: ?Soviets, leave Cuito Cuanavale. We don?t

want to touch you--our so-called white brothers. We want to cut up

the Angolans? (p. 363).

The most effusive praise was rightly reserved for the Cubans, without

whom the author would not have survived to record these memoirs. It

was the Cubans who had supplied them, fought and died for Angola, and

forced South Africa to sue for peace after having allegedly destroyed

most of their tanks and driven the SADF out of Angolan and back over

the Namibian border. In effect, ?the Cubans did everything of

importance? to ensure that the defense of Cuito Cuanvale would

succeed after the disastrous retreat from the Lomba River described

in the diary (p. 379). Above all, they tried to persuade the Soviet

advisors that they must ?adapt? to the Angolan soldiers on whom

they relied and not judge the situation in Angola as if it were the

Soviet Union (p. 379).

The book ends with an addendum on the memoirs of South African Chief

of Staff General Jannie Geldenhuys in which Zhdarkin doubts the

accuracy of the general?s tally of South African gains and losses

during the fighting in Angola in 1987-88. This is scarcely surprising

since the purpose of the general?s account was to convey the

impression that the SADF not only won the war but also brought

?peace? by fighting it. This is followed by two appendices, one

an extensive collection of photographs of participants and military

equipment and the other a note recording the names of the Soviet

military advisors who had served in Angola since November 1975, of

whom there were thousands of servicemen and officers, including

generals, admirals, and ?civil specialists.?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States

License.