Soviet Research Order of the Red Star Nr. 217.937

[Gerd Becker]

Hi everyone,

i got the Research for two of my orders today and one of them is an Order of the Red-Star with screwpost-base and a quite low number. The translation of the research is in progress and will be posted soon in this thread.

Here is the Order of the Red Star Number 217.937, awarded on the 01.10.1943.

[Guest Rick Research]

Leningard Engineers Major (26.8.44) Vladimir Vasilievich LYKOV (Russian character "bI" could also make this "LIIKOV") was a working class Russian born in Kiev on 10 November 1913...

Completed 10th Class education 1935. Married: wife Anna Mikhaievna Mal'chevskaya born 1912-- no children.

Served in the Red Army June 1940 to 7 February 1946, and member of the Communist Party since 1942: Member number 4,552,723.

He was wounded during the 900 days siege, on 16 October 1942 (though "light" versus "severe" and where--anatomically--is not noted).

He commanded the engineers attached to 204th Rifles Regiment, 10th Rifles Division, of 23rd Army (Leningrad Front). Title of Regimental Engineer of the 204th Rifles from 15.10.43. On Staff of the Engineer Branch of the 23rd Army as a Deputy Chief of Staff 23.12.43. In 10th "Red Banner" Rifles Division/Leningrad Front, Commander of their 94th Independent Sappers Battalion from 18.8.44 (day he was promoted Major). Divisional Engineer of the 10th "Red Banner" Rifles Division 24.10.45.

Here are details as listed in his service records:

Junior Lieutenant 19 September 1941

Lieutenant 1941 (no month or day only the command order number)

Senior Lieutenant 24.6.42

Captain given EITHER 7.6.43 or 7.8.43 but latter listed twice so it "wins" I guess!

Major 18.8.44

June 1940: Cadet in the regimental school, 11th Reserve Tank Regiment, Leningrad Military District

September 1940: Sapper in 3rd Motor Rifles Regiment, 2nd Corps, Leningrad MD

June 1941: Cadet in Engineer Refresher Courses, Leningrad Military District

October 1941: Platoon commander, 94th Independent Sappers battalion of 10th Rifles Division

July 1942: Deputy company commander of front forces, 94 IndSapBtn

August 1942:Regimental Engineer, 20th Rifles Regt, 10th Rifles Div., 23rd Army, Leningrad Front

November 1943: Assistant commander of staff on Engineers Staff, 23rd Army

August 1944: Commander of 94th Independent Sappers Btn, 10th Rifles etc

March 1945: Divisional Engineer, 10th Rifles Division

October 1945: Instructor for Explosives Demolition Work at the Leningrad "Red Banner, Order of Lenin, in the name of Zhdanov" Military Engineers School

The citation for his Red Star was particularly sloppily copied at the Archives, which is a major impediment to translation since so much of it is pitch black. Apparently the researcher did not "notice" this.

[Guest Rick Research]

Now, since Gerd always wants to know what the correct rank insignia would have looked like:

service boards for a Sappers Major--(white metal insignia on gold, all black piped/underlay)

[attachmentid=6543]

field uniform board for a Sappers Major-- (crimson stripes, black underlay/piping)

[attachmentid=6542]

usually tunic colored painted insignias or yellow were used, less often the correct silver as here. I don't think they CARED on tunic material field boards, regardless of regulations.

[Alfred]

Nice Red Star

received he other awards, was there a foto of the lucky owner?

regards

Andreas

[Gerd Becker]

Nice Red Star?

received he other awards, was there a foto of the lucky owner?

regards

Andreas

←

Hi Andreas,

thanks, you have seen this one, haven?t you? He got, beside his Red-Star an OGPW 1st class Nr. 59329 and the Medals for Victory over Germany and Defense of Leningrad. Unfortunately there was only a very very dark picture of our man. I will post it here, but he will remain a ghost, as there is really not much to see on that photo.

Rick, you are the best! Thanks, mate.

Gerd

Edited July 20, 2005 by Gerd

[Gerd Becker]

Here is the picture of our Comrade Lykov. I am sorry, thats the best, i can do.

[Alfred]

Oh,

the lucky awarded is laughing in the coal cellar.

Bad luck Gerd , that the picture is so dark, maybe next time you have more luck.

best regards

Andreas

Edited July 20, 2005 by Alfred

[Gerd Becker]

Oh,

the lucky awarded is laughing in the coal cellar.

Bad luck Gerd , that the picture is so dark, maybe next time you have more luck.

best regards

Andreas

←

Yep unfortunately true, Andreas. I told you, its not good. I hope, on the next research its better.

best,

Gerd

[Gerd Becker]

I have asked Vadim to take a look on this. He will hopefully chime in and enlighten us on the dark parts.

Edit: I have cutted them in two pieces, maybe they are better to read now. The lower part is further down the thread.

Edited July 22, 2005 by Gerd

[Guest Rick Research]

The upper part, as on all "Award Recommendations," gives brief personal and caeer data as already listed. It's the citation text itself that is bothersome.

Here is the reverse, cropped into two pieces:

The upper shows approval by Divisional Commander Colonel Mashoshyn on (no date) August 1943, and concurrence by Chief of Engineers Services for 23rd Army, Lt.Col. Save... on 21.9.43

[attachmentid=6676]

What IS unusual is that the final approval handwritten at the bottom, Prikaz of 23rd Army Number 0535/n on 1.10.43 actually SHOWS the serial number of the specific Red Star awarded, 217,937:

[attachmentid=6677]

In all the research I've had done so far, the Decree number is shown, but the actual serial number ONLY appears on the Award Record Card!

[Guest Rick Research]

MADNESS

HORROR

and probably

DEATH

The Stamp of DOOM:

[attachmentid=6678]

Major Lykov was expelled from the Communist Party because he had been convicted ("osuzhden") at his residential Veterans Commissariat on 26 July 1950.

After the war, in a "silent purge" Stalin exterminated everyone involved in the heroic (!) defense of Leningrad. Party boss Zhdanov's execution was announced 31 August 1948. Other arrests were carried on quietly, without public comment. All but one of the city's regional Party Secretaries was executed. The siege museum was closed, its exhibits seized-- and director sent to Siberia (he survived). Military leaders disappeared.

Khruschev's "secret speech" was the only revelation of the enormity of the slaughter.

What had Lykov "done?" Probably nothing at all.

Innocence never meant anything in Stalin's Soviet Union.

"Convicted" at that time, in that place, usually meant--

executed.

I have a Commissar Major's OPW2 research showing that he quote unquote "died" that deadly summer of 1950.

All Hail Stalin, Hero of Collective Amnesia!!!!

[Gerd Becker]

Wow, this is a suprise. I wonder, what the reason may be.

Stalin what a persecution maniac.

This got to be an interesting story for my website.

Thanks, Rick.

Gerd

Edited July 22, 2005 by Gerd

[Gerd Becker]

Citation lower half

[Gerd Becker]

October 1945: Instructor for Explosives Demolition Work at the Leningrad "Red Banner, Order of Lenin, in the name of Zhdanov" Military Engineers School

 

←

I wonder, if this could be the reason? What do you think?

Gerd

[Guest Rick Research]

Millions died for no "reason" at all. We'll never know. If the "case number" cited on the stamp exists at all any more, it could be the usual insanity about being a spy etc etc etc etc.

Here was a man who survived the worst siege in modern times: starvation, lethal cold, a remorseless invader, and reckless, spendthrift death as policy from his own side, who found himself at the front of the front OF the front for years in just about the most dangerous military job that can be imagined,

survived ALL that

and was (probably) murdered-- and certainly cast out in a totalitarian regime without pity for those it declared "enemies"

because sclerotic Stalin's secret police had an arrest quota to fill that week before it was their turn to disappear into the murder mills conjured up by the mad mind of a monster.

Heroism, tragedy, endurance, contemptible brutality--

these are the HUMAN background to what we collect, and why we collect.

Major Lykov may have been utterly forgotten by the dictatorship that swallowed him and so manty millions up. He and those millions may be "conveniently" forgotten now by the IDIOTS reviving the Sanitized Stalin Cult...

but WE won't forget Vladimir Vasilievich Lykov.

[Gerd Becker]

but WE won't forget Vladimir Vasilievich Lykov.

←

No, we will not!

Thanks, Rick.

Gerd

[Gerd Becker]

I got this info from Andreas:

10th Rifle Division

Units: 62, 98, 204 Rifle, 30 Artillery Regiments

-Regrouped from eastern to western front by Lenin Order, 1920.( Nr. 1920?)

- Raised at Vladimir, Moscow Military District (FHO), September 1939

- Tallin with 8th Army, June 1941

- Riga, June 1941

- Estonia, August 1941

- Krasnoye Selo, September 1941

- Leningrad with 8th Army and 42 Armies(42th Army?), September 1941

- RVGK (FHO), April 1945

- Order of the Red Banner

[Gerd Becker]

back to the top

As we have a lot of new members now, maybe someone is able to help with the citation above now. Any help is most appreciated.

Thanks

Gerd

[Stogieman]

I wonder who stripped off his awards and where they went after that? Was it common to strip all rank/badges/medals from the detained/executed. The slaughter here is rather compelling.

[NavyFCO]

What had Lykov "done?" Probably nothing at all.

Or, maybe he was a bad person?

There are plenty of things that can get you arrested... larceny, money laundering, sexual assault, adultery, black marketeering... the list is endless. Although the Soviet veterans tend to be glorified a bit, there were a lot of them that were just downright sleezy (as with any country). He could well have been one of those.

When someone was convicted on a "treason" charge, or were executed, their awards were stripped from them and returned to the state. However, if they were later rehabilitiated, they received their awards back.

It might not be as spectacular, but I tend to think that he was more of the ordinary criminal sort who either did jail time and got his award back, or who was simply kicked out of the military and got to keep his awards.

Just my two cents.

Dave

[Gerd Becker]

Thats of course possible.

Dave, do you know, how long the awards were stored?

Gerd

[NavyFCO]

Thats of course possible.

Dave, do you know, how long the awards were stored?

Gerd

If someone died, their awards were kept by the state indefinately. I heard rumor in the mid-90s that the state let a lot of awards go, but I've never seen anything that's documented to back that up. As far as I'm aware, there are still piles of awards sitting in a vault... somewhere...

Dave

[Vatjan]

If someone died, their awards were kept by the state indefinately. I heard rumor in the mid-90s that the state let a lot of awards go, but I've never seen anything that's documented to back that up. As far as I'm aware, there are still piles of awards sitting in a vault... somewhere...

Dave

The ultimate collector's wet dream: 1 hour of free "shopping" in a vault...somewhere... filled to the brim with goodies

[Gerd Becker]

Thanks, guys. If you find that vault, please keep me in mind

I just got the translation of the citation. Unfortunatly its unreadable at the fold, so the few gaps. But still interesting:

Award Citation for the Order of the Red Star

AWARD SHEET

For Vladimir Vasilevich Lykov, Chief Engineer, 204th Rifle Regiment (10th Rifle Division, 23rd Army, Leningrad Front)

Birthyear: 1913

Nationality: Russian

Social Status: Office Worker

Party membership: since 1942

Time in RKKA: since 27 June 1940

Participation in civil war: n/a

Wounds or contusions: wounded in 1942

Previous awards: Defense of Leningrad Medal

Home of record: Esentuki, Lermontov St. Bldg. 102/a

Short description of personal combat feat or service

Captain Lykov has been in the 204th Rifle Regiment since August 1942. During this time he has directed all his energy toward constructing a solid, impenetrable defense. Thus, in a short period the minefields were extended to 100 meters in the defensive sector near Black Lake and the wire obstacles were increased from two to (missing) along the entire sector of the regiment?s defense. (missing) the minimum of fortification structures by 300%. As a result, while employing several attempts with groups as large as a platoon (missing) on the lead edge, the Finns encountered well-prepared (mine?) fields, containing properly emplaced engineer obstacles, and retreated.

In a month?s time on the Okhta and Kaldelovo(sp?) sector, a major effort was conducted with great work in improving the good condition of a trench line under observation and shelling. During this time the occupation of neutral Hill 104 was well supported.

Captain Lykov was the first to employ flare-signal booby traps along the 204th Rifle Regiment?s defensive sector. By his initiative, (missing) was conducted on four groups, during which riflemen were trained in sapper work, which as a result, each rifle company at the present is supported with (missing) sappers.

Captain Lykov personally supervised all the engineer work. He is not only a good engineer, but a good organizer. He repeatedly, personally led reconnaissance groups to capture a prisoner for interrogation and was wounded once.

He is deserving of the Order of the Red Star.

Signed Commander, 204th Rifle Regiment, Colonel Drabkin on (?) August 1943

Personal information based on applicant?s word.

Signed Chief of Staff, 204th Rifle Regiment, Captain Novozhenin