Soviet Soviet & Eastern Block Quiz - 2008

[Christian Zulus]

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

[Lapa]

Dear Marc,

many thanks .

I have to think about a new nice question .

Best regards

Christian

Christian,

We'll be waiting with unabated expectation

Marc

[Christian Zulus]

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

Edited March 17, 2008 by Christian Zulus

[Knarf]

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

[Christian Zulus]

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

[Knarf]

Hello,

a man thought:" These Soviets make me angry. We are their best friends but they prefer to take someone from Chechoslovakia and Poland to fly into space.

Now we will give them something as a gift. It will cost us 82.000.000 marks but we can go into space before the other Germans."

What was the gift ?

Name(s) of the usesd vehicle(s) and passengers

How long did the trip take from lift off to the hard landing (Bonus: d , hrs, min ,sec,)

Good luck

regards

Frank

[Christian Zulus]

Dear Frank,

What was the gift ?

Was it EUR 41 million (USD 66 million) or DDR-Mark ? No guess about such a gift. We paid much less for our Austrian Cosmonaut .

Name(s) of the used vehicle(s) and passengers

Soyuz 31 (Valery Bykovsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Bykovsky & Sigmund J?hn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_J%C3%A4hn ) and Soyuz 29 (ident passengers)

How long did the trip take from lift off to the hard landing (Bonus: d , hrs, min ,sec,)

7d 20h 49m (launched August 26, 1978 and landed September 3, 1978)

I think, the winner should be, who guesses the gift . The other two questions had been too easy.

Best regards

Christian

[Christian Zulus]

Soviet - German Friendship

Valery Bykovsky & Sigmund J?hn:

Best regards

Christian

[Knarf]

to make things go faster:

There was a very famous firm in GDR. Some years before Mr. J?hn went on his flight that firm developed something which is still in use today in a better version.

A lot of Western firms were interested in it but could not get it.

Now I gave you the answer.

Regards

Frank

[Christian Zulus]

ROBOTRON & ESER

There was a very famous firm in GDR. Some years before Mr. J?hn went on his flight that firm developed something which is still in use today in a better version.

A lot of Western firms were interested in it but could not get it.

Now I gave you the answer.

Dear Frank,

I guess that "very famous firm in the GDR" might be the high-tech corporation ROBOTRON http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotron .

VEB Robotron was the biggest East German electronics manufacturer. It was based in Dresden and employed 30,000 people. It produced television sets, personal computers and the ESER mainframes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESER .

ESER is an abbreviation for Einheitliches System Elektronischer Rechenmaschinen (German for standardized system of electronic computers), a term used in the GDR for ES EVM computers produced according to a treaty between the members of Comecon signed on December 23, 1968 covering the development of a standardized computing system.

Do you see ESER by ROBOTRON as that gift from the GDR to the CCCP ?

Best regards

Christian

[Knarf]

Hallo Christian,

unfortunately it was not ESER.

The wanted item came into use on Sept. 15th 1976 and was shown on "Leipziger Messe" in 1977.

Regards

Frank

PS My eyes are very bad. So I know that Firm very well.

[Christian Zulus]

VEB Carl Zeiss Jena

Hallo Christian,

unfortunately it was not ESER.

The wanted item came into use on Sept. 15th 1976 and was shown on "Leipziger Messe" in 1977.

Regards

Frank

PS My eyes are very bad. So I know that Firm very well.

Dear Frank,

many thanks for the hint - now it is easy, but besides of ROBOTRON, I had Zeiss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss in my mind .

It's the outstanding multispectral camera for space-missions MKF 6 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKF_6 , invented and built by VEB Carl Zeiss Jena with support by the Institutes f?r Elektronik der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (IE der AdW).

At it's time it had been the best camera for scientific & spy missions in the space and is still in use. Of course, it was strictly forbidden to export it to the west .

Best regards

Christian

BTW: The two comrades on the photograph on my previous post had the camera with their space mission .

Edited March 20, 2008 by Christian Zulus

[Knarf]

Congratulations

this is the right answer.

When Mr. Honecker gave this present the Soviets could not refuse to take a GDR citizen into space. Normally the Soviets wanted to use the Camera for military which they officially never did.

You turn now

regards

Frank

[Christian Zulus]

Congratulations

this is the right answer.

When Mr. Honecker gave this present the Soviets could not refuse to take a GDR citizen into space. Normally the Soviets wanted to use the Camera for military which they officially never did.

You turn now

regards

Frank

Dear Frank,

many thanks .

My new question #188 will be an easy, fast & quick one .

Best regards

Christian

[Christian Zulus]

New question #188

Gentlemen,

a pure phaleristic question

As we know, the October Revolution in Russia extinquished all the beautiful Imperial Czarist orders, medals, awards and decorations.

It was strictly forbidden in Lenin's Russia - and later on in the Soviet Union - to wear and show Czarist awards.

In the later years of Stalin's Soviet Union there had been a more or less tolerated exception regarding one of the Czarist awards.

Question:

Which Imperial Russian award had been allowed to be worne - under Soviet orders and medals - in the Stalin era ?

Hint: You might see that award on photographs of highly decorated GPW-veterans, who served also in WW I .

Best regards

Christian

[Wild Card]

How about the St. George cross?

Here we have Guards Lt. Col. Vasily Ivanovitch Kriuchkov wearing all four of his.

Edited March 21, 2008 by Wild Card

[Christian Zulus]

How about the St. George cross?

Here we have Guards Lt. Col. Vasily Ivanovitch Kriuchkov wearing all four of his.

Dear "Wild Card",

congratulations to your victory .

Perfect answer and many thanks for the photograph .

Do you have that pic in your collection ?

Question #189 is now your turn.

I guess, that there had been two reasons, why the STAVKA or Politburo tolerated the wearing of St. George Crosses:

- it had been a true "proletarian" award for shown heroism at the battlefield reserved to grass root soldiers and NCOs

- there had been quite a few of famous GPW-Marshals & -Generals, who served in WW I as NCOs and had been awarded with some of these crosses. I guess, that these comrades made some pressure - after the 1943-reforms! - to get the allowance to wear their St. George Crosses.

Best regards

Christian

[Christophe]

A few stats...

Quiz 2008 :

* 19 questions asked,

* with 291 answers,

* and viewed more than 2,150 times.

Nb of good answers for the Quiz 2008 :

* 6 : Marc (Lapa)

* 4 : Christian (Zulus)

* 2 : Auke (Ferdinand), Christophe & Frank (Knarf)

* 1 : Jim (JimZ) & Wild Card

Complete statistics give since this Quiz has been launched (on 1 Nov. 2005) :

* 190 questions asked,

* with 2,436 answers,

* This quiz has been viewed more than 24,720 times.

* 38 Members of the Forum played, and 28 correctly answered at least 1 question :

Nb of good answers :

* 39 : Christian (Zulus)

* 34 : Christophe

* 14 : Frank (Knarf)

* 13 : Jim (JimZ)

* 11 : Bryan (Soviet)

* 8 : Auke (Ferdinand) & Simon (Red Threat)

* 6 : Belaruski, Carol I, Ed (Haynes) & Marc (Lapa)

* 5 : Dan (Hauptman) & Wild Card.

* 3 : Andreas (Alfred), Ivan (Piramida) & Kim (Kimj).

* 2 : Chuck (in Oregon), Gerd (Becker), Jan (vatjan) & Order of Victory.

* 1 : Charles (Hunyadi), Darrell, Daredevil, Dave (Navy FCO), Dudeman, Filip (Drugo), Rick (Stogieman) & Steen (Ammentorp).

This is a great achievement. Thanks to all for your participation in this Quiz.

Now, let's have fun with the 191st question, Wild Card's one !!!!

Cheers.

Ch.

[Wild Card]

Thank you Christian Zulus.

Before we proceed to the next question (yes, I am stalling for time), I would like to stay with this present subject for some additional information.

First, aside from the reasons which you mentioned, I think that the authorization for wearing the St. George crosses tied in with the harking back to the old times and Heroes (Mother Russia) which led to the new orders named after Suvorov, Kutuzov, Nevsky, et. al. Then, of course, it should be mentioned that the Order of Glory utilized the old St. George ribbon.

Also, I do not think that it would be proper to move on without sharing some details of Lt. Col. Kriuchkov?s career. I think that you, and hopefully a few other members, will find it to be interesting and quite out of the ordinary.

[Wild Card]

Lt. Col. Kriuchkov?s career.

Edited March 22, 2008 by Wild Card

[Wild Card]

Continuation.

[Wild Card]

Before we proceed I apologize, Christian Zulus, for not answering your inquiry. Yes, that picture does come from my collection. Incidentally, I have a further thought and observation.

1. Did the authorization to wear the St. George crosses stay in effect indefinitely or was it later rescinded? and,

2. I seem to recall seeing a picture recently of another Soviet officer wearing a (possibly more than one) St. George cross. I think that it may have been Marshal Rokossovsky. is this possible?

[Wild Card]

Now (drum roll, please) on to question #191. An easy one, for a change.

Pictured below is Hero of the Soviet Union Col. Vasiliy Yegorovich Kruchkov, who was a very successful pilot in the Great Patriotic War. However what was probably the most important event in his career took place after the war, on 3 August 1947. What was the event and how does the number four (4) play twice in it?

For bonus points, let?s get exotic. What is the link between the subject of this question and Manuel S?nchez?

Good Luck Gentlemen,

Wild Card

[Christophe]

(...)

1. Did the authorization to wear the St. George crosses stay in effect indefinitely or was it later rescinded? and,

2. I seem to recall seeing a picture recently of another Soviet officer wearing a (possibly more than one) St. George cross. I think that it may have been Marshal Rokossovsky. is this possible?

Hi Wild Card,

These are good questions. I don't know for the first one... Probably, it is somewhere in the regulations books...

For the second one, several high rank Soviet officers got imperial awards. Zhukov got the Class III and IV of the St George's Cross. Malinovsky and Rokossovski got the Class IV. Budenny of course got the Class I to IV....

About Budenny, you will find attached a few pics I have taken in the Central Armed Forces Museum, in Moscow.

First one, his awards :

Ch.

Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

[Christophe]

Budenny's St George's Crosses and Medals :

Ch.

Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection