Soviet Soviet & Eastern Block Quiz

[Bryan]

No he died in the 50's.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Soviet's photo, like most of the topics in this thread, just stumps me. I've got a stack of Soviet books but I'm not inclined to leaf through them hoping to find Soviet's HSL. Having said that, though, I'd like to add a photo ID question of my own to this thread.

I own this picture. Who is the guy in the middle and what was he known for? Any of the things he was known for will suffice.

Two clues:

1) This is a picture postcard of the style so popular in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, when you had your picture taken and reproduced on postcards. It is dated 1/I/1927 on the back. I think that would make this the earliest known photo of him. It has never been published ... until now.

2) Many of you know that I was in Georgia for quite a while and I still enjoy close friendships there. So ...

Warning: This picture was identified for me and I can not prove it is who I will say it is. However, the guy who ID'd him for me is an expert in this particular area. There is at least one other picture of this gentleman on the internet, but at a much more advanced age.

Despite this man's notoriety (the guy in the photo, not my buddy), you're gonna have to be a real Soviet buff to pick him out. Good luck.

Chuck

[David Gregory]

Soviet's photo, like most of the topics in this thread, just stumps me. I've got a stack of Soviet books but I'm not inclined to leaf through them hoping to find Soviet's HSL. Having said that, though, I'd like to add a photo ID question of my own to this thread.

I own this picture. Who is the guy in the middle and what was he known for? Any of the things he was known for will suffice.

Two clues:

1) This is a picture postcard of the style so popular in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, when you had your picture taken and reproduced on postcards. It is dated 1/I/1927 on the back. I think that would make this the earliest known photo of him. It has never been published ... until now.

2) Many of you know that I was in Georgia for quite a while and I still enjoy close friendships there. So ...

Warning: This picture was identified for me and I can not prove it is who I will say it is. However, the guy who ID'd him for me is an expert in this particular area. There is at least one other picture of this gentleman on the internet, but at a much more advanced age.

Despite this man's notoriety (the guy in the photo, not my buddy), you're gonna have to be a real Soviet buff to pick him out. Good luck.

Chuck

Chuck,

Did his name begin with B and did he have a reputation for having people locked up and/or disappear?

David

[Bryan]

He doesn't look like Beria and I think that one would have been to easy.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Chuck,

Did his name begin with B and did he have a reputation for having people locked up and/or disappear?

David

* * * * *

Hi David

No, Beria would have been way too easy. Beria is far too identifiable for this thread.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

Would these clues help any?

1) Graduated gymnasium (think high school) in Tbilisi in 1913 and studied physics and math at St. Petersburg University.

2) Was a detective for a couple of years in the very early Georgian Cheka Transportation Unit.

3) Friend and ally of Lavrenty Beria. (David, you were on the right track.)

4) Was powerful enough by 1940 to dine with von Ribbentrop, Goering and Hess.

5) According to Radio Free Europe, in 1942 he negotiated a possible detente with Germany and an alliance against the Allies.

Good luck if you're still with me on this one.

Chuck

* * * * *

"My people and I, Iosif Vissarionovich, firmly remember your wise prediction: Hitler will not attack us in 1941!" -- Lavrenty Beria to Joseph Stalin, June 21, 1941

[Bryan]

Merkulov

http://www.diacritica.com/degenerate/9/beria7.html

http://www.fsb.ru/history/liders/merkulov.html

Edited February 15, 2006 by Soviet

[Chuck In Oregon]

Merkulov

* * * * *

"No more calls, please. We have a WINNER! Tell him what he's won, Ed."

Thank you, Soviet. What was the clue that finally tipped you off?

For being such a powerful figure -- once Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Commissar of Internal Affairs, twice Commissar of State Security, Stalin's envoy at the very highest levels of negotiations with the Germans -- Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov is largely unknown in the west today.

Merkulov also oversaw the massacre at Katyn on Beria's behalf. According to one web site, "when Polish officers requested the release of several officers in Soviet custody to fight the Germans. "They're gone," Merkulov told them. "We allowed a tremendous error to take place with them."

From another site: "14 May (1941) -- In a secret note the People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR Vsevolod Merkulov informs Stalin, Molotov, and Beria that, ?beginning in the second half of April this year a number of employees of the German embassy are sending members of their families and in particular valuable items from the USSR to Germany.?

He suffered the same fate as his boss in 1953. Forgotten and unmourned.

Thanks a lot, Sov. You're too good at this for me.

Chuck

[Bryan]

That seems my last post as been erased. I said that #2 and #3 help me to find the answer. I have to admit ?I didn't really knew Merkulov and I have made some research about key Georgian communist leader to find him.

Now try to answer my question in post #249.

Find why he has been awarded Hero of Socialist Labor.

Edited February 16, 2006 by Soviet

[Bryan]

Some help?

He as something to do with guns.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Some help?

He as something to do with guns.

* * * * *

Kalishnikov?

(Oh please let me get this one right.)

[Bryan]

No.

Here is almost the answer. He has something to do with these.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Well then, how about Georgii Shpagin?

[Bryan]

Yes it is M. Shpagin Here are some information about him on this website : http://www.ppsh41.com/GS.htm

Up to you again chuck to ask a question.

Bravo!

[Chuck In Oregon]

I got one, I got one!!! Oh frabjous day!

Would you believe that I had one of these -- a PPSh, not a Shpagin -- and a case of Eastern Bloc ammo, in Vietnam?

Chuck

[Wild Card]

Nice going Chuck!

I saw a couple of PPSh?s over there. Had a Tokarev - gave it to one of my men. Had a beautiful Russian RPD - gave it to a Captain to throw a court marshal case against one of my men (the military judicial system prevailed, he walked, he was a great man, best in my platoon - worth the price); but that?s a long story. All I kept was a Chinese AK.

Anyway, nice going on the quiz, it?s your turn now.

Best wishes,

Wild Card

[Chuck In Oregon]

Nice going Chuck!

I saw a couple of PPSh?s over there. Had a Tokarev - gave it to one of my men. Had a beautiful Russian RPD - gave it to a Captain to throw a court marshal case against one of my men (the military judicial system prevailed, he walked, he was a great man, best in my platoon - worth the price); but that?s a long story. All I kept was a Chinese AK.

Anyway, nice going on the quiz, it?s your turn now.

Best wishes,

Wild Card

* * * * *

Thanks, Wild Card

I only brought back a Chinese Tokarev. I still have it and the capture papers. The rule on my bird was that whenever we brought out a bunch of decent captured weapons, everyone was entitled to one each. We sold them all to TDY USAF guys who typically came into country on the 30th (or 31st) of a month and left on the 1st, in order to get two months combat pay. Combat. Yeah, right, at the O-Club, maybe. But I'm not bitter. Oh, and no offense meant to the brave USAF guys who spent their tours flying and fighting and supporting others. That TDY thing has been a pet peeve of mine for ... oh, never mind.

The one I regret not bringing back was when we brought out a couple cases of WW II new-in-the-cosmoline Moisan-Nagant (sp?) sniper rifles, complete with the scopes and accessory kits. It would be nice to have one of those to play with today.

Yeah, I know, I'll be seeing the "Off Topic" face for this.

So OK, enough of that. So you think it's my turn? I realize that I broke protocol when I posted a question before we finished with Soviet's. I wanted to really challenge this group and I finally came up with this one.

Who is this woman and why is it appropriate that she should be in this particular forum?

Good luck ... you're never gonna get this one.

Chuck

Edited February 22, 2006 by Chuck In Oregon

[Chuck In Oregon]

Hmmm. No one seems to be playing any more. OK, here are some clues:

She's Russian. She won the highest honor in her field and she was the last person to do so. That's why I think it is appropriate to include her in this quiz, although you may disagree. She is well known to Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.

One more: She is extremely controversial. I didn't expect an early answer from the USA but I thought one of our European members might get this one.

Good luck.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

Oh, come ON. No one?

OK, here she is as a young woman and then somewhat later in life. It would be fair to say that she has not aged as well as she might have.

As you may have guessed, this is not militaria ... but she did win that big Soviet award, so she's in here. Also, a popular Russian anecdote has it that an era is named after her.

Chuck

[Gerd Becker]

Thats really a tough one, Chuck. Especially as you get on google thousands of hits for websites with russian mail-order brides, when you try to find out somthing about a russian woman

Is she a singer?

Gerd

[Gerd Becker]

Is it Galina Vishnevskaya?

Was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Honored Artist of the USSR and several other foreign awards.

She is married to the famous Violinist Mstislav Rostropovich and they run together the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation, which cares for the health of russian children.

Edited February 24, 2006 by Gerd Becker

[kimj]

Didn't recognize her from that first pic. But that is Alla Pugacheva the world(?) famous singer. Made National Artist of the USSR in 1991 (last one? Probably last year anyway.)

She was pretty popular in Sweden too in the 80s. Made som duetts with the Swedish ballad-elite...

Of course she's on the net:

http://allapugacheva.ru/main.php

I read on wikipedia an anecdote about her. On the day Ho Chi Min died she had a concert and is said to have made this statement: ?Don?t feel bad! Ho Chi Min might be dead but I?m still alive!? [My translation.] She never really liked Soviet rule but was too popular and got away with comments like this.

/Kim

[Chuck In Oregon]

kimj is our WINNER!!!

Yes, it's Alla Pugachova (Алла Пугачёва). The last People's Honored Singer of the Soviet Union and by far the biggest recording star in Russian history. She's said to be over 300 million albums and CDs now.

The anecdote goes: Two Russian history students were chatting and one asked the other, "In the year 2100, what will people say when someone asks who was Mikhail Gorbachev?" The other answered "A minor Soviet politician in the era of Alla Pugachova." She even mentions that story in her song "Живи спокойно, страна", where part of the chorus also goes "Live peacefully, country, I'm all you've got". Yeah, no ego problem there. Such a big star that the government ignored her caustic lyrics rather than challenge her and create a national scandal that they couldn't win.

It's fairly common to denigrate her these days because of her age, her personal life and, shall we say, her diminished visual appeal. However, she still has the voice of an angel and she can still rock with the best of all time. If you like rock at all -- a character flaw of mine, I suppose -- and you haven't heard her sing, do yourself a favor and give her a listen. Yes, I am a big fan and I listen to her all the time.

kimj, she did some songs with ABBA back in the 80s. I'm not a bit surprised that a Swede recognized her first. I thought that might happen.

You guys didn't think she was a Soviet marshall, did you? Hey, you already know all of them. I thought I'd throw you a curve ball with this question, but kimj hit it out of the park. Gerd, you were on the right track. You probably couldn't imagine that I would put a Russian rocker on this thread.

Chuck

Edited February 24, 2006 by Chuck In Oregon

[Guest Rick Research]

Actually, I was still confused about this part:

"Especially as you get on google thousands of hits for websites with russian mail-order brides..."

Is there something you want to tell us, Gerd?

(I never play. If I remarkably DO know an answer, I can't think of a question, or vice versa. That's my story and I'm sticking to it....

so somebody still actually mails CATALOGS, Gerd?....)

[Gerd Becker]

Actually, I was still confused about this part:

"Especially as you get on google thousands of hits for websites with russian mail-order brides..."

Is there something you want to tell us, Gerd?

(I never play. If I remarkably DO know an answer, I can't think of a question, or vice versa. That's my story and I'm sticking to it....

so somebody still actually mails CATALOGS, Gerd?....)

Ya know what i mean, man

Edited February 25, 2006 by Gerd Becker