Soviet While on vacation

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Last week i was on vacation in Latvia (Riga). And when walking arround i spotted a old man with his breast almost full of awards => i asked him kindly iff it was allowed to photgraph him and he sad yes - go ahead

Here is this man's breast and what kind of bling bling he was wearing. Please comment on what can be seen as i am very unaware in the Sovjet award system.

Next picture will be the whole picture of this proud veteran

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

ANd here is the man himself !

Cordial greetings,

[Guest Rick Research]

He was in the Guards, and received an Order of the Red Star and Valor Medal. Took part in the Capture of K?nigsberg.

He has left many awards off, going with Jubilee 1985 Order of the Patriotic War (not sure whether the other is a real WW2 one or one of the crazy Communist current ones), his 1970 Lenin Centennial (suggesting he was/is a Communist), Veteran of Labor and 1995 Victory Jubilee Medal. The others are tings like a WW2 combatant's badge, some sort of unit jubilee badge (?) and a local pin of some kind.

He COULD be wearing NINE more official jubilee medals, so this is a reduced wear fashion statement.

[JimZ]

I doubt that both OGPWs (1 and 2) would be 85s

Any chance you could get closer shots of the orders on the right of the pic.

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Tommorow the close ups will be shown

Thank you for the info, super to see how simply by looking at his awards we can get some extra info. He did not speak any english so i could not really correspond with him.

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And as promised, the close up. Hope this does bring some extra info

Cordial greetings,

[Alfred]

Looks like a OGPW 2nd class and an OGPW 1st class 85 Version and he wears a medal for capture of K?nigsberg.

regards

Andreas

[Valter]

Looks like a OGPW 2nd class and an OGPW 1st class 85 Version and he wears a medal for capture of K?nigsberg.

regards

Andreas

I agree about OGPW's. On his left breast, there are a medal for bravery, 100'th anniversary of lenin's birth, Veteran of labor medal and 100'th anniversary of Zhukov's birth - this is a post-soviet "semi-official" veteran's association award.

[Ferdinand]

The Zhukov Medal is actually an official Russian Federation medal. There is also an Umalatova (unofficial) Zhukov Medal, but of course with different design and ribbon.

The small OPW-like badge on his right breast is the Frontovik Badge from 2000.

Edited August 18, 2009 by Ferdinand