Soviet Posthumous Order of Great Patriotic War, First Class- Festung Posen!

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Edited August 22, 2013 by JapanX

[JapanX]

Citation

[JapanX]

Official letter to his wife

[Ferdinand]

I saw that one. Neat set...

[JapanX]

No less impressive was the price!

[Paul R]

How much was it?

[JapanX]

$7000

[RedMaestro]

Auke, how did you go about gathering these citations? 1400 is a really nice sample size!

[Ferdinand]

A lot of research goes through my hands, and whenever I see the word посмертно in a citation or Prikaz, I go through the entire Prikaz to see if an award was conferred mosthumously, If I have found a Prikaz with several posthumous awards and I have some spare time, I go through the entire file. TsAMO is divided in four levels (фонд, опись, дело, and лист, roughly section, inventory, file, and page), and in the Podvig Naroda database you can narrow a search by level (in PN a дело is called a единица хранения). Quite a few units regularly awarded posthumous orders, and because of the fairly large number of these units that I've come across, I feel safe to say that my database is still representative.

In the end, though, it's just a lot of manual labor.

Interestingly, for some reason, a few units tower above the rest if you look at the number of posthumous awards they bestowed, for example the Western Front, 3rd Guards Army, 3rd Mountain Rifle Corps, and 11th Guards Rifle Corps. Maybe this difference will decrease as time goes by and my database grows, but right now their head start is surprising. Who knows, maybe some commanders had a predilection for posthumous decorations.

[Guest Rick Research]

Are you keeping track of serial number ranges for "en bloc" bestowals? I've been keeping lists since the mid-1990s of verified/researched serial numbers by award dates, just as a "cheat sheet" when many Soviet awards used to show up at shows--to tell mass long service Red Stars from "real" ones and so on.

There seems to have been a block of posthumous OPW 2nd Classes in 1946 (all by Decree 28.11.44, delayed) from 815,628 to at least 821,824--that's more than 6,000 right there!

And wouldn't you know it, I have a "dodgy paperwork" group with an OPW2 numbered... 821,852. When my life ever sorts out, that'll be my first return to Soviet research, for sure!

Edited August 26, 2013 by Rick Research

[Ferdinand]

The vast majority of these posthumous awards were found by digging through citations and Prikazes - I only have serial numbers for a relatively small number of them. However, I have seen a few lists of posthumous awards (with serial numbers) sent to the next of kin, and just as unit commanders didn't issue awards in a perfectly numerical order to living servicemen, neither did these posthumous awards form uninterrupted serial number ranges. For example, one of these lists, drawn up by the headquarters of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, contains 6 OPW1s awarded by five different Prikazes issued in and around October 1943, and the serial numbers are 40251, 40263, 40268, 40269, 40271, and 40273. The officer in charge just grabbed random pieces to send back to the motherland.

After the war things were more centralized, so there may indeed have been blocks of posthumous awards - I take it you have seen several specimens from within that 800K range?

And wouldn't you know it, I have a "dodgy paperwork" group with an OPW2 numbered... 821,852. When my life ever sorts out, that'll be my first return to Soviet research, for sure!

Now is the time! The archives are more accessible than ever before...

[RedMaestro]

Thanks for clarifying, Auke. Neat finds! I can't think of a more efficient way to go about the research on Podvig. You could theoretically search prikazi by date and go day by day, but that might take even longer than the war.

Rick, how many serials numbers per award do you have on this list? Since the 90s...!

[Guest Rick Research]

The 800Ks were either from noting sales with documented (and specified!) research or were even posted here at GMIC before I went offline in early 2010.

Mere hundreds of numbers per each award, since I gave up when prices went mad after about 2000. Most of them were pinned right here at the top of this forum in my previous life as a Moderational Being. I omitted many that fell within what were clearly en bloc mass awards like the November 1944 long services. Not necessary to have EVERY one of millions of numbers, just rough beginnings and ends.

I stil wish there was a good way to tell "Hungary 1956" awards from long service ho-hummers, but.....