Soviet Defense Medals

[Guest Darrell]

Here are some of my Soviet "Defense" Medals:

1. Defense of the Caucasus Medal:

[Guest Darrell]

2. Defense of Leningrad Medal:

[Guest Darrell]

3. Defense of Moscow Medal:

[Guest Darrell]

4. Defense of Stalingrad Medal:

[Gerd Becker]

Here is a Defense of the Soviet Arctic Medal

[Guest Rick Research]

Here is a mounted trio to a Mysterious Civilian, Comrade Ivan Ivanovich Volynkin : Defense of Sevastapol (50,000 for the "Soviet Dunkirk") and Defense of the Caucasus (870,000 awarded), after a Military Merit Medal.

Sevastapol and Caucasus documents-- the former issued quite interestingly by the Supreme Soviet of the newly (barely!!!) restored Crimean Republic, and the latter by the usual Political Committee of Krasnodar.

[Guest Rick Research]

Here is a still-during-the-Siege Leningrad (1,470,000 awarded) certificate to career civil police (Militia) officer Mikhail Petrovich Gusev from there-- then serving as a Major in the army, and a Moscow (1,020,000 awarded) to unspecified military rank student Fedor Ivanovich Oleinik at the Frunze Military Academy.

The latter medal was the first one to be presented with what became the standard Soviet award booklet format for most medals.

[Guest Rick Research]

And here is the last of the WW2 campaign medals, created by Khruschev in 1961, for the unsuccessful Defense of Kiev.

I'll only show the front, since the backs were all the same on these, except for an interesting mint mistake on some Kievs (not this one) which put the wrong reverse on it.

The horrid looking dark spots are the tombak showing through the gilt finish. In 60 years, who will remember what these USED to look like?

Since this particular one is from my State Security 1938 Red Banner winner Grebennik's group, I'll show his award booklet for it too. For some reason all my Kievs (out of the 180,000 awarded) are to State Security personnel! This was issued by the Lieutnant General commanding KGB in the Ukraine.

[Guest Darrell]

Here are a couple more additions to my collection I received today:

First up the Defense of Kiev:

[Guest Darrell]

And next is the,

Defense of the Polar Regions:

[Guest Darrell]

The Set of Defense Medals is now complete. I received these two elusive guys from a repected expert in New York by the name of Alexei Merezhko (aka Note Bene in the Soviet forums).

1. Defense of Sevastopol Obverse:

Edited October 18, 2005 by Darrell

[Guest Darrell]

2. The elusive and "expensive" Defense of Odessa.

Obverse:

[Guest Darrell]

For those not familiar with where Odessa and Sevastopol are located, see attached map. Odessa was one of the first Russian cities to fall. Sevastopol held out from 1941 through 1942 in a horiffic siege that held off the Germans for many months.

[Guest Rick Research]

I notice the same obverse rim flaw on yours as on my Sevastapol, along the letters "...polya." A defective die that misstruck? Or too much pressure on inferior metal that caused this to flake off?

Here is the best clearest version of one (I can't scan my own this well), from Arkady Rezhnikov's site

http://www.motka.com/

[attachmentid=13509]

We often speculate about how many dies actually struck all these mass produced medals, where they were made, and so on. My particular medal came in the documented group show in post #6 above, obtained from Igor Moiseyev back in the '90s-- are there any Sevastapols that do NOT have this rim flaw? I haven't seen enough to have any idea. Most online sales scans are so blurry as to be useless.

[Guest Darrell]

Interesting. Apparently Alexei has identified 2 main variations of the Sevastopol medal. One with a rim and one without the edged rim. The unedged rim version is not identified in McDaniels book. Here is mine with closer Obverse picture:

[Guest Rick Research]

Looks to me like something was wrong at that spot and wore out/became worse as more were made. Yours looks like the best of the three, so far. Mine was quite an early issue (June 1944) so maybe these were the "first batch."

Here's a close up made just now on my new scanner:

[attachmentid=13512]

[Guest Rick Research]

I get shiny reflection off mine, which with the "grunge" here makes the letters look blurry.

Here's a close up of the flaw area on the rim of mine-- it is quite "sharp" as if a flake of metal came off. Unfortunately there's no way I can scan the rim to show it in on-edge profile.

[attachmentid=13513]

All that dark stuff seems to have been dirt or some such grunge in the die when it was squeezed.

[Guest Darrell]

I see what you mean now Rick. Good stuff. It would be nice to know approximate date of manufacture / award, but that's a bit tough with no documents. I'm just glad I got these ones to fill out my sets.

Edited October 18, 2005 by Darrell

[Guest Darrell]

To followup.

A little on the history of the Odessa Medal:

Established 22 December 1942. Awarded to all servicemen of the Soviet Army, Navy, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and civil citizens who took part in the defense of Odessa. From 10 August 1941 until 16 October 1941, Soviet troops bravely defended the city against an attack force comprised of 16 divisions of German forces. Despite being outnumbered 5 to 1, the siege lasted for 73 days before the city fell to the Nazis. Odessa was awarded the Title of "Hero City" on 1 May 1945, and is one of only four "Hero Cities" in the USSR (the others being Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Sevastopol.) It is made of brass. Approximately 38,000 were issued.

and the Sevastopol Medal:

Established 22 December 1942. Awarded to all servicemen of the Soviet Army, Navy, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and civil citizens who took part in the defense of Sevastopol. For 250 days, 5 November 1941 until 4 July 1942, Soviet Army and Soviet Marines defended Sevastopol against German invaders. Despite being greatly outnumbered in guns, planes and tanks, Soviet forces defended the city until it was evacuated when food and ammunition ran out. Several military divisions managed to hide in the mountains to survive and fight using guerilla tactics against the Nazis. Sevastopol was awarded the Title of "Hero City" on 1 May 1945, and is one of only four "Hero Cities" in the USSR (the others being Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Odessa.) It is made of brass. Approximately 50,000 were issued.

[Gerd Becker]

Excellent, mate Finally complete with the Campaign-Medals. I still need this one, but i want one documented in a group. I guess, it will take some time before a group pops up, if at all

Gerd

[JensF.]

Here is a nice Defense of Moscow group. Maybe this is something to research. Orders of Glory were not given "just for fun".

[Guest Darrell]

Here is a nice Defense of Moscow group. Maybe this is something to research. Orders of Glory were not given "just for fun".

Nice grouping mate Acording to McDaniels, the Defense of Moscow should be before the Victory over Germany medal.

I wonder how many of these groupings were created by the original owners unaware of the correct positioning of the medals?

[Dolf]

Interesting. Apparently Alexei has identified 2 main variations of the Sevastopol medal. One with a rim and one without the edged rim. The unedged rim version is not identified in McDaniels book.

Apparently mine doesn't have that edged rim, and it doesn't have either that "problem" on the edge "along the letters "...polya." " !

Any opinions/comments?

Dolf

Edited May 7, 2006 by Dolf

[Bryan]

I finally got my Odessa medal!

This came with my last package from Nota Bene. Too bad that most of the details are worn out.

[Paul R]

Looks to me like something was wrong at that spot and wore out/became worse as more were made. Yours looks like the best of the three, so far. Mine was quite an early issue (June 1944) so maybe these were the "first batch."

Here's a close up made just now on my new scanner:

[attachmentid=13512]

Mine does not have this damage. I got mine from Igor back in 1993.