"New" book - Mongolian Awards to Soviet Citizens

[Bob]

Just received this and will be taking some time to digest it and then post a longer review.

 

In short though:

- Published late 2017 it appears

- 275 pages

- Russian language (although that's manageable nowadays with google translate app on the phone)

- Focused entirely on awardings of Mongolian orders, medals and some badges to Soviet citizens

- Certainly not all the information is "new" (i.e. taken from other books, specifically Urnukh's "bible" for most Mongolia collectors) but still it's a good book to have in the collection in light of the pictures of recipients, awards, prototypes, documents, etc. and also what appears to be information on serial numbers matched with names

- More 'work' to be done to digest the actual text

 

This book is NOT easy to get (unfortunately).

 

More to come later.

[Bob]

Been able to spend more time on this book this Easter weekend.

 

Overall, if you don't mind it's in Russian, I see this as a worthy addition to a serious Mongolia collectors library.

 

While the information on types/variations as well as manufacturing runs and statutes largely overlaps with (or is copied from) Urnukh's book, there's a wealth of other information to be 'mined' from this book.

 

Let me provide some examples:

- Lots of (rare) pics of Soviet awardees

- Pics of rare award documents (e.g. Brezhnev's)

- Some interesting pics of sample orders and insight into plans to number them on the obverse (i.e. Order of Polar Star first awarding, second awarding, etc.)

- Detailed lists (although I suspect incomplete) of awarding of Mongolian awards to specific Soviet recipients (often with date, serial nr, decree reason/date) => can make it much more interesting to bid on higher end Mongolian awards as it's possible to determine if /who it was awarded to (if you are lucky)

- Insight on the State Prize of MPR (nr of awardings, names)

- More insight on the Khalkhin Gol medal/badge

- List of all cosmonauts awarded the Hero of Mongolia gold start (surprisingly, Gagarin was not one of them although there was a letter sent to Soviet authorities.... something must have led them to reject it); unfortunately STILL no complete list of serial nr / names for the Hero Star so in the end this did not help me further much

- Also provides information on ranges/years during which certain Mongolian awards were given to Soviets for certain themes 

 

Lastly, something I'll copy from the book - ribbon bar of Soviet Marshall Budyonny as well as Zhukov. Notice the embroidered cloth versions of original Mongolian 'old style enamel ribbons for the Order of the Red Banner. 

 

All in all, by no means a perfect book, but a nice expansion of the available documented knowledge on Mongolian awards. 

 

I wish, as a next step, there'd come a book which very comprehensively lists the serial nrs / recipient names / decree nr + date + reason for the top Mongolian awards. Realize it's a small 'market' but that would be VERY helpful.
 

 

first one is Zhukovs, second one Budyonny

[Bob]

To breath some life into this, here's a group which I recently picked up which fits into the theme of the book.

 

The documented group awarded to Private (later Captain) Mihail Pavlovich Smolin contains Soviet as well as Mongolian awards. 

- Order of the Patriotic War 2nd class #5441340 + document

- Medal for Combat Merit #1198682 (6 May, 1944) + Medal for Combat Merit #1348322 (14 September, 1944) + 
Medal for Combat Merit w/o Number (21 August, 1953) + document referring to all 3 medals 

- Medal for the Victory over Germany + document

- Just the document for 30 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR

- Tank Driver Proficiency Badge 3rd class (+ document with picture portraying Smolin in 1957)

- Military Passport (containing picture of Smolin in 1973)

- 2 Medals for Impeachable Service in the Red Army and Navy, 15 and 20 years + document

- Mongolian Friendship Medal #1151 + document

- Mongolian Medal 50th Anniversary of the Mongol Peoples Army + document

- Mongolian Medal Medal 30th Anniversary of the War

- and a few other items

 

Citation Combat Merit Medal #1348322

Comrade SMOLIN has always been very reliable and diligent in supervision the telephone lines assigned to him. Such as, in the offensive operation since 17 July 1944, he promptly repaired all the damages to the line.

In the combat engagements during 12-19 August 1944, comrade SMOLIN was servicing the telephone line in the vicinity of the village Pielaszów, Sandomierz region [Poland]. Under constant enemy artillery and mortar barrage, he repaired numerous telephone line damages during both day and night. On 19 August 1944, when the enemy attempted a counter attack, the telephone line was severed in several places by the enemy mortar fire. Comrade SMOLIN , despite the enemy fire, went out to the field and repaired 7 line breaks in the course of 10 minutes. On the same day, comrade SMOLIM went out 5 times to fix the line on different occasions. His effort allowed the command to maintain constant governance of the forces on the battlefield. Commander of the headquarters

 

More info:

Смолин Михаил Павлович :: Память народа (pamyat-naroda.ru)

 

I can translate using google translator but would appreciate if somebody could help to point me to his second combat merit medal citation?

 

[Bob]

Another group fitting in this theme recently arrived.

 

It is a Soviet group incl. Mongolian awards but also more recent Ukrainian and even a Belarussian award. Almost all are anniversary medals but it does include a Soviet medal for Valor (nr 247082, awarded in 1943, it looks oddly damaged).

 

The group was awarded to Timoshenko, a tanker, and the various documents (incl. a full page Mongolian document) confirm he participated in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. He earned the Soviet medal for Valor while he was a KV tank driver and wiped out a platoon of Germans. Kliment Voroshilov tank - Wikipedia 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Bob

[Ferdinand]

Hi Bob,

 

Excellent groups. Rather late, but here are the links to Smolin's first and second MCM citations. The one whose translation you included is his second MCM:

https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie19946001/

https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie36008060/