Stolen Awards.

[Tal Inbar]

"20th anniversary of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army - costs from $ 3,000 to $ 5,000, and the most expensive - the Order of Victory, decorated with rubies and diamonds - sells for up to $ 2 million at auctions."

[Eugene]

Tal,
Maybe, some lucky bustard managed to sell for this price.
I wish I could sell 20th anniversary of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army at $ 3,000 - $ 5,000 as well as Orders of Glory at $7,500
But I would definately buy Ushakov 1st Class at $ 25,000 and Nakhimov, 1st Class at $ 10,000.

[paddywhack]

100 bucks for a order of the red star!!!!!!! i should sell them all and make 1000% profit!!

[Bryan]

SOURCE : The Moscow Times
DATE : January 5, 1995
HEADLINE: Old Medals, New Black Market
BYLINE : By Anton Zhigulsky

For most people, state orders and medals are either symbols of
history or past glory. But for Alexei, 28, they represent a
profitable business.

Alexei trades at Moscow's smallest and most silent black
market - the numismatic tolkuchka on Taganka Square. Every
morning at 11 he takes his spot and starts waiting for his
clients - sellers, collectors and middlemen trading in old
Soviet medals.

"If you have enough money you can buy any order or medal here,
no matter how valuable and rare it is," says Alexei.

Two years ago, commercial trading of state awards was
prohibited by special decree of President Boris Yeltsin. The
president's ban was instigated by veterans organizations,
which had complained that open trading of state awards was a
disgrace for the country.

But the ban has not prevented the medals tolkuchka from
thriving. While novices sell and buy cheap Komsomol badges
and commemorative pins displayed on folding tables on the
street, the serious business of buying and selling valuable
medals is conducted in whispered transactions.

"The best way to buy here is by having somebody we know
recommend you," says Alexei.

Soviet-era medals and orders have been in constant demand
both here and abroad since the beginning of perestroika,
said Valery Durov, a numismatics expert.

"The further the Soviet era recedes into the past, the more
valuable Soviet decorations become," Durov said. "In recent
years the illegal market of medals and orders has become vast
and well-organized. It is now a big business, with hundreds
of thousands of dollars of annual turnover."

Every order or medal has a fixed price. The most valuable is
the extremely rare Marshall Star, which can sell for as much
as $25,000, Alexei said.

"Of course you won't be able to buy a Star decorated with
diamonds just in the market, but you can leave an order here
and at least contact the middlemen," he said.

The World War II orders of Ushakov (known in the trade as
"Ushki"), Nakhimov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky, all produced in
very small quantities, cost from $4,000 to $10,000 dollars.
The famed Order of Lenin, called "Baldy" on the market, can
be easily purchased for $350 to $500, while the Order of
Alexander Nevsky sells for $150. The least expensive order
is the Order of the Patriotic War, which was produced in
mass quantities in 1985 and sells for $1 to $4.

Not surprisingly, the main source of the awards is veterans
and their descendants.

"Often they come here with a pack of rare medals, and we
can buy them dirt -cheap," says Alexei. "Some people are
saying it is immoral to deceive the elderly, but we're not
the ones who caused them to lead such miserable lives. This
business is very profitable, and won't disappear because of
one presidential decree."

Though some veterans have profited from selling their badges,
veterans groups still see harm in the trade.

"Now awards don't differ from ordinary badges," said Viktor
********, of the Moscow Veterans Organization. "They have
lost their significance and those who have them are losing
respect."

The Moscow police see more tangible troubles.

"The demand for these things forces criminals to search
for them," said a police spokesman. "Nothing stops them if
they find them."

In the late 1970s an Admiral Kholostyakov and his family were
killed for several orders of Ushakov, he said.

"Who knows how many less famous people have suffered because
they had rare orders?" he said.

[Bryan]

SOURCE : The Guardian (London)
DATE : November 5, 1984
HEADLINE: A boom in hot medals / The Soviet Union's counterfeit heroes
BYLINE : From MARTIN WALKER
DATELINE: MOSCOW

A thriving black market in medals and state honours has emerged in the
Soviet Union. A series of exposures of people wearing the medals of
Hero of the Soviet Union, and claiming the benefits that go with them,
are being reported in a press campaign against frauds.

The exposure follows the brutal murder in Moscow of a retired vice-
admiral by a young couple, posing as military historians, who then
sold their victim's dress uniform, complete with rows of medals.

Gennady Kalinin, 26, who battered Vice-Admiral Georgy Kholostyakov and
his aged wife to death with a claw hammer, was sentenced to death by
firing squad. The man to whom he sold the medals had his entire
collection confiscated, after it was officially valued at 100,000
roubles (pounds 97,000).

Medals in the Soviet Union mean rather more than war medals in Britain.
They have something in common with our honours system - a Hero of the
Soviet Union has the cachet of a knighthood, and it can do rather
more than simply get you a table in a crowded restaurant.

The right kind of medal, such as Hero of Socialist Labour or Hero of
the USSR, can certainly get otherwise unobtainable seats to the
Bolshoi Theatre, More than that, it carries access to privileged food
stocks., It obviates the need for queueing in the ordinary stores.

On the eve of official holidays, honoured war veterans and people with
medals are allowed to order special foods from state stores. They can
count on promotion in their jobs, on preferential holidays, places on
official delegations to foreign countries, and they will go to the
head of the queue for new apartments.

These honours carry instant respect, and some of them are valuabe
items of jewellery. The Order of Victory is made of diamonds and white
sapphires, the Order of Lenin is made of platinum and gold. There are
special awards for heroic mothers, for heroes of labour, and dozens
of different military medals and orders.

Officially, anyone claiming the benefits that go with the honour
should show the documentation of the award, and not simply wear the
medal proudly on the chest. But usually the very sight of a coveted
star and ribbon will mean that few questions are asked.

Hence, the black market in medals. The young man who murdered the
vice-admiral confessed to a series of other robberies of medals in
towns all over Russia. He had begun his criminal career by stealing
ikons from churches and was told by the fence to whom he sold them
that the medal business was more profitable.

Literaturnaya Gazeta this week gave the case histories of people in
Yalta, Alma-Ata, Kiev, and in Moscow who were investigated by the
authorities for claiming the benefits for medals they had never been
awarded. The magazine complained that the various fraudsters had
refused to hand back the medals even after being found out.

'Comrade Osmanov of Alma-Ata, who wears the gold star of a Hero of
the Soviet Union on one lapel and four orders of the Red Star on the
other, was the subject of careful investigation by the Ministry of
Defence, who established that his gold star was nothing but a fake.
When asked to return the medals, Comrade Osmanov said he had lost
them. Meanwhile, he keeps writing to various authorities asking if
he can be allowed to keep the medals as an 'exception,' the magazine
said, and called for strict legal measures to be taken against the
frauds.

As in Britain, the real heroes and war veterans tend to wear their
awards only on special and formal occasions, such as Victory Day
parades, but many genuine medal holders wear them all the time.
Enough people are multiple medal-holders for Soviet kiosks to sell
candelabra-type arrangements which can hold up to a dozen different
medals on the chest at a time.

Leonid Brezhnev's fondness for medals became something of a national
joke in his later years. His final count was eight Orders of Lenin,
three Orders of Hero of the Soviet Union, a gold Peace Medal, two
Orders of the Red Banner, a Victory Medal, Order of the Patriotic War,
and Order of the Red Star. He was also delighted to be a Hero of
Czechoslovakia, a Hero of Mongolia, a Hero of the Democratic Republic
of Germany, a gold medallist of the Peruvian Cultural Association.
At his funeral, his medal collection took up over 40 velvet cushions.

But the entry of the criminal underworld into the Soviet honours
system, has infuriated the Soviet press. In exposing the scandal of
the fake medal-holders, Gazeta told the story of an old man under
the German occupation who would scour battlefields for Russian
soldiers' medals, hide them at great personal risk and then entrust
them to the partisans to be sent back to Moscow and to their families.
'One's own awards are sacred, and awards won by another are twice as
sacred and must be treated accordingly,' the magazine said.

[Bryan]

SOURCE : Current Digest of the Soviet Press
DATE : October 17, 1984
SECTION : THE NEWS OF THE WEEK; Volume XXXVI, No. 38
HEADLINE: ABSTRACT
SOURCE : Courtroom Sketch: NOT SUBJECT TO APPEAL.
AUTHOR : Yu. Feofanov. Izvestia, Sept. 21, Abstract

After being expelled from a military school, the Young communist League
and Ivanovo University for theft and amoral behavior, 26-year-old
Gennady Kalinin took a job operating a ride in an amusement park. The
low pay didn't bother him, though -- Kalinin was a speculator. He and
his 20-year-old wife Inessa "collected" icons, antiques, medals and
decorations for resale.

Posing as journalists or young pathfinders, the Kalinins sought out
war heroes and labor veterans and visited them in their homes. In the
course of interviewing their hosts, the couple would invariably ask
to see their decorations and medals. And after their guests had left,
the heroes and veterans were surprised to discover that their medals
and decorations had vanished -- often along with other valuables. The
list of victims included residents of Ivanovo, Smolensk, Odessa,
Yaroslavl, Belgorod, Suzdal, Riga, Bendery, Voronezh and Kishinev.

One day Gennady Kalinin showed up at the door of Hero of the Soviet
Union Vice Admiral Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov, a soldier who had
distinguished himself in many battles of the war. Posing as a
university student, Kalinin asked if he could interview the admiral
about his wartime experiences. The latter wilingly obliged, and he
and his wife Nataiya spent the afternoon recounting their experiences.
Gennady asked to see the admiral's decorations. When the admiral
brought out his full dress uniform, Gennady estimated that it was
bedecked with over 20 foreign orders and medals!

Several days later, on July 18, 1983, Gennady visited the Kholostyakovs
again -- this time with his wife Inessa--ostensibly to gather some
more details. Within minutes, Inessa was stuffing the admiral's
uniform into a bag, along with crystal vases and other valuables.
Vice Admiral Kholostyakov and his wife lay dead, stabbed by Gennady
with a nail puller.

More crimes followed. Together with one Ivan Dainega, the Kalinins
killed a woman in the process of stealing her icons. With a certain
Aleksandr Kulagin they committed a fourth murder while stealing
antiques.

The Kalinins sold the valuables they stole to one Ostap Tarasenko,
a swindler who testified at the Kalinins' trial as a witness. The
cynical "collector" bought the Kalinins' booty with no concern as to
where it had come from or how they had gotten it. Incidentally, some
100,000 rubles' worth of antiques were confiscated from Tarasenko's
home. He was found guilty of speculation but was not sentenced to
prison.

The Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court sentenced Gennady Kalinin to
the supreme penalty -- death. Inessa Kalinin, Ivan Dainega and
Aleksandr Kulagin received lengthy terms of deprivation of freedom.
The sentences are not subject to appeal.

[new world]

Colleagues,

I was browsing through Art's web site and came accross the story of a collector in CA who bought a HSU Star with a doc few years ago. Later on he also acquired a photo of a recepient.

Then he decided to investigate the award, wrote a letter to the Hero's family in Uzbekistan and was informed that the award was stolen from the family. As he learned more about the history of the Hero and got to know the family, he decided to return the award to the son of the Hero for FREE!!!!!!

This is truly an amazing story that made me thinking of the collecting from a different angle. It's not a secret that many of the awards on the market were stolen from the museums or even from the families!!!

While we as the collectors value the awards from the historical or monetary point of view, they hold special holy meaning to the families of the heroes who earned these awards on the battlefields.

Let me prize Mr. Hakada (the collector from the HSU story) - as he truly commited act that deserves the highest honors!!!!!

The story can be viewed at:
http://soviet-awards.addr.com/digest...returned_1.htm

Thinking about the story - many of us possess rare and expensive Soviet awards. What would we do in a similar situation? Would we return the awards to their owners?

I am not sure about myself. What about the rest of you?

Best,

William

[charlet]

this is a case of conscience...I've been told of those terrible stories of old veterans selling their awards to pay the habitation fee...I protect myself from guilty conscience by telling me it is also real many russians don't care at all of the historical value of this stuff. A friend of mine never showed great care about the awards of his grandfather! if he could bring me those, I'd be peace-minded...Apart from stolen items, vet widows fooled, the families interest about vet stuff do vary, it depends on the quality of relationship with the grandpa, the familial links, etc; the situation is identical I think in all countries.
Don't ask me to sell my grandpa's military ID! I saw a newsreport about a fond of napoleonic militaria, descendant of a Napoleon close guard captain, still lovingly conserving the ancestor's sword. The sword in the same familly since the capture of moscow in 1812! But recently, a german auction house sold all medals of the former nr2 of DDR, Wili stoph...sure quite a cumbersome grandpa, a former dictator! what represented this man in privacy, familial life? the orders were sold at a cost representatitve of the part of the story that guy played in cold war.

What will I do in this situation? I'd be veeeery annoyed. Coz the work I spent to buy my collection is well worth a HSL medal...if I buy it, it will be very representative!!!
This history remain exceptionnal, and it's a very nice story of dignity. I think russian families still keep the valuable and loved medals of their ancestors...and if I was too young to n*know the times where soviet stuff was sold for nothing (I missed a lot of stuff!), I'm not too concerned that Russians now retain and collect their national patrimony...

[Art]

Guys,

I'm glad you liked the story. Actually this story is a follow-up to a story Henry first had written when he purchased this group.

Here is the first part:

Mookhudin Umurdinov: Uzbek Hero of the Soviet Union

Here is the second part:

Stolen and Returned! The journey of a Hero Star

Henry was very gracious in this situation. He could have easily sent the awards back to the person he bought them from and demanded his money back, essentially washing his hands of the entire mess. He felt compelled to right a wrong. The Umurdinov family was truly suprised and happy to get their Father's award back. It's a story with a happy ending.

Art

[Bravo2Zero]

Art,
I too congratulate Henry on his gracious gift of the HSU back to the family.I am only sorry that he could not have returned it in person.I had a similar experience some years ago.I purchased a British Waterloo medal at a collectors fair in Australia around 1985.It was not to one of the units that were heavily engaged in that famous action so went into the bottom drawer and was forgotten.I was setting up some new shelves for my library and started browsing through some old copies of the OMRS Journal...I have been a member since 1969.In a 1972 issue there was a short note about a theft from a Regimantal museum and a list of medals that were stolen.Top of the list was a name that rang a bell ...TIDY...sure enough it was the Waterloo I now had.As I was going to the UK on business I rang the museum to arrange to return it...they were well out of London and I did not have time to go up there.On arrival in London there was a note asking me to meet a delegation at Horse Guards Barracks and there in the same office and next to the same desk used by Field Marshal Wellington I was met by the Curator,the Regimental Colonel and sundry other media reporters including the TV!After the ceremony they told me that it was the only medal recovered after the theft...but it was to the Commanding Officer of the Regiment at Waterloo...the most important medal in the collection!
When the robbery took place the unit had just returned from a tour of duty in Northern Ireland.The museum was in the same building as the Intelligence office and they believed the thieves might have been IRA.They failed to get into the Int office secure area so may have tried to cover their traks by taking the medals to make it look as if that is what they were after.It actually made the TV news back in Australia...thank heavens I had worn a coat and tie!
One final thought.There has been some discussion about smuggling medals out of Russia and I must admit that this concerns me.But when you see the footnote to Henrys' article where the new Regime would not feature the ceremony nor pay any tribute to the old Hero I don't worry quite as much.If families wish to sell their medals it is their business and no one else should make a judgement upon them.
Mike D