A market in Kabul..

[Pravda]

Dat,

No harm, no foul. I believe we might be in the same line of work.

On a side note, it seems that very few Afghan orders make it onto the market in the states. Is it much better in Europe? I have head that it is much better in Russia.

Cheers,
Pravda

[GabrielMk3]

I can just tell you that in Scandinavia, people don't even know about awards...
... and more rarely Afghan awards... :(

[medals73]

Originally Posted by Pravda

Dat,

No harm, no foul. I believe we might be in the same line of work.

On a side note, it seems that very few Afghan orders make it onto the market in the states. Is it much better in Europe? I have head that it is much better in Russia.

Cheers,
Pravda

When there's no information available, there isn't much knowledge, and so the market interest is limited. This is just fine for some of us.

[Dat Nguyen]

Originally Posted by Pravda

Dat,

No harm, no foul. I believe we might be in the same line of work.

On a side note, it seems that very few Afghan orders make it onto the market in the states. Is it much better in Europe? I have head that it is much better in Russia.

Cheers,
Pravda

I got a good size collection of the Afghan stuff over the years. Don't laugh but I owned 5 Type 1 Order of the Saur Revolution at one time. Also had a letter personally delivered to Abdul Ahad Momand in Stuttgart at a convention signing autographs. In my letter, I asked if he has any photos of him wearing his Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of the Revolution Star. My friend who delivered the letter for me told me that he sort of freaked out and got really suspicious ... demanding to know how I knew that he received those awards. Oh well, so much for trying to get an actual photo of those Titles .... but I did get his signature on a photograph of him in his cosmonaut space suit.

[medals73]

Originally Posted by Dat Nguyen

I got a good size collection of the Afghan stuff over the years. Don't laugh but I owned 5 Type 1 Order of the Saur Revolution at one time. Also had a letter personally delivered to Abdul Ahad Momand in Stuttgart at a convention signing autographs. In my letter, I asked if he has any photos of him wearing his Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of the Revolution Star. My friend who delivered the letter for me told me that he sort of freaked out and got really suspicious ... demanding to know how I knew that he received those awards. Oh well, so much for trying to get an actual photo of those Titles .... but I did get his signature on a photograph of him in his cosmonaut space suit.

Yes, the recipients of those PDRA awards can get pretty twitchy when you ask them about the old days, until they get to trust you. I have been shown some marvelous groups, some of which had, quite literally, to be dug up out of the back yard. Whether under the Taliban or under the present junta, recipients of these medals are quite unpopular. (Unless they signed onto the Northern Rebellion pretty early on.) And many of these recipients are settled, more or less permanently, outside Afghanistan. It took a long time for me to persuade the chap who used to be head of thoracic surgery at Kabul Hospital to show me his medals (a mix of Afghan and Soviet labor awards). He worked repairing bicycles at the market near where I lived in New Delhi. He wanted to go back to contribute whatever he could in the health care field, but when I asked Karzai, he said "no way, it is too early". He is still very proud of his medals, though he lost the certificates when he had to flee Kabul.

[Pravda]

Well, it sounds like y'all have been positioned to make some excellent acquisitions! If I take a trip to Afghanistan, I will definitely take the opportunity to do embark on a shopping trip or two. If I can buy in large quantities, I will try to put some on the Marketplace. :thumbsup

[medals73]

Originally Posted by Pravda

Well, it sounds like y'all have been positioned to make some excellent acquisitions! If I take a trip to Afghanistan, I will definitely take the opportunity to do embark on a shopping trip or two. If I can buy in large quantities, I will try to put some on the Marketplace. :thumbsup

Not exactly a place for tourist visas. Much (MUCH) worse than when I was there with the UN (& Provisional Afghan Government) in 2002.

Wait a few years.

[Pravda]

Luckily I don't have to worry about those technicalities...my travel is usually government sponsored and I don't get issued visas.

[Dat Nguyen]

Greetings to All,

A message was relayed to me from an Afghan expat living in the UK. This person recently spoke to Mr. Abdul Ahad Momand and asked him about his awards. Apparently Mr Momand was never awarded the Title Afghan of the Revolutionary; he told my friend that he only received the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

The search for the Afghan of the Revolutionary continues.

v/r
Dat Nguyen

[medals73]

Muhammad Fahim had promised to show me his medals (but, then, me has made many promises). He was said to have been a double recipient of the Hero (as ex-KhAD and ex-head of that same body . . .). But, then, there was a nasty moment when I wasn't sure he wasn't going to have me shot . . . .