Suspensions, Ribbons, Ribbon Bars And Order Of Precedence.

[medals73]

It may be that they are just the detritus after the guys had their groups remounted. I want to believe that.

[Tommy]

Or they were all fakes and a collector has ripped them off and destroyed them, forever removing them circulation!

Anything but, altered and thrown together to create a group to fool someone :(

[Lapa]

Originally Posted by medals73

They maye you weep and then wonder where all the ripped-off medals have gone.

Most likely, they crossed the Russian border just by themselves to end up "in the West".

[Will]

I have been offered the service uniform of a Soviet Army Marshal of Engineers.
The ribbon set seems as though it might be correct except for the fact that it displays no "Irreproachable Service" medals.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Any ideas about the bottom two rows of foreign awards?

As I view the ribbons they are:

Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Red Banner

Order of Suvorov, 3rd Class
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class
Order of the Red Star
Order of the Red Star

Order of the Red Star
Order "For Service To The Homeland In The Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd class
Medal for Military Valor in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary Birth of Lenin
Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad"

Victory Over Germany
Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Victory Over Japan
Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR
XX Anniversary of the Red Army
30th Anniversary of the Soviet Army

40th Anniversary of the Soviet Army
50th Anniversary of the Soviet Army
60th Anniversary of the Soviet Army
70th Anniversary of the Soviet Army

[Esteban_cool]

I´m not so sure. the first medal of the bottom row is a Romanian Military Merit medal and that isn´t an award a high ranking foreign (especially Soviet) general would be awarded. And the third one of the same row is an Afghan Khad medal, that seems unfitting between the rest. The XX RKKA also looks weird in a rack with few high military awards (though I might be wrong or just paranoid on this one, since this one was a political award rather than commemorative).

I´d pass.

[MarvWe]

Missing service medals are something I've seen often on big ribbon bars. I don't know why, maybe someone can explain it.

[medals73]

Interesting. My quick guesses:

Next-to-bottom row: Mongolia: 30th Anniversary of Victory; ??????; Mongolia: 30th Anniversary of Khalkin Gol; Afghanistan: 10th Anniversary of the Revolution

Bottom row: ??????; Mongolia: 60th Anniversary of the Revolution; Afghanistan: KhAD Medal; ??????

And, with some thought, I may get the others.

[Will]

I should add that I have absolutely no doubt about the originality of the uniform itself. I was simply trying to get an idea about the missing irreproachable service medals.

The posts that have been made in reply ( for which I say "THANK YOU!") illustrate what I have found to be a common problem: a lot of foreign ribbons look very similar, and what one person views as a Romanian ribbon, another sees as a Mongolian ribbon (And Mongolian awards would certainly make sense).

Again, gentlemen, thank you all very much ! :thumbsup

[Lapa]

Originally Posted by Will

I should add that I have absolutely no doubt about the originality of the uniform itself...

Will,

Before making such definite statements, it might be worth digging a bit deeper :cool:

There was, altogether, a grand total of 6 Marshals of Engineering (main awards in brackets):
Vorobev Mikhail Petrovich (2 OL, 3 ORB, OSuv 1st, OPW 1st, ORLB)
Proshlyakov Aleksey Ivanovich (HSU, 3 OL, 3 ORB, OKut 1st, OSuv 2nd, OPW 1st, 2 ORS)
Kharchenko, Viktor Kondratevich (5 ORB, OKut 2nd, OPW 1st and 2nd, ORBL, ORS)
Gelovani Archil Viktorovich (OL, OPW 1st, ORBL, 2 ORS, OSM 3rd)
Aganov, Sergey Khistoforovich (OL, ORB, OKut 1st, OPW 1st and 2nd, 2 ORS, OSM 3rd)
Shestopalov Nikolay Fedorovich (OL, OOR, 2 OPW 1st, OPW 2nd, 2 ORBL, 2 ORS)

So, as you can see, none of them "fits" with that ribbon bar.

Now, the value of such a uniform being solely in the shoulder boards - the rest being a usual general's uniform - if I were you, I'd take a close, hard look at those beauties to make sure that they are, indeed, what they pretend to be. If you can post some good quality pictures of the boards, the embroideries, and some taken from the edge to show their relief, I am sure that some members can provide you with their point of view as to originality of this piece.

Marc

[Will]

Marc....

Thanks very much for the information.
I appreciate it very much.

I believe that the uniform set itself is original (for a variety of reasons that are not relevant here), but the ribbon set made me uneasy. I have been seeing put-together Soviet ribbon sets since I began collecting Soviet material in 1991. There were also badges on this uniform that made no sense, either (I didn't even bother to post those photos).

So I suspected that the uniform was enhanced by someone with a large set of ribbons to supposedly reflect a Marshal's set.