Foreign Awards To Soviets.

[desantnik]

Interestingly, the forward to the book is written by the same guy who signed the certificate intially mentioned in this thread - Luigi Longo.

To add fuel to the NKVD rumor, there is a table breaking down the composition of the Soviet contribution and of the surviving Soviet partisans in Italy at the time, 1799 were known by name, 96 were known only by codename and 2661 were unknown. Apparently 425 were KIA.

This is a photo of a rather large, though not filled out Gaibaldi Star award certificate (approx 10" x 12.5") for awarding to "al cittadino sovietico" (to a Soviet citizen), signed by the same Luigi Longo, identified in the signature block as the "Comando generale delle Brigate d'assalto 'Garibaldi'." Ruler along right border for scale.

Not quite as good as U2's "Even Better than the Real Thing," but I guess it will do...

[CtahhR]

Very nice. It certainly proves that there were special "Soviet Only" items produced by the Italians.

[desantnik]

Full text reads for those who can't read the 120kb photo:

"COMANDO GENERAL DELLE BRIGATE D'ASSALTO 'GARIBALDI'

STELLA GARIBALDINA
AL VALORE

CONFERITA
al cittadino sovietico

_________________

In riconoscimento del valore con cui combatte nelle file delle Brigate d'assalto 'Garibaldi', nel segno dell'amicizia tra l'Unione Sovietica e l'Italia contro l'invasore fascista e per la liberta della sua e della nostra patria.

p. il Comando generale delle Brigate d'assalto 'Garibaldi' (Luigi Longo)"

[CtahhR]

Would anyone out there have any information on Major-General (as of 1985) Vasilij Fedorovich Kitaev?

I know he was "international" as he was awarded by Bulgaria in 1985.

Can't seem to find any other information on him and it seems strange that a Major-General would vanish from history.

Turns out he was one of 16 members of the Staff of Anti-Aircraft Defence of the combined forces of the Warsaw Pact.

Top Right is Major-General Of Aviation Kitaev in 1980.

No doubt these chaps were awarded by multiple Warsaw Pact nations.

I don't think Kitaev will have retired to Bulgaria so no doubt he left his Bulgarian commemorative behind when he relocated.

Awarded the Jubilee Medal "40 Years Of Victory Over Hitler's Fascism".

[Pobeda45]

Here's Podpolkovnik Dreling Aleksandr Adolfovich with a chestful of Soviet and Polish awards. A Soviet citizen of ethnic Polish ethnicity, he served in the Soviet Army and then the First Polish Army as commander of an engineering sapper battalion.

George

[Al-muell]

Nice to see the face.
Here, You can see his signature on documents:
http://soviet-awards.com/forum/soviet-bl...odlak.html
The battallion was the 8th Sapper Battalion.

[Pobeda45]

That's great! Really nice coincidence and I am super impressed you had remembered who had signed the documents! :thumbsup

[Al-muell]

Major Nikolai Nikolaevich Smogorzhevskiy (a.k.a. Mikołaj Smogorzewski) spent so much time in the Polish Army that in 1952, when this photograph was taken, his only Soviet Awards were his two ORSs, at the same time he already had 4 Polish awards.

A 1921-born Ukrainian national, Zhitomir native with a very Polish surname and probably at least basic ability to speak Polish, he was assigned to the Polish Army in august 1944 (In the Red Army since 1940).

He got his first ORS as senior technical lt. of the 58th separate tank regiment (13th Army) for evacuating tanks destroyed by the enemy in July 1943 under constant fire.

He got the second one in june 1945, as a sr. technician-lieutenant of the 6th tank-automobile battallion of the 2nd Polish Army for exellence in organising transport and excellent maintanance of the automobile park of the unit.

His Polish Awards are: 2 crosses of merit (gold or silver), For Odra, Niesse, Baltic Sea (no doubt for the "Niesse" part, as that's where the 2nd Army was) and Victory and Freedom medal.

[Al-muell]

The citations from pn: