Gramotas.

[deValcourt]

Here's a "Diplom" for first place in a KGB "personal weapon" shooting competition. I find it rather interesting because of the nature of this "sport" in relation to their duties.

I am a bit puzzled about the name of the winner. In Russian it is typed as "Илюшина Юрия Федоровича" (without a comma) which comes out to "Ilyushina Yuri Fedorovich." The familial or surname and patronymic end in an "a" as well as the title for "comrade" which means, from my memory and understanding that this is a woman named Yuri.:confused:

There is also a stamp over the Council Chairman's signature at the bottom but it has faded so badly that it is just about impossible to read, but there is enough to see that it is from the Central (or perhaps City) Council of Physical Education and Sports. Exactly what city this took place in is not in the text of the document.

The text in English:

[SIZE="3"]Central Soviet [Council] of Physical Education and Sports

Diploma
[Typed text:]
The City Soviet [Council] of Physical Culture [Education] and Sports awards Comrade Ilyushina[,] Yuri Fedorovich, who took first place with a score of 73 points in the competitions for shooting personal weapons on the 57th anniversary of the Cheka - KGB.

Chairman of the Board: Vasyagin (signature)
20 December 1974

Council Chairman (signature)[/SIZE]

What I find interesting about this one is not just that it may have been a woman who won the shooting competition at a time (when women and Jews were simply no longer hired by the KGB per "company" policy. Moreover, it took place on the Dec. 20 anniversary of the KGB (and its predecessors), and KGB officers/employees received their paychecks on the 20th of every month as a "remembrance" of their beginning.:rolleyes:

Phillip

P.S. Art, I managed to find a progarm that compresses the photo/scan files, so it should all be good from now on.:D