Hi again friends, I recently bought this award doc with
medal, but the doc looks rather strange, I don´t know if the scan
shows it but the paper is some sort of glossy sort instead of the usual matted type. What do you think ?
All the best from Sunny Sweden !
Your document is perfectly genuine, and it is an original 1944 issue. They printed a bunch of them on that glossy paper. It was not a very good choice for an award card, since most of them separate at the spine, which yours is about to do as well.
Your document is signed by Major-General Zverkov, Chief of the NKVD Logistics Unit for Moscow Region.
A new article from Soviet War News Weekly october 10, 1944:
”Medals for Moscow Priests
By NIKOLAI Metropolitan of Kiev and Galich
In the dark days of October, 1941, when the Nazi troops were at the approaches of Moscow, the priests rose to its defence like other Moscow citizens. From the pulpit they called on their congregations to remain calm, encouraged them with assurances of ultimate victory and offered up prayers for those who had fallen on the battlefield. Services were frequently interrupted by air-raid warnings, but the priests continued their prayers.
Moscow clergy did their spells of duty in the various brigades and took part in building defences just as laymen did.
Now about twenty priests are among the recipients of the ”Defence of Moscow” medals, which the Soviet Government is awarding to those who remained in Moscow and by sticking to their posts helped to defeat the enemy.
From September 1, 1941, to January, 1943, the Reverend Nikolai Bazhanov, head of the Church of the Resurrection in Brussov Street, acted as a chief if the fire brigade attached to the block of flats where he lives. All the incendiary bombd that were dropped in his area were put out before they could do any damage.
The Reverend Pavel Tsvetkov, Provost of the Steliass Church at Cherkisovo, in the second Moscow city district, prepared for an air-raid shelter in the church for children an the aged. He did fire-fighting duty at his home and took part in digging a reservoir at the Stalinets Stadium, organised a successful collection of scrap metal among his parishoners and also took up a collection of 185,000 roubles for tanks, aeroplanes and gifts for the Red Army.
The Reverend Vassili Romankov, head of the Pyatnitsky Cemetere Church, collected large sums from his parishoners for the Defence Fund. Marshal Stalin sent a personal letter of thanks to him for his active aid to the Red Army.
I, too, have been considered worthy of the ”Defence Medal” althought I spent most of the critical days in the town of Ulianovsk, where it was my duty to be with his beatitude, the late Patriarch Sergius.
These new Government awards to the Moscow flergy are a further proof that the Russian Orthodox Shurch is at one with her people, that she ever shared and will continue to share with them their sorrows and their joys.”
Picture: ”At the presentation. Metropolitan Nicolai (left) and Alexei, Vicar of the Patriarchy”.
Kjetil Kvist
----
"The winter annoyed us too."
- Zhukov in his memoirs
I had the opportunity to visit the church administration building at Zagorsk in the company of senior Frontier Guard officials in 1992. Our Russian hosts proudly showed us the little museum showing all of the awards given to Russian priests. I can't remember everything on display, but I do recall seeing the odd Order of Lenin and other orders.
For me, the visit just reinforced the fact that what little clergy was tolerated was heavily dominated/penetrated by the security organs.
Bought my first medal with document. I am assuming that all medals sold with documents are more expensive? Also on the document there is a serial number but not on the medal? Unless I can't see it?
Congratulations for your good start. :)
The Defence of Moscow medal is not numbered. And medals sold with documents are (logically) more expensive... but not so much more for the more current ones.
The point, with not numbered medals, is : how to be sure that the medal and the doc really go together ? :confused: Really impossible... you can only try to make a relation between the date of the doc and the general look and shape of the medal. But, here, nothing scientific of exact...
I guess Christophe forgot to mention that the number you see on the Doc has nothing to do with the Medal.
Like Christophe says this Medal (as all the other Defense of Medals) is not numbered.
I'm not sure what that number on the Doc is for, I guess it's just the Doc number.
