07-10-2009, 04:14 PM
Jeffrey Meffert Wrote:Finished watching "Hot Snow", "Blazing Snow" or similar translated title. Not a great movie for acting or plot but I watch them to practice listening to Russian. Uniforms looked OK although you would be surprised at how nice and clean the overcoats were outside Stalingrad in late 1942/early 1943. (Also Manstein apparently had an ungodly number of Tigers to try and break through to Paulus...although I would say these were visually passable Tigers considering they started their lives as T-34's.)
My question relates to an event at the end where the few survivors of an anti-tank regiment were awarded on the spot orders of red banner. They tossed them in a mess cup with vodka and passed the cup around as a toast their awards and those who didn't make it. Such a ceremony exist?
Jeffrey,
The order washing ceremony exists. Also, when an officer gets promoted, his new shoulder boards stars are traditionally "vodka cleaned". As you watch more Russian movies, you will see similar scene again. My dad and his friends vodka washed their college graduation badges.
During the war, army commanders had an authority to award orders and medals in the name of the Supreme Soviet. A great article on the subject is written by retired Soviet officer Yuri Veremeev:
Порядок награждения в годы войны sov-nagrady.shtml
Since you are learning Russian, it will be an interesting exercise for you. The article mentions Hot Snow scene. Events of the movie take place in 1942. At that time, army comm. had the authority to award Nevsky at most. In 1943, army comm. award giving powers were extended up to ORB.
Cheers,
Simon
