Orders and documents

[RedBanner1920]

I have been asking myself a question lately with all history aside and whatnot. Is it worth researching all awards? If a order is worth 50 to 75 dollars is it even worth spending 80 to 100 dollars to research it?

[Eryk]

I have been asking myself a question lately with all history aside and whatnot. Is it worth researching all awards? If a order is worth 50 to 75 dollars is it even worth spending 80 to 100 dollars to research it?

Depends on what your goal is, of course. If it's to increase the value of the award, probably not. Too much research is simply unremarkable. Of course there is always a chance for a hit on something extraordinary, but more often than not it won't be.

If the goal of research is to... get research, then it may or may not be worth it. How much is the story behind the medal worth to you?

Each individual brings has their own reasons for collecting, and what they want to get out of it follows. Paying someone to root around in archives half way 'round the world is part of my collecting. But because of the cost it's definitely not for everyone.

[jcuffe6240]

So how hard is it to research labour orders? I am sure it is easier if you have the name and date of the award. How does one start to find that information?

[medals73]

So how hard is it to research labour orders? I am sure it is easier if you have the name and date of the award. How does one start to find that information?

If you have the matching document, then you have the needed name and date information, though I've never had much luck with any after about 1943 or 1944.

If all you have is chunk of metal and enamel and ribbon lying in front of you, then your chances, at present, are zero.

[deValcourt]

If you have the matching document, then you have the needed name and date information, though I've never had much luck with any after about 1943 or 1944.

If all you have is chunk of metal and enamel and ribbon lying in front of you, then your chances, at present, are zero.

Which is why I'm simply biding my time. I am a huge fan of almost all of the orders produced after 1960 - October Revolution and Friendship of Nations/Peoples being at the top of my list. From what I understand, no information on these is available at this time (probably in significant part because the recipients stand a good chance of still being around).

As an avid fan of "politically motivated" awards like the above I would love to know some of the reasons why people were given these (and why you don't see more of them on suit jackets and uniforms during special occasions these days). Just a guess, but since most recipients of these were party bigwigs, it might be a bit embarrassing for those folks to wear them in public anymore - just thinking out loud again...

I do recall something about a valiant labor medal being awarded in the 1970s to a man for creating some sort of vast improvement on the system of refueling airplanes on the ground (military and civilian), but it is strictly hearsay under the standard rules of evidence.

And one older gentleman with a brand new government pension-provided home in the freshly created "suburbs" of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan showed me an ORBL he said he was given in 1976 (easy year to remember) on behalf of a grateful SU for his work in the diplomatic corps, but either would not say more or my translator would not feed me more - I suspect the latter since the man took pride in everything he had, including the video we watched of his grandson's circumcision - not joking. Of course the man also claimed to have been taken away in the middle of the night by the KGB to the Kremlin and questioned about his role in Brezhnev's death (really, I'm not making this stuff up; and just how he was thought to have killed him is a story too weird to go into here, but let's just say it involved a large bottle of Indian "Viagra" and ... well, that's enough.:nono).

Phillip