Appearing and disappearing awards....

[Al-muell]

I have recently bought 3 photographs and a kind of driver's certificate to a WW2 vet Aleksandr Zayko.
The photographs were all taken after 1970, as he wears 25yrs. of victory badge, but the latest was taken after 1978 (a date on his winner of socialist competition badge). The earliest picture, glued to a piece of wood and signed "Zayko A. I. driver" is probably from the wall of fame (either "They fought for the Motherland" or "Pioneers of Labour") from the institution he worked in. You can clearly see that he is wearing: some campaign medal, VoG, 30yrs of the AF of USSR and 20yrs.of victory. However, on the later picture he is wearing OG, ORBL, Vog 20 and 30yrs. of victory, while on the last -
RBL, OG, VoG, 20 and 30yrs of victory, 50 and 60yrs. of the armed forces.

I can understand that he could have got his OG in 70's, but where's the campaign medal missing? What happened to his 30yrs. of AF? And why doesn't he have 50yrs. of AF in the second picture, taken after 1975? (7 years late?!)

My theory about the first picture would be that he was asked for that when he did't have the awards with huim, so they gave him what was at hand, as he has the 3 medals on a common attachment (which he didn't have later) and the rest shows his actual awards. Could that be?

[Tretov]

One idea on the 30th anniversary of Soviet Army and Navy is that it has the pic of Stalin and hence he may have chosen not to wear it. As for the later AF awards, could be he chose just to wear the most recent. Even though he had been in the army, perhaps he did not identify himself with the armed forces and found the 1968 awards not necessary to wear when a, from his point of view as WW2 veteran, more relevant award had been issued in 1975. As for the campaign medal - I have no clue. Also, this is just my fantasies :)

[Esteban_cool]

I remember that once a member posted some pictures of his grandfather. He only wore his Socialist Competition badges and Irreproachable service medals as a personal choice (he actually earned those), so Tretov may be right.

[Al-muell]

Whatever the reason, now, thanks to podvignaroda site, I can confirm that he indeed got the OG3 and that it was awarded in 1945, not in the 70's