06-05-2003, 02:33 PM
The Award Card
What they normally find first is the 'Uchetnaya Kartochka', often referred to in English as the 'Award Card'. This will list several things. At the top of the page, after the words 'Uchetnaya Kartochka' is a line that reads "Ordenskaya Knijka", and directly below that is the word "Udostoverenia". Translated, the top word means "Order Book", the bottom literally means "Identification Document". Order Books were issued with the awarding of orders, the "Identification Document" was issued with medals.
Usually, one of the two words will either be crossed out, circled, blacked out, etc, and there will be a number next to it. This number can simply be a number, normally six digits, or it can be a number (also six digits) following a letter. This is the document number of the Order Book or Identification Document issued with the award or awards.
If you then take the document with the group that the research is for, and open the book to the first or second page (normally the second page, the one listing all the award numbers, except on much later documents) and you will see that this number on the award card matches the number in the document. If it doesn't, you should be glad that you got the research and send the group back to the person you bought it from!
There are always exceptions to the rules, of course. Award cards filled out up to 1943 only had slots for the name of the award and the date, and none for the award number, though I have seen numbers written on the cards. If a group does have this sort of card, and there are post-43 awards in the group, normally there will be an award card of the later type, with all the award numbers.
The other information that can be found on this card is the person's First, Last and Patronymic names, their rank, gender, date of birth, place of birth, party affiliation, education, nationality, date joined the Red Army, place of service when the awards were presented, current place of service, and home address. The place of service when the awards were presented is often the last unit they served in during a war, or it could be their previous unit to the unit issuing the award card, or even the very same unit.
On the reverse of the card, you will find the listing of all awards, including orders with their numbers, the document number issued with the award (including document numbers for campaign and commemorative medals) and the unit issuing the award with the date issued. Entries here depended greatly on the individual unit. I have seen some with as little as the basic information listed above, for only the person's orders, and I have seen award cards with every order, every medal, and even foreign awards listed!
After the listing of awards, there is a place for the persons signature. This is quite handy to verify against the signature in the order book. Below that, will be the name and title of the person issuing the card, the date the card was issued, and the stamp of the unit. This unit stamp has saved the research on a group on numerous occasions, especially when only the award card was available and the handwriting on the front was too messy to decipher!
As I mentioned briefly above, sometimes the only document available on a person is their award card. For whatever reason, the citations and the service record are unavailable. This is most commonly found with Naval groups, as well as with groups to non-WW2 veterans from the 1960's onward.
Award card styles do vary throughout the years, but have contained essentially (with few exceptions) the same information with each style.
What they normally find first is the 'Uchetnaya Kartochka', often referred to in English as the 'Award Card'. This will list several things. At the top of the page, after the words 'Uchetnaya Kartochka' is a line that reads "Ordenskaya Knijka", and directly below that is the word "Udostoverenia". Translated, the top word means "Order Book", the bottom literally means "Identification Document". Order Books were issued with the awarding of orders, the "Identification Document" was issued with medals.
Usually, one of the two words will either be crossed out, circled, blacked out, etc, and there will be a number next to it. This number can simply be a number, normally six digits, or it can be a number (also six digits) following a letter. This is the document number of the Order Book or Identification Document issued with the award or awards.
If you then take the document with the group that the research is for, and open the book to the first or second page (normally the second page, the one listing all the award numbers, except on much later documents) and you will see that this number on the award card matches the number in the document. If it doesn't, you should be glad that you got the research and send the group back to the person you bought it from!
There are always exceptions to the rules, of course. Award cards filled out up to 1943 only had slots for the name of the award and the date, and none for the award number, though I have seen numbers written on the cards. If a group does have this sort of card, and there are post-43 awards in the group, normally there will be an award card of the later type, with all the award numbers.
The other information that can be found on this card is the person's First, Last and Patronymic names, their rank, gender, date of birth, place of birth, party affiliation, education, nationality, date joined the Red Army, place of service when the awards were presented, current place of service, and home address. The place of service when the awards were presented is often the last unit they served in during a war, or it could be their previous unit to the unit issuing the award card, or even the very same unit.
On the reverse of the card, you will find the listing of all awards, including orders with their numbers, the document number issued with the award (including document numbers for campaign and commemorative medals) and the unit issuing the award with the date issued. Entries here depended greatly on the individual unit. I have seen some with as little as the basic information listed above, for only the person's orders, and I have seen award cards with every order, every medal, and even foreign awards listed!
After the listing of awards, there is a place for the persons signature. This is quite handy to verify against the signature in the order book. Below that, will be the name and title of the person issuing the card, the date the card was issued, and the stamp of the unit. This unit stamp has saved the research on a group on numerous occasions, especially when only the award card was available and the handwriting on the front was too messy to decipher!
As I mentioned briefly above, sometimes the only document available on a person is their award card. For whatever reason, the citations and the service record are unavailable. This is most commonly found with Naval groups, as well as with groups to non-WW2 veterans from the 1960's onward.
Award card styles do vary throughout the years, but have contained essentially (with few exceptions) the same information with each style.
Under the banner of Marxism-Leninism, under the leadership of the Communist Party--forward to new victories in the construction of communism!
