04-14-2005, 10:53 AM
Hello Alexei and Dave,
I would appreciate any info you guys have to share on the subject. Thank you both for your responses. Collecting Soviet awards is so intrically linked to history the two subjects in my opinion go hand in hand. What Stalin did in reaction to Barbarossa is of great interest to me. And I can only speculate that Khruschev didn't order documents destroyed because he wielded less ultimate power than Stalin did. As was evidenced by his eventual removal from power.
Obviously without Barbarossa there would be no Wartime Orders and Medals for all of us to collect! To me it has always come down to the spirit shown by the peoples of Russia defending their homelands and famillies against the Nazi invasion. The leadership of the former USSR played a part for sure but awards and medals are given to people.
It is my way of keeping the memory all too often overlooked in the West that in WWII as it is known here: the "Patriotic War" (to Russians and Ukrainians and Belorussians and all the other Peoples of the Former USSR) the USSR suffered by most accounts at least 25,000,000 dead probably much more this was at that time more than the entire population of my home country Canada. To think of this in perspective Canada today has about 34,000,000 people. In the West this is sometimes mentionned but we usually hear more about how D-Day was the pivotal event of the War in Europe ask any North American (except of course a collector of Soviet Awards) what the Battle of Stalingrad or the Siege of Leningrad are and I wager in general you will get a blank look and no answer.
Ron
I would appreciate any info you guys have to share on the subject. Thank you both for your responses. Collecting Soviet awards is so intrically linked to history the two subjects in my opinion go hand in hand. What Stalin did in reaction to Barbarossa is of great interest to me. And I can only speculate that Khruschev didn't order documents destroyed because he wielded less ultimate power than Stalin did. As was evidenced by his eventual removal from power.
Obviously without Barbarossa there would be no Wartime Orders and Medals for all of us to collect! To me it has always come down to the spirit shown by the peoples of Russia defending their homelands and famillies against the Nazi invasion. The leadership of the former USSR played a part for sure but awards and medals are given to people.
It is my way of keeping the memory all too often overlooked in the West that in WWII as it is known here: the "Patriotic War" (to Russians and Ukrainians and Belorussians and all the other Peoples of the Former USSR) the USSR suffered by most accounts at least 25,000,000 dead probably much more this was at that time more than the entire population of my home country Canada. To think of this in perspective Canada today has about 34,000,000 people. In the West this is sometimes mentionned but we usually hear more about how D-Day was the pivotal event of the War in Europe ask any North American (except of course a collector of Soviet Awards) what the Battle of Stalingrad or the Siege of Leningrad are and I wager in general you will get a blank look and no answer.
Ron
