Thank you. I would like to share my opinion about the reason why Victory, GPW, Glory disappeared from the post-war award system.
After GPW, nobody deserved Victory. In post war years, the Soviet Army didn't engage in a conflict where "a general commanded one or more fronts and conducted an operation that drastically changed the sitution." Victory's status and price of its diamonds protected this order from Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's excesses. It was easier and cheaper for a leader of USSR to select other order for his favorite African tribal leader in recognition of his skillful leadership in the struggle against capitalists. Brezhnev gave himself Victory. The prestige of this decoration was so high that it was the only one that was posthumously taken away from him. Keep in mind that Brezhnev pinned himself with many high-ranking awards that he didn't deserve including 4 HSU stars.
Common sense told me that order of GPW could only be awarded for something done during this war. Not so. Mondvor site states that in 1946 collective farm workers were given GPW for collecting harvest in a dry season :weird and Soviet Army personnel was rarely [but nevertheless]awarded this order after the war.
Glory was supposed to be awarded for "glorious deeds in battles for Soviet Motherland." It was a pure combat distinction. If a soldier was decorated with Glory, the government would have to admit that its army was fighting battles. It was politically undesirable. Soviet military personnel was only advising in Korea and Vietnam. Only a limited contingent was sent to Afghanistan where it was supposedly doing mostly humanitarian work.
Cheers,
Simon
After GPW, nobody deserved Victory. In post war years, the Soviet Army didn't engage in a conflict where "a general commanded one or more fronts and conducted an operation that drastically changed the sitution." Victory's status and price of its diamonds protected this order from Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's excesses. It was easier and cheaper for a leader of USSR to select other order for his favorite African tribal leader in recognition of his skillful leadership in the struggle against capitalists. Brezhnev gave himself Victory. The prestige of this decoration was so high that it was the only one that was posthumously taken away from him. Keep in mind that Brezhnev pinned himself with many high-ranking awards that he didn't deserve including 4 HSU stars.
Common sense told me that order of GPW could only be awarded for something done during this war. Not so. Mondvor site states that in 1946 collective farm workers were given GPW for collecting harvest in a dry season :weird and Soviet Army personnel was rarely [but nevertheless]awarded this order after the war.
Glory was supposed to be awarded for "glorious deeds in battles for Soviet Motherland." It was a pure combat distinction. If a soldier was decorated with Glory, the government would have to admit that its army was fighting battles. It was politically undesirable. Soviet military personnel was only advising in Korea and Vietnam. Only a limited contingent was sent to Afghanistan where it was supposedly doing mostly humanitarian work.
Quote:In my mind the question still remains as to why/when the WWII issue awards, or more specifically the Glory and OPW stopped being issued for events not related to the GPW. I can say with almost 100% certainty that neither of these awards were granted for Afghanistan or post-Afghanistan. Thus, sometime between 1956 and 1979 these awards ceased being issued for post-war actions.Between 1956 and 1979, only a few Soviet soldiers were involved in combat at hot spots. These operations were either classified or at least not suitable for the media. Therefore, it was undesirable to award pure combat awards for political reasons discussed in the previous paragraph. Imagine a soldier coming home in let's say 1970 with Glory for his actions in a classified mission. What would he say to curious neighbours? Even if Glory was awarded between 1956 and 1979, it was done in small quantity and the collector community doesn't know about it. As for Afghanistan, I can speculate that Defense Ministry issued an instruction specifying which orders and medals were to be given for this conflict. Such instruction, if it existed, didn't include Glory.
Cheers,
Simon
