09-01-2006, 02:37 AM
As a side note to this discussion, it appears that this particular award has lots of twists and turns when you talk about time of awarding and manufacturing. We can all agree that the Slavas (of whatever class) are both very-cool looking and historically significant, especially for those who earned them and who collect them. As far as I am concered, they may be the most pure, if you will, reflection of Soviet military history, as they are strictly battle-merit-related award. Developing a good knowledge base for these awards both enables vets/families and collectors to ensure these awards recieve their just accolades. Accordingly, kudos to Desantnik and Mondvor (and others) for their work on this front). In all that we debate on these forums and others, I applaud those who bring better clarity (esp. for those non-Russian speaker among us). Keep it up :thumbsup
