03-19-2007, 02:49 AM
I must admit that I collect Soviet Awards mostly because of Art's informative website and because of this forum.
I first bought an order or red star, bravery medal, victory over germany medal and meritorious labor in GPW medal in the flea market in L'viv (Lvov) in Ukraine in 2001. I was so impressed to be able to own pieces of history! Even though I didn't pay more than 15-16$ for the lot, I thought I just purchased very rare and expensive items, some kind of treasure.
But I had the misfortune to be intercepted at Boryspil airport and have my awards removed from my luggage. At least, I was accompanied by my Ukrainian host and after some heavy discussion, the security authority handed back the awards to my host and they remained in Ukraine.
When I got back home, I browsed the internet to find out more about those awards that I couldf have got and I quickly discovered Art's website (the informative static pages - i think the forum was not yet up at that time.) where I was able to learn more about the awards that escaped me. i also discovered that they were not rare at all and that there was so many more soviet awards and many interesting collectors.
As I hit the point where it became too expensive to expand my collection in medals and orders (and I don't even collect types and variations) I started to expand my horizons to paper documents, loans, banknotes, IDs, gramota, photos, komsomol badges, military badges, etc... I also went a bit in the imperial russia and post-soviet fields as it is historically linked to Soviet Union. But I have a rule to remain in the Soviet Union area (I don't collect anything from other country).
For me, buying items and collecting is a stimuli to reading and learning about Soviet Union history. I always try to find a story behind every item (or the organization it represents).
At the moment, the biggest challenge for me is in organizing and categorizing the items in my collection.
I first bought an order or red star, bravery medal, victory over germany medal and meritorious labor in GPW medal in the flea market in L'viv (Lvov) in Ukraine in 2001. I was so impressed to be able to own pieces of history! Even though I didn't pay more than 15-16$ for the lot, I thought I just purchased very rare and expensive items, some kind of treasure.
But I had the misfortune to be intercepted at Boryspil airport and have my awards removed from my luggage. At least, I was accompanied by my Ukrainian host and after some heavy discussion, the security authority handed back the awards to my host and they remained in Ukraine.
When I got back home, I browsed the internet to find out more about those awards that I couldf have got and I quickly discovered Art's website (the informative static pages - i think the forum was not yet up at that time.) where I was able to learn more about the awards that escaped me. i also discovered that they were not rare at all and that there was so many more soviet awards and many interesting collectors.
As I hit the point where it became too expensive to expand my collection in medals and orders (and I don't even collect types and variations) I started to expand my horizons to paper documents, loans, banknotes, IDs, gramota, photos, komsomol badges, military badges, etc... I also went a bit in the imperial russia and post-soviet fields as it is historically linked to Soviet Union. But I have a rule to remain in the Soviet Union area (I don't collect anything from other country).
For me, buying items and collecting is a stimuli to reading and learning about Soviet Union history. I always try to find a story behind every item (or the organization it represents).
At the moment, the biggest challenge for me is in organizing and categorizing the items in my collection.
