Lenin.

[Aharim]

The following is based on Order of Lenin documents, without badges, and

Document for 169,6xx - awarded 11 June 1951
Document for 173,3xx - awarded 11 June 1951
Document for 183,6xx - awarded 24 July 1951

Your award was probably part of whatever great celebration was on 11 June 1951. (Maybe for Korea?) Research that date in Moscow.

I have a document for 168,9xx awarded possibly "24 June" but the name of the recipient and year have been altered. (Could his have had the day altered as well? Possibly!)

Because names were altered, I have not given exact numbers.

One has a picture of a civilian, so who can tell! Maybe the picture was altered as well! On research of awards of Order of Lenin I have been consistently unsuccessful. (Even with WWI war year awards. Yours could be Korean War, in which the Soviets did not acknowledge participating, and would not similarly acknowledge later.)

Research June 11th (and the 24th) in Moscow, to see what happened. Assume, absent information to the contrary, that your guy was there too.

[Eryk]

The war in Korea was at its height - or low, depending on how you want to look at it - in early/mid 1951. There wasn't really anything to celebrate on either side then as it devolved into stalemate. Whatever was going on in Moscow at the time to warrent handing out scores of Lenins it probably wasn't Korea.

[Aharim]

But something happened or was recognized by at least 4,000 folks Lenin numbers 169,xxx - 173,xxx. I checked Time in the US and the only thing they had was strident anti communism, a story about Stuttgart. I need to check the following week, but I do not expect to find anything in Western press. It should be something in Eastern press. From the document data 4,000 awards the same day. Should have been a big day? ? ?

It is too early in the season to recognize farmers. June is not harvest.

[Eryk]

Is there a specific time of year when long service awards are awarded? More efficient than tracking every single individual date, just have a specified date when everyone who joined the service in the 10th, 15th, etc year ago gets their long service award. That would explain 4,000 of them.

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by Aharim

But something happened or was recognized by at least 4,000 folks Lenin numbers 169,xxx - 173,xxx. I checked Time in the US and the only thing they had was strident anti communism, a story about Stuttgart. I need to check the following week, but I do not expect to find anything in Western press. It should be something in Eastern press. From the document data 4,000 awards the same day. Should have been a big day? ? ?

It is too early in the season to recognize farmers. June is not harvest.

Usually, Supreme Soviet mass awardings were not as immediate. This bloc of awards could have been awarded for accomplishments as much as 6-9 months earlier, including the fall '50 harvest. I don't have any data from that late, but I'd lean towards something more mundane than the Korean war. Furthermore, combat Lenins for Korea would have been handed out rather sparingly. I could maybe expect a bloc of 4000 CSMs, but not Lenins.

Your bloc is interesting, however since the annual long service awardings usually occurred in the fall and don't correspond to your summer awarding.

Originally Posted by Eryk

Is there a specific time of year when long service awards are awarded? More efficient than tracking every single individual date, just have a specified date when everyone who joined the service in the 10th, 15th, etc year ago gets their long service award. That would explain 4,000 of them.

The closest you can get to a specified time is fall/winter (usually NOV or DEC), but even then I have a large group of RBs granted 24.6.48 for long service (approx 303-319K).

The mass awardings tended to be annual to make it easier for the bureaucracy, however anyone who has been in uniform and waited for promotion lists, pay raises, etc. which need to be approved by Congress can attest - "they" get to it, when they get to it.

[Aharim]

Not likely combat Lenin's but

North Korea crossed the 38th parallel June 25, 1950.
The Soviet Union not being present in the Security Council, from Jan til August 1950, did not veto UN military response.

But on June 23, 1951, the Soviet UN delegation having returned, proposes negotiations (which begin July 10, 1951). June 25 is the 1 year anniversary. Most likely mere coincidence, but it just reminded me of 4,000 Hero Star's for crossing the Dniepr.

On the other hand 1951 was the end of a five year plan/beginning of a new plan. (The new plan starting in 1951 was not announced until 1952 though.) So completing the old plan is a possibility. In addition in March Khrushchev proposes Agro Cities - expansion/merger of kolkhozes. Seems too soon to recognize success there though.

Lenin's seem to come out on a weekly basis. So most weeks there should be several thousand awards. For example:

April - Lenin - 153,xxx
July - Lenin - 183,xxx

That means 30,000 Lenin's from about March - July, which is 7,500 per month, and 4,000 on one day is no big deal if they all come out on Sunday, for example.

[d-riemer]

We did the SEM testing on the two Lenin orders shown in my previous post.

In the SEM, an electron beam is under vacuum pointed at a selected point of the test object. The amplitude of a curve displayed on a computer screen shows the response of the tested surface to the electron beam as function of varying energy levels of the incoming electrons. The concentration of materials at the surface can be read from peaks at certain keV-points that are characteristic for each element in the periodic table. Each atom on the tested surface "resonates" at known energy levels characteristic for a chemical element. The intensity of the response to the incoming electron beam is determined by the number of atoms of a certain element at the test point.

The results for the two Lenin orders can be summarized as follows:
1. The so-called "Gold Head" has a silver coating along the elevated rim around the center field where the recessed surface was protected against exterior contact (see picture 1).
2. The so-called "Silver Head" has regions of silver coating left even in elevated regions of the Lenin head, but large areas of silver plating have been scraped off (see picture 2).

[desantnik]

Dude, nice job, but you need to state your conclusion up front or at the end in plain English for us non-techno science ignoramuses.

i.e. From this, you will see that the Gold Head exists as a separate version, doesn't exist, evidence is inconclusive, etc.

Thanks!

[d-riemer]

[QUOTE ...you need to state your conclusion up front or at the end in plain English....
[QUOTE]

The conclusion is in the title:

The "Gold Head" is silver plated!
There is no difference between the "Gold Head" and the "Silver Head" shown in my earlier post except for different degrees of wear.

The rest is for the technically inclined.
A Ph.D. does not help unless it is related to material science.

[Lapa]

Originally Posted by d-riemer

...The results for the two Lenin orders can be summarized as follows:
1. The so-called "Gold Head" has a silver coating along the elevated rim around the center field where the recessed surface was protected against exterior contact (see picture 1).
2. The so-called "Silver Head" has regions of silver coating left even in elevated regions of the Lenin head, but large areas of silver plating have been scraped off (see picture 2).

Guys,

Despite not having a PhD, I still understood from what Dietrich wrote that the so-called 'Gold Head' does not exist.

In other words, this scientific experiment conclusively confirms what Durov published in his book "The Order of Lenin" not very long ago, and the Mondvor classification with a grand total of 5 types for the Order of Lenin.

Marc