Red Star,0012107,Captain,Icebreaker "I. Stalin",Arctic Rescue 1940

[Bill Garvy]

Good question. I had requested all the information regarding this Red Star, and a couple other early ones, from my researcher about this time last year.

This is all the information I received. Boris Marakov's name is listed on the decree as a recipient of an Order of the Red Star along with other crew members. I was informed there were no other documents, so aside from the decree I have cut and pasted here, and my being informed #12107 was awarded to "understudy" Captain Boris Marakov, I have no further means of matching the two.

The documents in the archive, I am told, start from June 22nd, 1941, and that pre-war awards are stored elsewhere. There were no citations on those awards, only the text of the "UK's". Information on some pre-war awards is available, but apparently I would not be able to obtain any documents that can prove the connection. There was no further information available from TsAMO.

I requested what information was available from my researcher for his name and included it here. My apologies for my obviously long-winded explanation. The very real possibility exists then that this is really not his Red Star at all. Such is the beauty of research. . .