Please Vote on Rearrangement of Soviet Bloc section!

[medals73]

Originally Posted by Lapa

I am not too clear on this one. Soviet participants were issued Soviet awards (mostly Hero, OL, ORB and ORS). So what are we exactly talking about here?

Marc

Awards of the Spanish Republic (as the "Mongolian" section, say, is the awards by Mongolia to Mongolians and maybe to some others as well).

[medals73]

Originally Posted by Lapa

I'm back with my suggestion that there should be a "Paper Item" thread for every country. Since we are at it, why not have a standard set up for each country:
Titles
Orders
Medals
Badges
Award Groups
Paper Items
Uniforms
After all, all countries had armed forces whose members usually did not go bare naked (Uniforms), issued more or less important quantities of more or less official documents (Paper Items), rarely had a strict one-award-per-person policy (Orders/Medals/Badges/Groups). The only "optional" category might be the "Title" one when a country did not have such a thing (by the way, Czechoslovakia had titles). And for the average Forum user, it simplifies both posting and browsing since this structure would be standard throughout the Forum.

I also agree with Ed that the Tuvan Republic has nothing to do here, it was part of the RSFSR and is now a part of the Russian Federation. As such, it should be included with the other components of the USSR.

Marc

Your points are well taken. And there is probably no reason that these categories could not be set up for all countries (that is so much less work than moving existing posts which is, trust me, a real drag -- I have done it on two fora and then seen all work on one of those destroyed by new absentee management = unhappy camper). However, finding a PDRA uniform or Myanmar documents (not related to awards) will be a bit of a trick. But "build it and they will come", maybe?

[CtahhR]

I'm listening... The idea of standardising all of the nations is perfect on paper but not so in practice. Some nations didn't have this or didn't have that and then of course you have not only the unavailability of photographs of items but also lack of a user willing to post. An empty subsection doesn't look very good to all concerned.
This decision I will leave to Art as I know he has his own opinions on how his forum should and should not be and whatever decision he makes I will support it.

As for the Tuvan People's Republic... They have a complicated history somewhat like Mongolia but then again in many ways not. Tuva was a satellite of the Soviet Union until 1st November 1944 so the pre-1944 awards go in the "Soviet Bloc" section. After 1st November 1944 it was an ASSR of the RSFSR and those awards go in the RSFSR section of the Republics sub-forum. The post-Soviet "Republic Of Tuva" awards will go in the Post-Soviet subforum in the Russian Federation section. A section of the RF may be designated as "Awards Of The Republics, Krais and Oblasts Of The Russian Federation" I've not yet looked that far into the future...
Kursk Oblast issues a rather nice Medal....

Got to think about administrating not collecting!

So what else can be bundled together with the Russian Empire?

[medals73]

"Soviet Constituent Entity" covers a multitude of sins, of both omission and commission.

Some day, I'll tell you the story told to me by a good friend's grandfather -- a grand old man familiar to anyone who has even held a Mongolian awards booklet, as it likely bears his signature -- who was in the room when Choibalsan slapped the Tuvan "leader" to the floor, literally, and then, using every inventive vulgarism known to the Mongolian language, kicked him around that same floor for his treason to the Mongol people for becoming a part of the Soviet Union and not maintaining independence.

And, then, there is the tale of the Mongolian effort to reannex "Inner Mongolia" after WWII.

[Lapa]

Originally Posted by medals73

Awards of the Spanish Republic (as the "Mongolian" section, say, is the awards by Mongolia to Mongolians and maybe to some others as well).

Ed,

Were they specific and different from the ones awarded by Franco?

Marc

[medals73]

Originally Posted by Lapa

Ed,

Were they specific and different from the ones awarded by Franco?

Marc

Oh, yes, quite. Rather rare, as you might expect. Awards of the republic, not of the fascist rebels.

[CtahhR]

If only there were youtube back then! Happy slap a Tuvan.

Would Mongolia need to be stuck in the pre-communism section with Russian Empire? as I believe there is 1 (or more) threads on pre-mpr awards. Baltic States?

[medals73]

Originally Posted by CtahhR

If only there were youtube back then! Happy slap a Tuvan.

Would Mongolia need to be stuck in the pre-communism section with Russian Empire? as I believe there is 1 (or more) threads on pre-mpr awards. Baltic States?

Whatever needs to be done with pre-socialist Mongolia (Order of the Vajra and a super-rare medal known in just one example) can stay with "Mongolia" as the order, oddly, was awarded after the revolution and has been recycled now as a diplomatic give-away. More complex would be the awards of the Japanese puppet Mongol state during WWII, but I guess they could fit in "Mongolia? too (a single thread).

[Greg Collins]

The only recommendation I would make is to keep a miscellaneous section for each heading. My reasons for this are:

- flags and banners: I note that several of us have award banners and/or unit flags.

- sculptured items such as leaders busts, monuments, etc.

- coin sets, official gifts, etc. (especially true of the Stasi)

in other words, a section for items that probably wouldn't fill out a section by themselves but still merit mention as collectible items.

Also for consideration: a section for reference materials pertaining to specific countries under that country's heading-makes it a lot easier to find.

[CtahhR]

Right I think we pretty much have the non-soviet and soviet republics stitched up to the greater extent.

So with the "Empire" stuff and other post April revolution pre-communist states where are we going? Some of the nations made little in the way of shiny portable awards but all of them were either at war or producing awards in numbers during their existence so all of these sections if not having pictures of awards will at least be able to present images and information on their military history if not anything else.

Democratic Republic Of Armenia 1918-1921
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918-1920
Belarusian People's Republic 1918-1919
Republic Of Estonia 1918-1940
Democratic Republic Of Georgia 1918-1921
Republic Of Latvia 1918-1940
Republic Of Lithuania 1918-1940
Mongolia 1911-1924
Russian Empire
-Russian Orders
-Russian Medals
-Russian Badges
-Russian Uniforms
White Russia 1917-
Ukrainian People's Republic 1918-1921

Possible candidates for inclusion here would include Poland 1918-1939 (An imperial Russian "Kingdom" only to become a Soviet Satellite) and Bulgaria 1878-1944 as after being liberated by Russia from the Ottomans, placed a Russian prince in power (not that he lasted too long) and their awards were also heavily based on Russian awards. The two countries have always had strong ties and a similar language. During German aggression towards the USSR from 1941-1944 Bulgaria also refused to declare war on their "Liberators".

There is also the issue of the "Russian Liberation Army" and the "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" and other things not presenting themselves to me presently.