Red Banner,068994,Scout Commander,911th Rifle Regiment

[PaulR]

Anyway, this research is for my screwback Order of the Red Banner. I bought this at a highly discounted price from Igor M back in 1992. It was discounted because some of the enamel had been damaged/replaced.

I was prepared to sell it this year, yet a friend of mine insisted that I have it researched, which I did. Here is the Order.

with the generous help of several people on another forum, the wealth of documentation was translated to:

Yefim Pavlovich NIZOV, Captain and Assistant Commander of Staff for reconnaissance/intelligence of the 911th Rifles Regiment of 244th Rifles Division.
Born in 1904, Russian, Member of the CPSU since 1928.
On the Southwest Front from 27.6.41-31.7.42
Stalingrad Front from 7.8.-22.10.42
Southwest Front since 24 January 1943

WOUNDED 1 August 1941 near (?Smopantsa ?)
WOUNDED 2 October 1941 near Kharkov (one of the major defeats of 1941 and his division was considered destroyed here near Vyazma, the survivors--including him--being rolled into a "new" 244th Rifles Division with the same regimental numbers by absorbing the remaining survivors of the 469th Rifles Division)
WOUNDED 5 April 1942 (can't read... should come up in other versions of the records)

In the Red Army 1926-38

and since 1941

Joined at Oktyabrsky RVK of the city of Kiev in 1926.

Previously received the Military Merit Medal and Defense of Stalingrad Medal.

Next of kin and address: wife Vera Fedorovna Nizova in the village of Barkino, Sudogotsky Raion, Ivanovsky Oblast.

CITATION =

I have never seen a citation to match this one, bar NONE, ever. Reconnaissance here can also be translated as "scouting."

"Took part in the defense from 5 September to 6 September 1943 at the head of and in charge of the reconnaissance around Hill 199.5 in the staff of a group of scouts--in all 40 riflemen-- breaking through the front line of mistaken (((?))) defenses, in which were destroyed 6 light machine guns and up to 50 enemy soldiers and officers. The enemy in a panic left their defensive positions and fled in the area of the village of Khrestintsa. With this entire distance the opportunity arose to advance forward up to 12 kilometers for the regiment, the division, and the entire 12th Army.

Deserves to be awarded the Order 'Red Banner'

26 September 1943 Commander of the 911th RR, Major Veznichenko"

AN ENTIRE ARMY CORPS ADVANCED ALONG ITS ENTIRE FRONT FOR TEN MILES BECAUSE OF THIS GUY AND HIS 40 MEN RAIDING THROUGH THE ENEMY LINES.

Even if we "downplay" the degree of responsibility he had in the enemy's panic and so condescendingly decline to award HIM a Hero's Gold Star... by every single rule and regulation, for a feat like this at his rank he should have received whatever was considered the Supreme Award Possible: a Suvorov 3rd Class.

That he got NEITHER a Hero Star nor a Suvorov, combined with his age and the date he "left" the Red Army (1938) makes me certain this guy was purged, in the Gulag, brought back in a degraded rank under "suspended" sentence...

and they under-decorated him because he was on the Enemies Of The State list.

His other medals are:

Order of the Red Star
Military Merit Medal
Stalingrad Campaign Medal
He would have definitely had the Victory over Germany Medal

According to his award card, there are no other awards listed. On his citation though he recieved the Defense of Stalingrad, and (of course) Victory Over Germany. That's all that's listed anywhere.

His pre-WW2 departure in 1938 appears to have been part of the great purge that they had at the time. This would, of course, not be in the same definition as the purge of the great Marshals of the USSR at the same time - for him, it looks to me like they just gave him the boot out of the service. Maybe he was a sub-standard officer, or perhaps he was outspoken against the communist party... either way, they dumped him from the active rolls.

After WW2, he was given the boot from the party again in August 1945 "for reaching maximum age" though ironically he was only 41 at the time.

1926 was a Red Army Soldier. Four years later, he becomes an officer candidate and in 1931, they commission him. When he finally gets the boot from the military, it's September 1938, and he's just a Senior Lieutenant, after seven years commissioned service! They recall him in June 1941 and he finally makes it to the front in March 1942. That September, he gets promoted to Captain. Then, he sits at Captain until August 1945 when he is again discharged.

Below, is a scan of what all of his medals would have looked like if everything was together...

I went ahead and placed the Stalingrad, an unnumbered Military Merit Medal, and a Victory over Germany Medal with the group(permanently). The red star was used only for this scan.

If anyone is interested in seeing the actual documents, shoot me a PM.

Regards
Paul

PS... needless to say, this ORB is going nowhere!

[PaulR]

Here is an update that was just received...


On Nizov's Award Record Card, made out 1 October 1946, it says he was at that time Chief of the Wood-Preparing Unit of the Third UkrTorgLesoTara, which if I am reading the impenetrable Soviet compound abbreviations right, comes out to "Ukrainian Trade Wood Packing" (Unspecified Factory or whatever).

Lived in Kiev at Apartment 7, House #10 Vasodavsky Ulitsa with his wife Vera Feodorevna Nizova. No children, apparently.

One version of his two "short form" wartime type personnel cards says he was wounded-- four times.

Senior Lieutenant 1935 (day and month illegible).
Captain 26 September 1942. Deputy Commander of his Regiment's Scouts per 31st Guards Rifles Corps of 9.9.44, and Senior Deputy Commander of same per 4th Guards Army 15.1.45.

Discharged to Kiev City Veterans Commissariat 8.8.45 for "reduction in forces." He was an OLD Captain-- 41, up from the ranks, obviously troublesome-- certainly underdecorated and underpromoted given his crucial troop command and heroic war record (wounded 4 times in 2 years, as regimental scouts officer!!!!).

First went into the Red Army 9 November 1926 as a Private in 133rd Rifles Regiment.

There is the typical sadly too dark postage stamp sized photo on his service record, which perhaps Paul can enlarge and crop.

9.10.27 Commander of a squad
1.11.29 Deputy Commander of a platoon
19.5.30 "Vtorshnik." (Your guess is as good as mine. I have a SOVIET dictionary. No such word.)
1.9.30 Cadet at School for NCOs
1931 Squad Commander 6th Independent Machine Gun Battalion
5.12.32 Commander of Instruction Platoon 27th Independent Machinegun Battalion
13.??.33 something I can't read about since 1929
1935 Company Commander (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! did I mention !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 49th Machine Gun Battalon
1.8.37 as Company Commander


"discharged to the reserves"


Yup, that ever--popular Soviet doublespeak for Arrested In The Great Purge.

Signed off on at that point by a Senior Lieutenant of the Reserve, who must have been awaiting arrest himself. Can't read the unit stamp, but dated in the city of Kiev, so that must have been where Nizov's unit was.

Notice that he was a company commander-- a captain's slot-- in 1935-- and never advanced higher. Obviously BLOCKED following his arrest, because he was in the most dangerous, into-enemy-lines, crucial posting in any infantry regiment after that.

NEXT entry is dated...

31.3.42 (although his short cards say "participant in Patriotic War since June 1941"--- ??? rankless? Penal Battalion? Or just shoddy record ckeeping for a "marked" man?) 134th Reserve Infantry Regiment as Company Commander

25.7.42 Deputy Commander of a Rifles Battalion in that

29.11.43 Deputy Battalion Commander 911th Rifles Regiment, 244th Rifles Division

12.12."42" (sic-- 1943? 1944?) Deputy Commander of STAFF 911th Rifles Regiment 244th Rifles Division (so it was NOT lack of aptitude, talent OR personal reliability that held him back,was it?)

15.1.45 To 4th Guards Army Reserve of Officers

There are a lot of things which do not gibe in the three sets of records. Much that was left... unsaid. Glossed over. Gaze averted. Move along, nothing to see here Comrades stuff.

I don't "see" anything in his personnel record "bare bones" that accounts for his continued involvement in such a vital position of absolute MILITARY trust. His Lichnoe Delo must be a doozy, though.

Attached is his photo from one of his documents.

Thank you all for reading!

[desantnik]

Paul, I'm glad to see you take delight in researching, as well as, have a nice piece with accompanying research.

Being discharged to the reserves or retired for medical reasons were quite normal practices and nothing diabolical should be read into them.

[PaulR]

Thanks for the reply, Desantnik.

Would there be any other indicators if he had such a fate?

[desantnik]

Yes, the Soviets weren't shy about annotating in records that someone "underwent judicial process". One will even find "rehabilitated" stamped into records. These are however few and far between.

As a reflection of Soviet society of the period, hundreds of officers were arrested, tortured, and killed in the 1930s, but with the exception of that period, the regular Soviet officer or serviceman served their careers avoiding any type of political suspicion.

I once had a set consisting of only two medals mounted together, a 4-digit reissue red banner and a 20-year RKKA with the award booklets re-issued in the mid 1950s. I KNEW this was awarded to someone who had been persecuted and then rehabilitated, but couldn't prove it after researching failed to produce any result. Well, I foolishly sold it and later someone else was able to shake out the research confirming my suspicion.

I (we) grew up hearing about the evils of the Soviet Union and have seen it with my own eyes. The THREAT of what could happen, however, kept more the average citizen or serviceman in line than the actual punishment at the scale of the late 1930's terror. Thus, we have the tendency to see nefarious hints in service records, but for the most part, they are not there. A Soviet officer was chosen for being a reliable defender of the state, and would not be a dissident, refusenik, or other politically unreliable member of society.

[PaulR]

Thank you for the vivid explaination. I do understand what you say.

Do you still have photos of the grouping you mentioned? I would love to see it!

[desantnik]

Unfortunately not, but I think one of the forum members does - that's how I know it ultimately got researched.

[PaulR]

Thanks to the help of a friend, I have the citation for the CSM!! Can anyone please read this? It does not seem like a Long Service award.

[Tommy]

In the first line does it call him poor at something? "Белению"?

Or have I got it out of context?

Tom

[Auke]

No, 'по ведению разведку' (conducting reconnaissance missions). :thumbsup