Soviet Great Patriotic War Awards

[Taz]

Soviet officers and soldiers displayed great heroism during the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, and virtually every man and woman regardless of rank was decorated for bravery. Recommendations continuously arrived in Moscow from the front. In the midst of bloody battles, when critical situations arose time and again, a number of award recommendations were either lost on the front or later in archives. The Russian state has not yet fulfilled its sacred duty to its war heroes. In all, 1.5 million wartime awards still have to be presented. In the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Victory Day, President Putin has launched an unprecedented campaign to locate war heroes and present them (or their descendants) with these awards that became lost in time or circumstances.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov recently said that his department would do everything possible to locate war veterans who had not received their orders and medals. To date, he said 90,000 wartime awards had been presented. "But unfortunately," Mr. Ivanov said, "we have to award our veterans posthumously increasingly often." The country is to learn the name of the last hero to receive his or her award on March 1, 2005.

Well i hope that not all of the awards have been sold to collectors

Eddie.

[Dave]

I have several awards in my collection that were awarded by the Russian Federation to veterans who were KIA during the War, but had been alive when they were recommended for the award (they were killed in a later, unrelated action.) I am certain that many of that 1.5 million number is awards like that, which will be awarded to the next of kin, as for many years once the awardee was KIA, the search to give the medal/order to his next of kin stopped. It has only been in recent years that the Russian government has felt the need to track down the next of kin to award the medals that the medals should have received.

On a side note, most of these awards that are being given to the NOK are ones that were unissued (e.g. unnumbered For Valor medals, very high numbered Red Stars, etc.) but oddly enough, I have one that has an awarded and very worn medal that was given to the family. The veteran was only alive for 3 weeks after the award presentation - so it obviously wasn't his. Could it be an example of the government pulling previously issued awards from storage and awarding them to the families? I only wish I had a good answer for that....

Quite fascinating!

Dave