Collectors end up with “jewels,” items that are their favorites for one reason or another. For all my insistence that medals are just things and I’m in it for the history, I too like some things more than others. This is one of my favorites, a rather common and simple award, but at the top of my heap none the less.
The OPW started life as a suspended award, and in 1943 was changed to screw back. There were a ton of them produced during the war – over 300,000 1st class, and almost a million 2nd class. Most of them were screwbacks, and with the regulations changing after fewer than 40,000 2nd class “suspension” were produced there are not many of them around. This specific type of OPW is even rarer still: produced by the Moscow mint and some of the last suspension types to be produced.
I like this medal because it’s in the old style and in wonderful shape. The enamel is almost perfect, with none replaced and only one spot broken (near the ring at the top, a common place for breakage to occur given the suspension). Fond of the OPW already, when this was made available I jumped at it. And submitted it to research, confident that I’d have the story to go with it. After all, it’s not pre-war, and really nothing special in the universe of Soviet medals.
Well, research came back on it, but with only a tease! No citation, no biography, only an Award Card, and missing lots of information. What it reveals is that First Sergeant Ivan Grigoryevich Lubin, platoon commander 38th Battalion, 1,248th Regiment, 376th Rifle Division, was awarded the OPW, s/n 60.059, on January 1, 1944. Happy New Year!
Updated January, 2010.
A new year and a new researcher, and the citation was found for my jewel! More in a bit, I’ll rewrite this whole piece some day, but the cite reads as follows:
Comrade Lyubin during his time in the battalion manifested himself as a courageous, resolute and firm commander, who knows his field very well. He is an expert in tactics. He has laid a good foundation for the training of his platoon. On 4.12.43 he led a capture group during a reconnaissance action and with his personal example inspired the fighters of his platoon. He was the first to stand up in the attack, and rushing into the enemy trenches he blocked the dugout and there he destroyed the Germans who were fighting back; he personally held a captive and withdrew the entire capture group without loss to the group. Under his command the capture group captured two enemy soldiers along with their documents.
Lots to think about, not the least of which was the value of “tongues”, prisoners for interrogation, and the lifting of the siege of Leningrad. Lubin/Lyubin (new translator as well!), recon was undoubtedly linked to the offensive that finally pushed the Germans back from the city and began on 14 January, 1944, and in which the 276th Rifle participated.
Another thing that research can provide is reinforcement or contradiction about authenticity. Authenticity has many aspects – the piece itself is the most obvious. But there is also provenance, the story of the piece. There’s a saying in collecting: “Buy the piece, not the story” that is great advice unless you’re like me. Who is more, or at least as, interested in the story as the medal itself. I bought this piece from one of the few collectors I’ve met face to face who isn’t in the business of selling, selling and trading only to keep up his buying habit. His integrity is perfect; he has returned my money for a different piece that was judged bogus. He would never willingly defraud anyone, never knowingly sell an inauthentic piece. He travels, extensively, to the old USSR, specifically the Caucasus and buys his stuff there from both individuals and suppliers who hunt it up for him. Being at the true source there are, of course, stories that go with the medals. One recurring story is, again of course, that a local won the medal. And that’s why it’s always heartening to get research back that lends credence to the story. In this case it’s his home address from the award card:
13. Home address of the awardee: 2nd Mechanical Brickworks, Leninsky district, Tbilisi, Georgia
Since Georgia is where the piece was purchased in the 21st century it lends credence to the story of the award. After all, medals don’t go walkabout on their own. Something like Grandpa’s medal tends to simply sit in the home in a drawer somewhere if it’s not on display. Times change and it’s “discovered” by someone who knows that it’s now valuable. Voila! It’s sold and makes its way half way round the world.
This part of collecting is worth considering, because as more time passes this will become less and less the case. The current provenance, which makes sense, is:
Ivan —–> Georgian Medal Hunter —–> American Traveler —–> Me
Geographically it’s pretty concise: The old USSR to America. But once I kick the bucket, or decide to sell, then the trail will be extended. And most importantly there will likely be no persistent memory. It will change hands and it’s origin, besides “somewhere in the USSR” will be lost. It’ll just be a piece of metal floating around the world, with any old story attached to it and no way to verify it’s past.
And stories will get attached, if for no other reason than a good story equals more money. There was a group of Soviet awards for sale on eBay in the recent past that was advertised as “Medals to a Russian Sniper!” The cult of the sniper, blood and glory, killing NAZIs and all that. The awards looked good, the order book looked good. It looked like a real group. But the story had no back up, it was “from the family” said the seller. The tale was used, of course, to increase the asking price of the group. Knowing the minefield that is collecting, however, the story is worthless. There is a chance that the story is true, but there’s a greater chance that the medals were given to a regular soldier. (Knowing a bit about groups, there’s even more chance that this specific group, if real, was given to a high ranking “desk jockey” for long service.)
This is the value of The Archives. A disinterested third party writes something down. It’s filed away. Now decades later we come along and ask “Who got this, and what did they do?” and there’s an answer untainted by present day economics, prejudice, pride or anything else. There is a story, one that can be believed without delusion. Snipers certainly did get medals; and a look in the archives will reveal which medals they got.
Which brings me back to OPW II, s/n 60.059. The archives, on the second try, revealed their secrets! No story needs to be fabricated, as the tale of a 22 year old Sergeant inspiring his platoon to action with his bravery in the campaign to finally end the most horrific siege in modern times (and arguably the most inhuman siege in history!), is awesome enough.
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