Kiwi Medals

This is the 1st Class of the Order of the Patriotic War.

The Order was established on 20 May 1942 and came in first class and second class depending upon the merit of the deed. It was the first Soviet medal established during the war, and the first Soviet order divided by classes. Its statute precisely defined, which deeds are awarded with the order, e.g. shooting down three aircraft as a fighter pilot, or destroying two heavy or three medium or four light tanks, or capturing a warship, or repairing an aircraft under fire after landing on a hostile territory, and so on, were awarded with the first class. It was also given to some allied troops and commanders, including western allies. Altogether, over 324,903 of the 1st class and 951,652 of the 2nd class were issued during the war. Until 1985, the total number reached about 1,370,000.

In 1985, during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, it was decided that all surviving veterans of the war would be awarded either 2nd or 1st class of the Order, and about 2,054,000 first class and 5,408,000 second class were issued then. As of January 1992, the total number of all awarded Orders was 2,487,098 first class and 6,688,497 second class variants. My 1st class is numbered 945423.

This entry was posted on May 4, 2013 at 10:43 PM and is filed under 1939-1945 Service Medals with tags Soviet Union, WW2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.