Orders, Decorations and Medals

U.S.S.R., Order of Glory, 3rd Class, thin type, the reverse numbered ‘586941’, very fine £70-90

Order of Glory 3rd Class (No. 586941) awarded by decree of the Supreme Soviets, 6 November 1947, to Senior Sergeant Ivan Kuzmitch Lysik for the wounds he suffered whilst serving as an aide to his Commanding Officer. Senior Sergeant Lysik was born in 1913, and served in a section of the 10th Rifle Regiment, in the 24th Rifle Division. During a battle offensive involving the 10th Rifle Regiment of the 24th Rifle Division, he fought in the heavy actions around the town of KRASNAYA POLYANA (Tolstoy’s home), in the Kursk region. On the 29th December 1941, during the regimental fighting operations he was wounded in the left foot by splinters and shrapnel from a mine explosion. Senior Sergeant Lysik was taken to a field hospital. He was eventually discharged from the hospital and had entered on his service papers that he was an invalid of the 2nd class.

The reason for the late award may be that the 24th Rifle Division was in disgrace having lost its colours in battle. Gallantry awards to the division were held back, but later in the war when the Soviets advanced into the previously occupied territory, they located a grave with the missing colours on the body of a 24th Division officer, who had hidden the colours as he died. Even today, that officer’s name appears on the division’s rosta as still serving. Sold with citation from the Moscow Military Archives and English translation.