'I was hurt and bitter': how a Mexican returns military orders to Soviet soldiers - ForumDaily
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'I felt hurt and bitter': how a Mexican returns military orders to Soviet soldiers

“Hey amigo, look at the star! This is the sign of a Soviet sheriff. Buy it, you won’t regret it!” - this is how the Mexican Eduardo Cruz was addressed by a merchant who was holding a stall with cheap items on the border with the United States. Then Cruise saw the Soviet Order of the Red Star for the first time.

Фото: Depositphotos

A jeweler by profession, Cruise periodically overtakes local flea markets. If you dig, among the trash sometimes you can find things standing, writes Air force.

Cruz says little about himself, and especially about his work. In his hometown of Guadalajara, a high level of crime, and telling too much about the jewelry industry in such conditions is not safe.

It's +40 outside. It’s stuffy, the branches of the huge palm trees don’t move—there’s not even a slight breeze. But Cruise is wearing a pressed white long-sleeve shirt and a black jacket. He has plans to meet with a diplomat. A pair of white gloves peeks out from a pocket—a jeweler’s working tool.

In such an environment, you can imagine a conversation about art, fashion or politics. But it comes to something completely different.

“I felt hurt and sad”

“I bought my first order 16 years ago. The red star lay among a pile of American sheriff's badges. But I immediately realized that this was some kind of military award, because it was clear that precious metals were used in the design,” Cruz recalls the day when he was called out by a merchant near the American border.

He bought the order for just $100 and went home to figure out what kind of thing he had gotten his hands on. It turned out that the star could be resold for about five times more expensive - it was a Soviet soldier’s award for distinguished service in the battles of World War II.

Photo: video frame Air force

Neither the life of Cruise himself, nor the history of his family are in any way connected with Russia, the USSR or the Second World War. But then he did not sell the order.

“When I found out that this was a military order, I felt bitter and hurt. I decided to find the soldier to whom it belonged and return the reward to him,” says Cruz.

The search turned out to be many times more difficult than the Mexican could have imagined. Alone, not knowing the Russian language, he began to look for people who could help him establish the owner.

So the jeweler met a dozen people around the world who responded to his request.

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Now they buy for their money at auction the orders and medals of Soviet soldiers who distinguished themselves in World War II, look for their relatives and give them back their awards.

Each order costs hundreds of dollars to purchase. And it takes months, and sometimes years, to find relatives.

Eduardo Cruz. Photo: video frame Air force

Exploits for sale

It is impossible to say exactly how many World War II awards are now in private collections. The bill goes to thousands.

During the years of World War II, the Soviet Union presented more than 12,5 million awards. This is more than in the army of any other country that fought.

Until 1977, a law was in force in the USSR obliging the state to hand over all orders and medals in the event of the death of the owner. For attempting to conceal awards threatened criminal liability.

Relatives were allowed to leave only the Order of the Patriotic War in the family as a souvenir. This award has always had a special status - it was the first order established in the USSR during the Second World War.

Some tried to “shop” relics back then. Most often, orders and medals were melted down by the recipients themselves to make a dental crown or ring as a gift for children. But the phenomenon was not widespread.

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“A large outflow of awards to auctions took place in the turbulent 90s. Veterans often sold their orders in order to survive. It’s terrible: to survive the war, and then sell the order simply because there is nothing to eat. A lot of orders were simply stolen from the apartments of front-line soldiers,” says Igor Nakhodkin, head of the international public organization Vympel.

For several years now he has been helping Cruz to return orders to Russia, and also is looking for and restarting the remains of soldiers who were considered missing.

“The theft of orders, unfortunately, is not uncommon even now. Fraudsters come to veterans under the guise of social workers or housing office employees. While one speaks, the second brings out all the orders and medals. In this way, orders end up in private collections and are then resold. This is how the circulation of awards around the world began,” notes Nakhodkin.

Photo: video frame Air force

Estimate the cost of military awards can be a dozen online forums dedicated to faleristics. There are going to experts who, even from a photograph, can distinguish the original from the fake and see details that affect the value of the lot.

On average, the original Order of the Red Star with documents goes for 3,5 thousand rubles, the Order of Glory - 4-4,5 thousand. The Order of Lenin, which was made of gold with platinum content, is estimated at 75-80 thousand rubles in the underground market.

Roskomnadzor periodically blocks dozens of sites through which orders and medals are sold in Russia. But this is a drop in the ocean.

The most popular Russian-language forums of phaleristics are registered in Germany. The highest price for Soviet orders is usually offered by collectors from the USA, China and Europe.

Entire branches of the forums are devoted to discussing how to get out awards from the CIS countries to Europe without being noticed. Russian customs officers annually withdraw about four hundred awards that someone tried to illegally export abroad.

But the flow of Soviet military orders at the auctions of Shanghai, Paris and San Francisco does not dry up.

Survived after a sniper's bullet

“Look, we found this order at an auction in California. The description said that the award was given to a Soviet soldier who survived being hit in the head by a German sniper,” Cruz carefully takes out the Order of the Patriotic War from his suitcase.

With the help of acquaintances from Russia, Cruz sent a request to the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, where the data on the awarded servicemen of the Soviet army are stored. It turned out that the order belonged to the Red Army soldier Alexander Smirnov.

“In an offensive battle on August 23.8.1942, XNUMX, he was seriously wounded by a bullet... The diagnosis was a through bullet wound of both cheeks with fragmentation of the lower jaw. Tongue surgery and loss of teeth after injury,” the award sheet says.

Portrait of the Red Army man Alexander Smirnov. Photo: video frame Air force

After wounding Smirnov almost a year was treated at the hospital. Doctors literally fragments collected his jaw. In 1943, he returned to his native collective farm in the village of Uglevo, Kostroma Region. Despite the grave wound to the head and the resulting disability, I began to work. Paz cows, cared for cattle.

Before the war, two sons were born into the Alexandrov family, and after the war, four more daughters. They didn't live well, but they tried to stay friendly.

Order of the Patriotic War Smirnov was awarded in 1950 year.

“Papka always treated this order in a special way. He never told us anything about the war. And he wore awards only on holidays. Then he completely removed all the medals from his jacket, but left the order. And he asked me to take a picture with him,” his daughter Galina Rotanova now says.

Unfinished business

The award from the Smirnov family disappeared in the late 1980s. The fighter’s daughters suspect that distant relatives who came to visit could have stolen the order, but they don’t know what actually happened.

“We are sinning with our uncle - he is a distant relative. The folder periodically checked the chest of drawers where the order lay. So after the guy left, I went to check. Once - and there is no order. He just roared. We calmed him down as best we could. My father immediately thought of the guy. He also fought, but did not have such an order,” recalls Galina.

“We didn’t even report it to the police,” says the order bearer’s daughter, and her eyes instantly fill with tears. “We didn’t even have contacts with the police, because no one offended us.” And how do you know how to look for an order in a village?”

Alexander Smirnov died in 1988. He never saw his order, but before his death he asked that the very photograph with the award be placed on the grave.

Photo: video frame Air force

More than 30 years later, in distant Guadalajara, jeweler Eduardo Cruz, who bought the order at the California auction, carefully wraps the award in a bubble wrap.

“Some people on the Internet are writing that this Mexican is stupid, that he is crazy, because there is a high probability that these medals could be sold again,” Cruz says. “But I would like these anonymous people to be able to get to know the stories of these families.” Behind every order that ends up abroad is the tragedy and pain of some family.”

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Cruz searched for relatives of Alexander Smirnov for three months. But even when they were found, it was not so easy to return the order to the family.

The daughter of a decorated fighter, Galina Rotanova, did not find time for quite a long time to go to a notary to confirm her relationship. When it’s time to harvest in the village, there’s no time for decorations.

In the summer of 2018, the husband died at Rotanova, on which, as the locals say, almost all of their houses rested. Galina needed not only to accept the loss, but also to get used to being managed with the whole economy of one.

Galina Rotanova is one of the four daughters of Alexander Smirnov. Photo: video frame Air force

In such an environment, the news that a long-lost father’s order was found in Mexico clearly caught the woman off guard.

Which is better: to take responsibility for the custody of the order for yourself or to transfer the award to some museum? It is sometimes difficult for people to give a definite answer to this question.

Cruise faced such a problem more than once. Sometimes it is not possible to find a family of soldiers whose rewards he bought at auction. Sometimes relatives refused to take relics for storage.

Then the Mexican passes the order to the museums. In December, 2018, he presented five combat awards to the central museum of the armed forces of Russia.

Could be in the museum and the Order of Alexander Smirnov. But after four months of reflection, conversations with relatives and journalists, Galina Rotanova went to collect the entire pile of papers necessary to transfer the order to Russia.

Reach the graveyard and keep warm

Along with documents confirming their relationship, Alexander Smirnov’s daughters, Galina and Zoya, sent Cruz a notarized document in which they swore to protect their father’s order and pass it on from generation to generation as a shrine.

“For me, this is a sign of their loyalty. We believe in Russian families, we believe in their honor. We think that we have no right to judge what was and what will be. It's all in God's hands,” Cruz says.

He peers at Smirnov’s portrait with interest: “Look, he has such a look, he’s almost smiling. It’s as if he knows that the order will return.”

The Mexican carefully places the order in a cardboard box to hand it over to the Russian Honorary Consul in Guadalajara. The award will be delivered to Moscow by diplomatic mail, and then by Russian Post to Galich.

“Is it very cold in winter in Russia? Is it possible to walk to the cemetery without freezing? - the jeweler suddenly asks. He had never seen snow in his life. “I really hope that when the order reaches Galich, Alexander’s daughters will go to his grave and maybe even show him the order.”

Cruz signs the sealed box with the order and hands it to the Russian diplomat. Smiling modestly, he runs off to work - no one has canceled his shift at the jewelry workshop.

Daddy, darling

In the village house of culture floorboards creak shrill. By the arrival of city officials and metropolitan journalists, they washed the floor to shine and cleared the path to the building.

However, they decided not to knock down the almost meter-long icicles from the roof of the club - it was difficult and troublesome. But they put up a sign: “Caution, ice.”

Forty people gathered in the club. Children in Cossack uniform, women in Russian sarafans, patriotic songs, a stern and joyful voice leading. It seems everyone in the hall is a little awkward and wants to go home.

But at the moment when the order is taken out of the box, the atmosphere changes. Galina Rotanova takes the award in shaking hands and suddenly begins to sob. She is embraced by her sister standing next to her. They press the Order of the Father to the chest and freeze. Silence hangs in the hall. Even the floorboards that are creaking all hour are silent.

Galina immediately after the presentation of her father’s order. Photo: video frame Air force

“Thank you very much to this Mexican! It’s a miracle that there are such kind and sympathetic people in the world! - says Zoya Alexandrovna, not holding back her tears. “God bless him and everyone who helped.” And may the awards always return home.”

Without letting go of the order, the daughters of the Red Army soldier Smirnov hastily dress. Within 20 minutes, ankle-deep in snow, they go to their father’s grave.

“Folder, dear, we brought your order! You cried so much then... May your soul now rest in peace,” the daughters put the order on the grave, cry again and peer for a long time at Smirnov’s portrait.

When Cruz receives a photo of a fighter's family from a snow-covered cemetery, he sends a joyful smiley face in response.

“My heart was filled with happiness! This gives new strength. We are currently working on five more orders that we saved. We hope to give one to relatives in May, the rest - during this year,” he adds.

The grave of Alexander Smirnov. Photo: video frame Air force

Triumphalism and history

Probably the most difficult and amazing thing in this story is not the journey of a single order across half the world and back, but how it all coexists.

On the one hand, there are the Russians, who have started selling the military awards of their compatriots. On the other hand, there is a Mexican who buys these orders with his own money.

On the one hand, there is an expensive program of patriotic education for Russia and large-scale parades. On the other hand, there is poor awareness of the Second World War.

According to VTsIOM, 55% of Russians do not know almost any details about how and where their relatives fought. Only 40% of Russians between the ages from 18 to 24 could give the exact date of the start of World War II.

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“The cult of victory in Russia was revived in the 2000s on an even greater scale than in Soviet times. That is why a triumphalist attitude towards war continues to dominate the media and mass consciousness. And this has both its positive and negative sides,” says Professor Oleg Budnitsky, director of the International Center for the History and Sociology of the Second World War at the Higher School of Economics.

“On the one hand, the cult of victory has certainly brought positive results in terms of studying the history of the war. Millions of documents have been declassified and digitized. Databases of losses and rewards have appeared. On the other hand, we see an increase in the militarization of consciousness. A striking example of this is the appearance of stickers and slogans like “we can repeat it” or attempts by some officials to make the participation of their subordinates in events commemorating the war voluntary-compulsory. Some symbols are partially devalued or politicized. As it was, for example, with the St. George’s ribbon,” explains Budnitsky.

Another problem is the strengthening of a one-sided view of the war, says the historian.

“If you ask people on the street, who now can name at least the approximate combat losses of the Soviet army? Who knows, for example, that on the Kursk Bulge we lost four times more tanks and self-propelled guns than the Germans? Yes, we eventually broke the back of the German military machine there, but at what cost? If you remember all these aspects of the war, then excessive triumphalism will disappear by itself,” the professor notes.

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