Orders and medals of the USSR (Shishkov / Muzalevsky)

[Tal Inbar]

FANTASTIC set of books (2 volumes: 337 pages & 407 pages) by Sergey Shishkov & Mikhail Muzalevsky (Voron Publishing, 2000).
Any SERIOUS collector can't afford not having those books. Text in Russian and English, many photographs, Statistical parts (who was awarded most orders of Lenin, Red banner etc.), Many pictures of rare award documents and much more. One problem is that the pictures are not the best quality.

[Art]

I remember when these were over $100 EACH. Price is starting to get more realistic. I chatted with the one of the authors once, as when these first came out they were almost impossible to get in the U.S...he was very nice and recommended himself that I wait until the price of the books come down..definitely on my buy list

[Tal Inbar]

Hi Art

I got my set for $160. Expensive, but worth it.

[Art]

That's a nice deal..How good is the Russian to English translation? many of the Russian books have choppy translations and some are barely understandable. For example Volodin/Merlai's is horrible. You can get the general idea of what they mean, but you really have to fill in the blanks.

[Tal Inbar]

Art, the translation is much better, but still I think Shishkov woudn't pass the English grammer test with great succsess...

[scook17]

I was wondering if anyone would recommend the book "ORDERS AND MEDALS OF THE USSR 1918-1991" by Sergey S. Shishov and Mikhail Muzalevsky. I've heard some good things about it, but I can't find anywhere to buy it from. I already have the Paul McDonalds book, and I'm looking for something along the same lines, ie in English, quite detailed with lots of colored prints.

Could anyone suggest where I could buy the "ORDERS AND MEDALS OF THE USSR 1918-1991" book, or perhaps a similar book? Thanks.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

[Art]

Shane,

Muzalevsky is very educated in the field of Soviet awards and I'm planning on buying this set in the near future. Tal Inbar has a set I believe, you may want to PM him, or perhaps he'll reply here about what he thinks of this set. I've purchased some books from Eugene, and all were delivered as promised with no problems. You may want to contact him regarding availability.

Regarding something similar, try McDaniel and Schmitt's "The Comprehensive Guide to Soviet Orders and Medals". This is the book that every collector has and if you want to talk awards, you will no doubtedly be referring to the information within sometime or another.

Art

[Tal Inbar]

I have the set. I think the magor problem is the [hoto quality - I've seen better...

Other than that - This is an OUTSTANDING set of books!
This is an invaluable set of books to have on your shelf. The book has in-depth descriptions of the Soviet awards, as well as full color photos and more. Text is in both Russian with (mostly) full translations into English.

Also, there are several sections on presentation awards to units (with the documents.) One really neat thing about the set is that they show not only the 'issue' documents, but also the rare variations of documents and the temporary certificates as well. Additionally, each numbered award has the range of award numbers and approximate dates issued.

[Mahdi]

A couple other things about this book -

1) The English translation is not nearly as good as it could have been. It's not bad though.

2) There is some really cool information about some awards, like - who is the awardee with the most repetitive awardings of one award... etc

[Dave]

I have a set of these books also, and I love them. I use them as frequently as I do my "Comprehensive Guide". Here's a review I wrote for the set a while back:

"ORDERS AND MEDALS OF THE USSR 1918-1991" by Sergey S. Shishov and Mikhail Muzalevsky (VORON Publishing, 2000, hb, two volumes: Volume One- 337 pages, Volume Two- 408 pages, limited run of 1000 copies, retail price- approx $200) This is an OUTSTANDING set of books! If you consider yourself a 'serious' collector, or (like myself) simply enjoy collecting Soviet awards, this is an invaluable set of books to have on your shelf. Since I acquired my set, rarely has a day gone by that I haven't read through parts of it, and have always discovered new things! The book has in-depth descriptions of the Soviet awards, as well as full color photos and more. Text is in both Russian with (mostly) full translations into English (the decrees creating new awards aren't translated, which is a bummer!) The best part of the books are the Appendixes. These have all sorts of 'great' tid-bits of award trivia (who was awarded the most awards, who had double Suvorovs, etc.) Also, there are several sections on presentation awards to units (with the documents.) One really neat thing about the set is that they show not only the 'issue' documents, but also the rare variations of documents and the temporary certificates as well. Additionally, each numbered award has the range of award numbers and approximate dates issued. The set is published in Singapore, so they avoid the normal problems of Russian printing quality control. The only drawback is the photographs, they aren't the most professional, but hey- for the information available in the book, that's a small price to pay!