65th anniversary of Great Victory: Orders exhibition in Armory Chamber

The awards that will decorate the chests of many Great Patriotic War veterans on 9 May could be seen in the Armory Chamber.

The exhibition name is “Symbols of Victory – commanders’ awards”. Here is the first order of the Great Patriotic War. It was established in spring of 1942 after the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow. The Order of Patriotic War was awarded to soldiers and officers for heroic deeds. On Stalin’s personal initiative the Orders of Alexander Nevsky, Suvorov, Kutuzov and Nakhimov were instituted. But the principal exhibits are the orders of Victory including the one awarded to Iosif Stalin. The rarest and valuable award in the world was instituted in November of 1943 and intended for the high officers’ decoration. The Order of Victory is made of gold and platinum with 174 diamonds of 16 carats. Only twenty men were given this kind of awards! Among them were the Allies of the WWII: Eisenhower, Montgomery, Rumania king Mikhai the First. According to the exposition organizers, museums usually exhibit the copies of ‘Victory orders so that the current exhibition is the only way to see the originals. They were given over to the Armory Chamber by the State Awards Committee this spring under the order of RF President D. A. Medvedev.

‘The status of the order requires that upon the holder’s death it is given back to the State Awards Committee. There is only one order known to pass from one auction to another. It is the order of Rumanian king. Probably his family decided to improve its economic conditions this way’, - explained the Head of Exhibition Department of Moscow Kremlin Victoria Pavlenko.