Soviet awards for Afghanistan

[kmoney10]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can shed some light on the following i've stumbled upon.

I found a doc, awarding ORB #557.471 on 17.05.1984 (pg3), another one #540.147 (pg3) on 15.06.1983 and then i see one #464.523 (pg6) on 03.04.1985.

See link below
Soviet awards for Afghanistan War (1979-1989) - Page 3 - Russia: Soviet Orders, Medals & Decorations - Gentleman's Military Interest Club

I find it a bit odd that there is such a large gap in the serial # for the ORB. Can anyone provide more info on how this could have happened?

[Egorka]

Soviet awards were never issued specifically according to numbers. No one really cared about the numbers in our (phaleristic) sense.
The order and medals were manufactured in batches. These batches were split and then distributed among different ministries and geographical locations. When certain local office ran out of awards, it requested more of them.
This way the numbers got mixed up. So the number ranges can be used, but with reservations.
This is the situation in a nutshell.

Here is an example from WW2 time, but it illustrates well the above.
Patriotic war 2 class orders #404197 and #660230 were both awarded with decree on the same day (12/06/1945) and both handed out to the cavaliers on the same day (21/06/1945).

[Auke]

Excellent summary Igor!

[kmoney10]

Very informative. Thank you!