The Order of Victory was established
by a Decree of the Presidium of the (Former) USSR Supreme Soviet
on November 8, 1943. The Order of Vicory is there highest military
order and is one of the rarest Orders in the world today having
been awarded only 19 times durring WWII and only once since then.
The Order of Victory is made of silver (19 grams) and gold (2
grams) on a platinum frame (47 grams) and encrusted with diamonds
(16 carats) and rubies (25 carats). This order was given to top-ranking
commanders of the Red Army for a successful operation within the
framework of one or several fronts resulting in a radical change
of the situation in favour of the Soviet Armed Forces. It was
also awarded to a select few commanders of the Alied forces.
The recipiants;
Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov
#1, 10 1944
Alexander M. Vasilievsky #2,
10 April 1944
Joseph (Iosif) Vissarionovich
Dzhugashvili Stalin #3, 28 July 1944
Konstantin Konstaninovich Rokossovlky,
19 March 1945
Ivan Stepanovich Konev, 19 March
1945
Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov,
2nd award 30 March 1945
Alexander M. Vasilievsky, 2nd
award 19 April 1945
Rodion Yakavlevich Malinovsky,
26 April 1945
Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin, 26
April 1945
Leonid A. Govorov, 31 May1945
Alexei Innokentyevich Antonov,
4 June 1945
Semyon Konstaninovich Timoshenko,
4 June 1945
Joseph (Iosif) Vissarionovich
Dzhugashvili Stalin, 2nd award 26 June 1945
Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov,
8 September 1945
Dwight David Eisenhower, 5 June
1945 (General of the Army)
Bernard Law Montgomery, 5 June
1945 (British Field Marshal)
Mikai Michael Hohenzollern, 6
July 1945 (King Michael I of Romania)
Michal Rolja-Zymersky, 9 August
1945 (Marshal of Poland)
Josip Broz Tito, 9 September
1945 (Marshal of Yugoslavia)
Leonid Iilich Brezhnev, 20 February
1978 (Rescinded 21 September 1989 because "it was noncorresponding
to the statute of the Order".
