Eternal Values
The order, which has never existed
But its drafts and probing copies left
For a year already the citizens and the guests of the northern capital have had an opportunity to get acquainted with wonderful subjects, presented in Exhibition hall of Saint-Petersburg Mint. The rich museum funds of the Association Goznak and its enterprises keep lots of interesting exhibits, some of them are presented in the constant exposure of Exhibition hall, but some of them appear here just for a while.
It happened exactly in this way with the pattern copy of the order "Generalissimo of the USSR Stalin", having shown off under the untiring control of keepers of the hall in one of the windows for some days only, then having come back to its permanent "residence place". Our today"s story of "Watermark" is about this unique exhibit, being kept in Muntsroom of Mint.
The epoch of government of Iosiph Stalin has left innumerable quantity of material and historical memorials in forms of books, factories, steamships and cities, and also works of painters of all directions and genres. Among abovementioned the most numerous are makes, produced in the walls of Leningrad Mint: memorable medals and bas-relieves, breast badges and reward medals. Among 33 reward medals, established during Stalin"s period, six ones had his portrait representation (sometimes with Lenin, sometimes without). Table medals, produced by the factory"s painters, were manufactured much more, and all of them take their places in the exposure of Muntsroom, being sent to different exhibitions periodically, including abroad exhibitions also.
In 1949 the Soviet Union was preparing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the leader"s birthday ceremonially. In the book of his memories "Triumph and Tragedy" a military historian D.A.Volkogonov submits some curious facts, connected with preparation for the celebration of Stalin"s jubilee. The comrades of his closest surrounding were preparing "a pleasant surprise" to him, intending to set up an order and a jubilee medal of his name, and also an international reward "For strengthening peace between nations" as a kind of "Stalin"s reward". But the reaction of "the host" proved to be unexpected for the creators of new rewards. Having analyzed all given to him drafts with his own representation in marshal"s uniform, he said:" I"ll ratify just Edict about the international reward". After some silence he added: "The similar orders are ratified just after death…"This way, the first attempt to create an order by the name of the alive state leader has failed. The initiators of the idea had nothing to do but to wait for the death of the leader.
We remark we don"t know the drafts of the first variants of Stalin"s order, mentioned in the Volkogonov"s memories, and also the places of their present keeping. Further we will rely upon the documentary subjects and material monuments, being kept in the archives and Muntsroom of Saint-Petersburg Mint.
The words, said by the leader in 1949, were likely not to be forgotten by the participants of the remarkable meeting. When Stalin died, they were remembered, and just in March, 1953 Leningrad Mint received an oral direction of the head of Goznak G.P.Andreev about drawing up a draft project and making pattern copies of the order "Generalissimo of the USSR Stalin". The work over this special task was honored to a group of high-skilled painters and engravers of the factory, which consisted of the main painter N.A.Sokolov, engravers A.V.Kozlov, A.V.Plastinin and A.V.Haritonov. According to all fact the work over the project was carried out in unprecedented short time period, concerning the level of "a customer", and was completely finished last decade of April. We"ve got this conclusion from an interesting fact: one of the group participants, Andrey Haritonov, was fired because of the staff reducing on the 4th of May 1953. The factory administration was unlikely to do it until full completion of all works. Moreover it was necessary to prepare some variants.
All variants of the order were made from cuprous-zinc alloy (tombac) and directed for examination to Goznak. There were 13 copies, which later in 1963 and 1970 were transferred for keeping to the special fund by the former deputy of the head of Goznak P.A.Pirogov.
Petr Abramovich Pirogov (1903-1981) began his working life at Leningrad Mint in 1927 as a turner. Since 1935 he headed the enterprise. He had got a hard task: in 1941 he organized the factory"s evacuation to Krasnokamsk and worked there for some time. In 1942 he was transferred to Moscow and appointed as a deputy of the head of Goznak of monetary-medal-order production. Some contribution in establishing Moscow Mint in April, 1942 belongs to him also. Due to his position in the Association Goznak Pirrogov was responsible for work of Mints, so there are all reasons to suppose him to take personal part in creating the patterns of the order "Stalin" and the ungratified copies happened to come to him.
The draft projects were produced by A.V.Plastinin and one of them (in fact uncompleted, "test") is kept in the collection of Muntsroom of SPM. The main painter of the factory N.A.Sokolov was honored the most important work- over the portrait of Stalin. By that time Sokolov was one of a few, perhaps the only master of portrait genre in medal art of the USSR. He modeled five variants with the leader"s representation and made single-handedly ("brought" in fact) one of them in an original instrument- a lead screw, what is proved by the presence of his stamp-"НС"
The engravers A.V.Haritonov, N.N.Philippov and A.V.Kozlov were working over the rest lead screws of the base of the order and its details. They marked their initial instrument by their signs:"АВ", "ФН" and "К" accordingly. Thanks to the kept collection of the instrument it became possible to determine more exactly the time of the beginning of work over this project. On two lead screws of the base variants there is a date "8.04.1953". If we can accept that preparing the lead screws followed drawing up the drafts, making sculptural modeling and some other technological operations, it"s possible to suppose that the instruction from Goznak was received not later than the end of March. So the pattern copies might have been completed by the 20-s of April, 1953. But there are no kept documentary proofs about it in the archive of Mint.
Everything was ready for printing the new reward at the case of its ratifying "above", but it didn"t happen. The patters, sent to Goznak, were transferred to the special fund afterwards, where they are being kept till now. One copy, happened to appear in the private collection by miracle, at the end of 70-s last century was given by the organs of internal affairs to the State Hermitage. By the way, before giving the order to the museum, it appeared at the examination of the specialists of Mint, who confirmed its legal (e.g. factorial) origin. The present time this is an only kept document, having the data about creating the patterns of the order "Stalin", though, as it was clarified, it has some inaccuracies.
In the expert conclusion, prepared at Mint, there is a detailed description of this unique exhibit: "The order is a five-pointed star, blazed with red and white silicate enamels, placed on the background of radiant pentagon. The star with the radiant pentagon is placed on the wreath, consisting of five oak and five laurel branches. In the center of the enamel star there is a portrait representation of Stalin, lain on the disc with the note "Generalissimo of the USSR Stalin". The disc is blazed by blue and green (the background of the note) silicate enamels". There are dimensions sizes of the sign of the order: the diameter of the described circumference of the star is 66 mm, of the wreath is 58 mm, of the disc with the text is 30 mm, the height of the portrait is 12 mm.
Why wasn"t the order ratified for printing? We decline to the opinion that quick changing attitude of the certain society layers in the country to Stalin and his internal policy made establishing a supreme reward with so odious name impossible. It"s possible to produce a braver supposition: people, connected with working out the project of the order creation directly, became victims of the political revolution in summer 1953 themselves. But one way or another, the history made the right choice and the order with Stalin"s name remained the test variant forever.
Michail Smirnov, the head of the archives of Saint-Petersburg
