This was the highest award in the USSR, intended only for the supreme military leaders. But Stalin who ordered it to be created did not suspect that the Moscow jeweler Ivan Kazennov, a master of the highest qualifications who inserted precious stones into the order, had deceived him. And then he revealed this secret just before his death.
In the summer of 1943, when it had already become clear that the USSR was winning a victory over Nazi Germany, Stalin decided to create a special award specifically for the highest military leaders. The task was given to several medalist artists at once. Colonel Nikolai Neyelov, an employee of the Red Army's logistics staff, was the first to sketch a new award, which was first called "For loyalty to the Motherland". However, his project was not approved. Preference was given to the sketch by Anatoly Kuznetsov, who was already the author of the Order of the Patriotic War. His project was a five-pointed star with a central round medallion on which bas-reliefs of Lenin and Stalin were placed.
The project was shown to Stalin. But he ordered to place the image of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower instead of the bas-reliefs. In October, Kuznetsov presented the leader with seven new sketches, of which Stalin chose one with the inscription "Victory", instructing him to use platinum instead of gold, enlarge the dimensions of the Spasskaya Tower, and make the background blue. After that, an order was received to make a test copy of the order.
The courage of the master
The order went to the Moscow Jewelry and Watch Factory (this was the first order that was not made at the Mint). But difficulties immediately arose. There were no problems with platinum, the diamonds were taken from the royal fund, but the necessary rubies for the rays of the red star were not found. The highly qualified master Ivan Kazennov collected them from all over Moscow, but all the precious stones were of different sizes and varied in color. What to do? The master was seized with panic, because he knew about Stalin's order - to use only materials of domestic origin for the order. But where to get the rubies needed for the order? The deadlines were tight, and there was no time left to find them.
Then, at his own peril and risk, Kazennov decided to use synthetic rubies for the order. He did not tell anyone about this, and revealed the secret only before his death to his student, many years after Stalin's death.
Then the first order "Victory" was shown to the leader, and he liked it. Stalin ordered the production of a total of 20 pieces of this award. And on November 8, 1943, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued on the establishment of the order. It was intended as a reward for "senior officers of the Red Army for the successful conduct of an operation on the scale of one or several fronts, as a result of which the situation radically changed in favor of the Soviet Armed Forces."
For the manufacture of the first copy of the most beautiful and expensive order in the USSR, 170 diamonds with a total weight of 16 carats and 300 grams of pure platinum were used, as well as rubies, which, as we already wrote, were synthetic. Jewelry was allocated by special order of the Council of People's Commissars. It was also the largest order in the USSR - the distance between the opposite rays of the star was 72 mm. It had to be worn on the left side, not the right side of the chest, on a red ribbon with stripes of green, blue, burgundy, light blue, orange and black.
First cavaliers
However, no one was immediately awarded a new order. Only on April 10, 1944 the names of his first three cavaliers became known: the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, became the owner of the order with the badge No. 1, No. 2 - Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky and No. 3 - Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal Joseph Stalin. The awarding ceremony was timed to coincide with the liberation of the right-bank Ukraine.
Many awardees turned out to be in 1945, when Germany was defeated: Marshals Rokossovsky, Konev, Malinovsky, Tolbukhin, Govorov, Timoshenko, as well as General of the Army Antonov. Zhukov and Vasilevsky in the same year were awarded this order for the second time. In June 1945, for the second time, Stalin himself was awarded the Order of Victory, and following the results of the war with Japan, Marshal Meretskov received the award.
Awards for foreigners
The Order of Victory was also awarded to some figures of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition: the commander-in-chief of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army Tito, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army, General Rola-Zimersky, the British Field Marshal Mongomery and the American General Eisenhower. Received the order and the Romanian king Mihai I.
Romania, as you know, fought on the side of Nazi Germany, however, when the Red Army approached its borders, Mihai arrested the dictator Antonescu, announced Romania's withdrawal from the war and stopped all military operations against the allies. It was for this - "the courageous act of a decisive turn of the Romanian policy towards a break with Hitler's Germany and an alliance with the United Nations", as stated in the decree, Stalin decided to reward him.
A new, seventeenth in a row, the Knight of the Order appeared only 30 years later. It was "our dear" Leonid Ilyich, who loved to hang himself with awards. The Order of Victory was awarded to the General Secretary in February 1978, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Army. Although Brezhnev, of course, did not have the merit that would correspond to the status of this high award. However, it was for this that he was deprived of it after death.
Where are they now?
There are few such expensive and beautiful orders in the world. According to the memoirs of Eisenhower's adjutant, when he was awarded the Order of Victory, he counted diamonds for a long time and practically and declared that it was worth at least 18 thousand dollars (in the then prices). However, American experts could not determine the value of rubies, since they had never seen such large stones, and they did not pick them out of the order and check whether they were synthetic.
At the present time, the order is worth at least a million dollars (according to other estimates, at least four million). According to rumors, it was for this amount that King Mihai I sold it to the American billionaire Rockefeller. However, the king himself never admitted to the act of sale. But when he arrived in Moscow to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Victory, this order was not on him, although all the other awards of the king were adorned with his luxurious uniform.
Today, the whereabouts of all other Victory Orders are known. The awards presented to the Soviet military leaders, as well as the Polish marshal, are in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces. And the awards given to foreigners are in the museums of their countries.
