Russia- Soviet: A potentially interesting Long Service Order of the Red Banner awarded to Major-General Mikhail Stepanovich Leshko, Deputy Commander of Forces of the Odessa Military District for Material Support. He would serve 25 years in the Red Army and would be awarded the Order of Lenin for 25 years long service in the first batch of such awards on 21st February 1945.
Order of the Red Banner, reverse numbered 162200, type 4 (rounded) mounted on a replacement aluminium suspender
Condition: mounted on a replacement aluminium suspender, Good Very Fine
Mikhail Stepanovich Leshko was born in the city of Oster, Chernigov Oblast in 1891. A Ukrainian national having attained an elementary level of education he would join the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1910 and would join the Red Army upon its formation in 1918.
Surviving the purges of the late 1930s, he would still be actively serving on the outbreak of the Second World War and would receive an Order of Lenin by decree of the Supreme Soviet on 31st December 1939 as well as subsequently receiving an Order of the Red Star by decree of the Supreme Soviet on 3rd March 1942, as well as his first Order of the Red Banner on 17th September 1943. This Order of the Red Banner would be awarded to Leshko on 3rd November 1944 part of the first batch of such awards for 20 years long service. He would at this time be serving as a Major-General and the Deputy Commander of Forces of the Odessa Military District for Material Support.
His final noted award would be an Order of Lenin by decree of the Supreme Soviet on 21st February 1945, this for 25 years long service, this being the first batch of such awards made.
By 24th November 1947 Leshko was listed as retired and was living in Karl Marx Street in the city of Odessa.
