Scarce Great Patriotic War Defence of Leningrad and Leningrad Front Medal for Bravery, 1st Type, 3rd Variation, and Medal for Combat Merit group awarded to a Mordvin shell carrier, N.U. Salmin, who was serving with a 76 mm artillery battery that was serving with the 160th Rifle Regiment in the 224th Rifle Division. Mordvin’s were a non-Russian people inhabiting Mordvinia in the far north of Russia. Under the Soviet government the Mordvins were given some autonomy in 1928, and a Mordvinian autonomous republic, which lasted from 1934 to 1991, had its capital at Saransk. Mordovinia is located in the Volga River basin. Salmin, from the Archangel Oblast, fought as an ammunition carrier with the 1st platoon of his unit in the defence of Leningrad, and was awarded the Medal for Bravery ‘for battles with the German Fascism’ on 5th February 1943. When the rest of the crew was knocked out of action, left on his own, he continued to fire over open sights at the enemy dugouts.
Russia - Soviet: Medal for Bravery, 1st Type, 3rd Variation with award serial number stamped: ‘155495’, converted to wear on 2nd type five sided suspension; Medal for Combat Merit, 2nd Type, 4th Variation, unnumbered as issued; Defence of Leningrad Medal, 1st Variation; Medal for the Victory Over Germany 1941-1945, 2nd Variation; Jubilee Medal for the 20th Anniversary of the Great Patriotic War 1945-1965. The group mounted as worn by the recipient on a screw post mount with leather padding to reverse for cushioning.
Condition: some contact wear, loss to enamel on letters on first but not on second, overall Very Fine.
Nikolai Ustinovich Salmin was born in 1923, and was a member of a non-Russian people inhabiting Mordvinia and speaking a Finno-Ugric language. Under the Soviet government the Mordvins were given some autonomy in 1928, and a Mordvinian autonomous republic, which lasted from 1934 to 1991, had its capital at Saransk. Mordovinia is located in the Volga River basin in the Arctic north of Russia. Salmin was a member of the Communist Youth Organisation known as the Komsomol. During the Great Patriotic War, Salmin saw service in the Red Army from 1942 after being conscripted by the Kotlasky District Military Commisariat in the Archangel Oblast of North Russia. Employed as a shell carrier for a 76 mm artillery battery serving with the 160th Rifle Regiment in the 224th Rifle Division, he fought during the defence of Leningrad and then on the Leningrad Front, being awarded the Medal for Bravery (No.155495) ‘for battles with the German Fascism’ on 5th February 1943.
The short citation for his award reads: ‘Shell carrier, 1st Platoon, 76 mm gun battery, Red Army Soldier Salmin, Nikolai Ustinovic. When the rest of the crew was knocked out of action, left on his own, he continued to fire over open sights at the enemy dugouts.’
A field award, no further detailed citation is available. Nothing else is known as his service, but awards for the Defence of Leningrad, let alone to a member of the Mordvin peoples are hard to find.
