Hard cover booklet, 3 ½" x 2 ½", wrapped in fine-quality leather lined with silk on the inside. The golden lettering on the front cover reads "Identification Document, People's Commissariat of Derense of the USSR." The ID photo and textual information are validated by the ink stamp of the Chief Personnel Directorate, and is hand-signed by the Deputy Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Personnel, Colonel General Golikov. The fine leather and the silk lining of this document are far above the quality of a Soviet military ID.

In excellent condition, showing minor storage wear to the le

Hard cover booklet, 3 ½" x 2 ½", wrapped in fine-quality leather lined with silk on the inside. The golden lettering on the front cover reads "Identification Document, People's Commissariat of Derense of the USSR." The ID photo and textual information are validated by the ink stamp of the Chief Personnel Directorate, and is hand-signed by the Deputy Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Personnel, Colonel General Golikov. The fine leather and the silk lining of this document are far above the quality of a Soviet military ID.

In excellent condition, showing minor storage wear to the leather of the covers and a few tiny insignificant spots of foxing to the internal pages. The gold lettering on the cover is completely intact and has retained its original luster. The ID photo is pristine, the image is in exceptionally sharp focus.

The Kalinin Front was formally established by Stavka directive on 17 October 1941 under the command of Gen. Col. Ivan Konev, with the main mission to halt the German offensive towards Moscow and to prevent the city of Kalinin from being overtaken by the Germans. The latter goal was not achieved, Kalinin fell to the Germans, albeit for a brief period. In November 1942 the Kalinin Front, along with the Western Front, launched Operation Mars, one of several offensive operations against the German defenses in the Rzhev-Vyazma salient - unsuccessful and exceptionally costly Red Army offensives collectively known as the Rzhev Meat Grinder. General planning for all those failed offensive operations was authored by then General of the Army Georgy Zhukov, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army. Zhukov was responsible for hundreds of thousands lives of Red Army troops lost in the Rzhev Meat Grinder.

By the time Yeremenko was appointed Commander of the Kalinin Front, he already had the experience of the Battle of Stalingrad under his belt as Commander of the Stalingrad Front. Under his command, the Kalinin Front took an active part in the Smolensk offensive in August 1943. In October 1943, Yeremenko led a successful offensive near Nevel. On 20 October 1943 the Kalinin Front was ne-named 1st Baltic Front. Yeremenko commanded it until 4 February 1944.

Andrey Yeremenko, born in 1892, received the most important decorations of the USSR: three Orders of Suvorov 1st Class, the Order of Kutuzov 1st Class, the Gold Star Medal of Hero of the Soviet Union, five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and four Orders of the Red Banner. He also received thirteen Soviet medals and twenty foreign awards. He received three wounds during the war, two of them serious enough that he spent long periods in hospitals and frequently appeared in photographs using a cane. He helped liberate Latvia, the Crimea, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia from the Germans. During the Cold War, as a General of the Army, he held in succession the positions of Commander in Chief of the Carpathian Military District, Commander in Chief of the Western Siberian Military District, and Commander in Chief of the North Caucasus Military District before his promotion to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1955. In 1956 Yeremenko was elected candidate to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the position he held until his death in 1970.

It is literally impossible to overestimate the importance and uniqueness of this ID issued on the very next day after Yeremenko was appointed Front Commander. Think about it: only Stalin outranked a Front Commander! This is a piece of history, one might say national treasure, a unique opportunity to shine as the gem of any serious WW2 collection.
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