Silver gilt, enamels. Measures 47.2 mm in height incl. eyelet, 44.9 mm in width; weighs 21.9 g not including the suspension and connecting link. This is the last version of the Order of Glory 2nd cl. featuring simplified, so-called "orange" ("apelsin") style of the clock with long dashes rather than numerals and thus resembling a slice of orange. This particular specimen has a fairly low serial number for the "orange clock face" version (its serial number range is shared with the earlier version having a more detailed depiction of the clock.)

In very fine to excelle

Silver gilt, enamels. Measures 47.2 mm in height incl. eyelet, 44.9 mm in width; weighs 21.9 g not including the suspension and connecting link. This is the last version of the Order of Glory 2nd cl. featuring simplified, so-called "orange" ("apelsin") style of the clock with long dashes rather than numerals and thus resembling a slice of orange. This particular specimen has a fairly low serial number for the "orange clock face" version (its serial number range is shared with the earlier version having a more detailed depiction of the clock.)

In very fine to excellent condition. There are a few thin scratches to the recessed field of the center medallion and a light wear to its high points, but most of its raised details are well-preserved, and even some of the dashes on the clock are visible. The original gilt finish t is clearly visible on the recessed field and Kremlin wall. The enamel retains a nice luster and has only some microscopic surface flakes and rubbing, no wear visible to the unaided eye. Comes on an original suspension device of WW2 era, a two- layer model in steel with a self-locking pin. The nicely preserved ribbon is old, likely of the period. The connecting link appears to be original; its ends are still joined with solder.

Born in 1913 in a village of the Minsk province of Belorussia, Kishkurnyi had only an elementary school education when he was drafted into the Red Army in September 1942. In the spring of 1943, he was serving as a 45-mm antitank gun commander with the 221st Rifle Regiment, 61st Rifle Division, 56th Army, North Caucasian Front. On 14 April 1943, while storming the German "Blue Line" on the Taman Peninsula, his gun crew destroyed three enemy machine gun nests. In May of that year, Kishkurnyi eliminated five enemy soldiers while serving as a rifleman with the 308th NKVD Rifle Regiment, 1st NKVD Division (this "Special Purpose" unit had been sent to assist the 56th Army as the Soviet offensive in Taman stalled). By the beginning of 1944, Kishkurnyi had been transferred to the 2nd Guards Rifle Division where he once again became a crewman of a 45-mm gun. During an assault on the Kerch Isthmus in Crimea on 10 January 1944, he with his crew eliminated 10 enemy soldiers and destroyed a machine gun. It must be said that it was an uncommon situation that an NCO changed several units within a relatively short period of time and distinguished himself on each occasion! On 1 April, Kishkurnyi, then already a Guards Sr. Sergeant, was recommended for the Order of the Red Star as a cumulative award by his squadron commander. The decoration, his first of the war, was bestowed on him on 2 May 1944.

Kishkurnyi earned his next award in Lithuania while serving as a gun layer of a 76-mm gun, 16th Guards Separate Antitank Squadron in the same 2nd Guards Rifle Division, 2nd Guards Army, at the time a part of the 1st Baltic Front. On 7 Oct. 1944, he fired his gun at a retreating enemy column destroying two horse-drawn carriages and up to 20 German soldiers. On the following day, while continuing the pursuit of the retreating enemy, his unit was ambushed and counterattacked by German tanks and assault guns. Kishkurnyi and his crew promptly deployed their gun and opened fire, forcing the enemy to flee in panic. On 14 Oct. 1944, Kishkurnyi was awarded for this feat with the Order of Glory, 3rd cl. by the general order of the 2nd Guards Rifle Division.

Kishkurnyi earned the Order of Glory, 2nd cl., his final decoration of the war in the spring of 1945 in actions in East Prussia as a 76-mm gun commander, still in the same unit of the 2nd Guards Army, by then re-subordinated to the 3rd Belorussian Front. On 18 March 1945, his gun destroyed a German artillery piece along with its crew and 15 soldiers while engaging the retreating enemy column near the village of Grunwald (the place made famous by the pivotal battle won there in 1410 by the Lithuanian and Polish coalition against the Teutonic Order.) In a skirmish on 13 April near the settlement of Kesniken (the name is a Russian transliteration) on Samland Peninsula, Kishkurnyi fired his gun over open sights, destroying one antitank gun, two machine guns with their crews, and an observation post, and eliminating 15 German soldiers. On 16 May, he and his gun crew destroyed two houses occupied by German submachine gunners in the town of Gremau in close proximity to the western shore of Samland. The enemy lost 20 soldiers to the actions of Kishkurnyi's crew, and as a result, the Soviet infantry was able to advance. On 27 April, Kishkurnyi was recommended for the Order of Glory, 2nd class by his antitank squadron commander. On 12 May 1945, the recommendation received the final approval of the Deputy Commander of the Artillery, 2nd Guards Army, and on 7 June 1945 the decoration was officially bestowed by the army's general order.

Kishkurnyi was discharged from the regular army in November 1945. A year later, he was serving with the NKVD as a guard of the Prison Camp #6 in the Kharkov Region of Ukraine.

Research Materials: photocopy of the award record card and award commendations for both Orders of Glory and the Order of the Red Star.
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