Russian/Soviet pilot bust statue

[Steve Flanagan]

Any help would be appreciated with this one, has a medal and cyrillic writing on front of bust but no other maker marks.

[Steve Flanagan]

Bust

2

[Ferdinand]

The medal is a Gold Star Medal, accompanying the Hero of the Soviet Union title. This HSU is Air Force Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello (born on 6 May 1908 in Moscow), who commanded the 4th Squadron of the 42nd Long Range Bomber Aviation Division, 3rd Bomber Aviation Corps. He died on 26 June 1941 during a combat mission, when his bomber was hit and caught fire. Gastello crashed the burning aircraft into a grouping of enemy troops. He was awarded the HSU title on 26 July 1941.

[Steve Flanagan]

Bust

Thank you, is the bust a common item or hard to find?

[Komandir RKKA]

Interesting example of late postwar sowiet art.
But still common one I think.

[Steve Flanagan]

Bust

Thank you all, this one was way our of my normal area!

[speedytop]

Hi,

you really mean common, like a post war guard badge for example?

Here is another one, I think a female HSU, but I don't know the name:



Regards
Uwe

[Ferdinand]

Nice ones. I wish I ever stumbled across one of these on a flee market.

The second bust is from Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya, an 18-years-old partisan (born on 13 September 1923) who died on 29 November 1941. She was caught by a German sentry in the act of burning down a stable, which she had mistaken for a storehouse. Kosmodemyanskaya was brutally interrogated. She was beaten and whipped, but still refused to talk. She was publicly hanged. Her final words were "You can't hang all 190 million of us!", which she shouted at the Germans. Kosmodemyanskaya was the first female wartime HSU (awarded the title on 16 February 1942).

[speedytop]

Ferdinand,

excellent, thank you very much for your assistance.

Regards
Uwe