2nd class Order of the Cloud and Banner No.55 awarded to Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Chuikov

Silver, gilt, enamel.
Size 65х70 mm
Improvised bar was added by the cavalier.

Collection of State Historical Museum in Moscow.

Breast star.
Silver, gilt, enamel.
Size 82.5х82 mm.

 

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov /Russian: Василий Иванович Чуйков;12 February [O.S. 31 January] 1900 – 18 March 1982/ was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He is best known for commanding the 62nd Army which saw heavy combat during the Battle of Stalingrad in the Second World War.

In December 1940, Chuikov was appointed the chief Soviet military representative to the Republic of China and adviser to Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader, in Chongqing. Prior to his departure for China, he was summoned to meet Joseph Stalin and Semyon Timoshenko, who instructed him to ensure that China remain engaged in the war with Japan so Japan could not challenge the Soviet Union in the Far East and allow the Soviet Union to focus on the German threat from the West. Stalin told Chuikov to prioritize support for Nationalists over the Chinese Communists so as to ensure Chinese unity against Japan. Chuikov arrived in China with a large supply of Soviet armaments for the Nationalist Army, including tanks, artillery, fighter and bomber aircraft, and trucks. In January 1941 when the Nationalists attacked the Communists in the Southern Anhui Incident in breach of their nominal alliance, Chuikov was criticized by Mao Zedong for failing to stop Chiang's aggression against the Chinese Communists. Chuikov insisted that the Nationalists could not use Soviet weaponry against the Communists, met with Communist leaders Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying, but in keeping with Stalin's directives, continued to support the Nationalist war effort against Japan, even after the signing of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. In the Second Battle of Changsha in September 1941, he advised Chiang to relieve the Japanese siege on Changsha by attacking the strategic city of Yichang some 400 km to the north, and the strategy succeeded. In March 1942, he was recalled to the USSR, which by then was at war with Germany.​

 

"In my reports to the Center, I hinted at the question that we, Soviet military advisers in China, were deprived of the opportunity to show our activity. Finally I received a short telegram, which I was recalled to Moscow for a report. From it I realized that I would never return to China.
There were many farewell banquets. I was surrounded by attention, courtesies, wishes for a speedy return and awarded the highest Chinese general's order of the second class. Finally, I am on a plane heading for Lanzhou and then Urumqi."​

Chuikov, V.I. (1983) "Mission in China", published by Voenizdat.

 

Circa 1946.

 

Colonel General Chuikov.

 

After the war.

 

1981.