Original Item. Only One Available. This is an original Soviet WWII Order of the Red Star, serial number 1,617,065, awarded to military doctor Yakov Borisovich Birbraier for distinguished medical service with the 2nd Guards Tank Army during the final campaign in Germany. Birbraier's wartime record identifies him as a Jewish Red Army medical officer whose service culminated in the Battle of Berlin, where he treated more than 500 wounded servicemen during the intense fighting surrounding the Soviet assault on the German capital.

The decoration is the standard wartime screw-back form, constructed in silver with a five-pointed star finished in translucent red enamel. At center is the oxidized silver medallion depicting an armed Red Army soldier, surrounded by the raised inscription:

ПРОЛЕТАРИИ ВСЕХ СТРАН, СОЕДИНЯЙТЕСЬ!

“Workers of the world, unite!”

Below the soldier is СССР, for USSR, with the hammer-and-sickle emblem positioned beneath the central medallion. The reverse retains its threaded screw post and circular screw plate. Above the post is the characteristic two-line Soviet Mint marking:

МОНЕТНЫЙ
ДВОР

“Mint”

The hand-applied serial number beneath the post reads: 1617065

The order remains in very good overall condition, with appropriate age and service wear. The red enamel retains excellent depth and gloss with scattered light surface marks and minor wear along exposed edges. The silver has developed an attractive darkened patina, particularly within the recessed areas of the central medallion and lettering. The principal relief remains well defined, while the reverse retains a clear mint marking and fully legible serial number. The screw post and screw plate are present.

Historical Context

The Order of the Red Star, or Orden Krasnoy Zvezdy, was established on April 6, 1930, with its statute approved on May 5 of that year. It was created to recognize distinguished service connected with the defense of the Soviet Union in both wartime and peacetime. During WWII it became one of the most widely recognized Soviet military decorations, awarded not only for direct combat actions but also for military service that materially strengthened the effectiveness of fighting formations.

Birbraier's award reflects the vital role played by the Soviet military medical service during large-scale offensive warfare. By 1945, Red Army medical personnel worked within an extensive evacuation system that began close behind the fighting troops and extended rearward through battalion, regimental, divisional, army, and front-level medical facilities. Doctors were required to perform emergency treatment, surgery, stabilization, triage, and evacuation while operating under conditions that could change rapidly as the front advanced.

Birbraier served within the medical establishment of the 2nd Guards Tank Army, one of the principal armored formations of Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front during the Berlin operation. The army had fought through the Vistula-Oder offensive and the subsequent operations in Pomerania before being committed to the final assault on Berlin. During April 1945 it broke through the German defensive system east of the city and advanced into Berlin itself, with its armored formations among the Soviet troops entering the capital. The speed and violence of these operations placed enormous demands on the army's medical personnel.

Birbraier's wartime award history shows that his service had begun well before Berlin. He was also recognized with the Medal for the Defense of Leningrad, connecting his military career with one of the longest and most destructive campaigns of the war before his later service with the 2nd Guards Tank Army. His later Red Star therefore represents part of a substantially broader wartime medical career extending from the struggle around Leningrad to the final operations in Germany.

During the Berlin fighting, Birbraier distinguished himself through the treatment of more than 500 servicemen. This number is particularly significant in the context of a mobile tank army. Armored and mechanized formations could advance rapidly over considerable distances, forcing their medical services to relocate repeatedly while continuing to receive casualties. Wounded men had to be treated and moved through an evacuation chain that was itself advancing through damaged roads, congested urban areas, disrupted communications, and continuing enemy resistance.

His recommendation for the Order of the Red Star passed through the command structure of the 2nd Guards Tank Army in May 1945. The surviving wartime endorsements explicitly approve him for the Order of the Red Star, with the recommendation passing through senior medical and army authorities after the conclusion of the Berlin fighting. The award was therefore directly connected with his service during the culminating phase of the European war.

The Battle of Berlin began with the major Soviet offensive on April 16, 1945. Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front attacked westward against the German defenses on the Oder and Seelow Heights while other Soviet formations advanced toward the capital from the south. After the outer defenses were broken, the battle developed into increasingly concentrated urban combat. German resistance continued within successive defensive sectors across Berlin until the city's surrender on May 2.

For army medical personnel, the Berlin operation combined the problems of conventional battlefield medicine with those created by fighting inside a major city. Casualties emerged from armored engagements, artillery fire, infantry assaults, street fighting, and attacks against fortified buildings. Treatment facilities had to manage large numbers of wounded personnel while the tactical situation continued to change around them. Birbraier's treatment of hundreds of soldiers during this period demonstrates why his work was considered worthy of a military decoration.

His Jewish background gives his service an additional historical dimension. Jewish men and women served throughout the Soviet armed forces in combat, technical, administrative, and medical roles during WWII. Birbraier's path from the defense of Leningrad through the final advance into Germany places him among the Jewish Soviet servicemen who experienced the war from its catastrophic early years through the destruction of the German regime in 1945.