Talk:Virtuti Militari

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	Virtuti Militari is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on November 7, 2006.
Article milestones Date Process Result June 25, 2005 Peer review Reviewed July 11, 2005 Featured article candidate Promoted November 7, 2006 Featured article review Kept Current Status: Featured article

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Is anyone certain which Alexander I received the Virtuti Militari medal? Given the date, it was either Alexander I of Yugoslavia (which I seriously doubt) or Alexander I of Russia (which makes perfect sense). I'm fairly certain it was the Russian one, but if someone here knows it, could they change the Alexander I link to the appropriate one? -Ricky81682 06:35, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

It was Alexander I of Yugoslavia. I doubt anyone would want to award Alexander I of Russia with Virtuti Militari, especially that it was him who banned the medal and the only military campaign he could've been awarded for was... against Poland. I corrected that. Halibutt 15:02, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 WWII recipients 2 Duke of Vittoria 3 FAC soon 4 Brezhnev Award 5 Sources 6 Suggestions 7 Question 8 Invalid ISBNs 9 The idiot that is vandalising this article. 10 Protection Requested 11 People's Republic of Poland 12 Vandalism 13 Correct name?

[edit] WWII recipients

Does anyone have a decent source on the WWII recipients? I couldn't find what class was awarded to the following. Bah, I couldn't even find who awarded them with VM - the reds or the exiles.

• General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower
• General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
• General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

The eisenhower.archives.gov page states that it was the first class, but the date is missing. Halibutt 18:06, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Duke of Vittoria

Armando Diaz was Duce (or Duca) della Vittoria, which means leader of the victory, not Duke of Vittoria. --Panairjdde 12:05, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] FAC soon

I will PR this and FAC soon. It looks as good as current FA Medal of Honor. One major problem though - no references. Contributors, please list them here - we cannot FAC it without them! After reading the article, I think there is one inconsistency or missing part: what about medals awarded by Polish government in exile and their (or lack of) recognition by People's Republic of Poland? This should be expanded. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 20:09, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well? If it had references, it could be nominated to FAC this instant... --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 17:45, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I will see what I can do. Since I feel safe that my FAC, Order of Canada, will be promoted, I will try to find some sources. Though, I do have an issue with the tables on the page. I believe we could remove some names from the tables, mainly those who do not have articles from Wikipedia. I also want to find the source about Bhreznev's award being revoked posthumously. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:58, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Brezhnev Award

Question, why was Brezhnev's award canceled? I know that he had another award that was canceled after he died, the Soviet Order of Victory. However, I do suggest that the word canceled should be replaced with the word "revoked." Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:20, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The reason is quite simple: the VM is awarded for exceptional bravery. His Grand Cross should've been awarded to someone, who won a battle or a war by his excellent command. However, Brezhnev was close to noone during WWII and he simply did not deserve it. Halibutt 23:29, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

That was how Brezhnev lost his Order of Victory too. He was not a commanding officer during WWII, so he was not eligable to receive the order. I wonder what other medals and orders Brezhnev were stripped after his death. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:40, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

One more thing, here is a picture of Marshal Zhukov wearing the Grand Cross of the VM: http://www.ordenshop.ru/images/fotosov/jukov45.jpg. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:49, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

I believe most of the resources I could find are either Wikipedia mirrors, stuff we already have, or it is in Polish. Can someone help me sift through it? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 4 July 2005 21:16 (UTC)

I couldn't find much, but at least we have one printed references and several elinks - not much, but enough, I think. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 9 July 2005 17:32 (UTC)

I added some sources. Most of them I simply browsed through some year or so ago. There are more biographical dictionaries, but I can't say much about them. Sadly, I can't tell whether there are some decent English monographies. Halibutt 01:18, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

We can always add Polish links, but mark it as such. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:36, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestions

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• Thanks, Andy _t 21:51, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question

My father recently passed away and I am in the process of preparing a tombstone. He had the VM (5th class) and Cross of Valour with 3 bars from service in the Free Polish Airforce in WWII. Does anyone know whether it is appropriate, or even done, to place some sort of designation of these awards onhis tombstome? And, if so, what are the correct abbreviations if any. Thanks --Vumba 13:56, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure, but it seems like it would be appropriate.

It definitely is appropriate and, what's more, it's often seen at Polish cemeteries. At times people simply attach the natural-size VM to the tombstones, but one could also see large scale replicas included as part of the tombstone sculpture (see right for the tomb of Stanisław Skalski). Being a VM recipients is definitely something one should be proud of (not to mention triple KW). //Halibutt 10:15, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Invalid ISBNs

This FA is listed under "article with invalid ISBNs". Some of the main editors who contributed here should address that by providing the right ISBN. It seems to stick out being the last line of the article. Idleguy 04:29, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Fixed. One of the ISBNs was cancelled. Mentioned that, and added Library of Congress control number for that book. Balcer 04:46, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I've polished the citation information even further, since the article remained tagged as having an invalid ISBN. I'm hoping formating as it is now will avoid the BOTs flagging this with an invalid ISBN again, since I agree with Balcer that this ISBN has been cancelled. If the BOTs pick it up again and tag this article as having an invalid ISBN I suggest we simply exclude the ISBN all together. The LCCN and the OCLC are adequate for identifying the source. Keesiewonder 01:35, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

A more senior editor informs me that SmackBot will indeed pick up on the cancelled ISBN and reflag the article. I will next remove the reference to the ISBN entirely so this FA is free and clear of that error tag, and specifically contact Balcer on his/her talk page. Kind Regards, Keesiewonder 02:42, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

For safe keeping, and possibly now tagging of a bad ISBN on this talk page, the infamous and cancelled I.S.B.N.is.0934527009. Keesiewonder 02:54, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The idiot that is vandalising this article.

Now people are posting photos of hitler on it. Luna Santin has seemed to have lost. time to use the Hammer a la Banzors?

Is there anything that can be done to stop that idiot?

Norum 07.November. 2006

I'm Polish and I find these jokes hilarious, lots of new ones I haven't heard yet, especially the one about the Polish Hockey Team drowning during spring training. Though vandalism is bad, there's nothing that can be done now and this guy is pretty funny. I'll be watching for further updates and laugh alongside. -Reaper-

[edit] Protection Requested

Now its getting worse.

I've requested protected status for this article, just until the vandalism kick wears off a bit. --Kinu ^t/_c 06:46, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this is going a bit too far. I can understand someone is having fun, but there is such thing as the limit. And has crossed that line, especially with the pictures of Adolf Hitler.

Argh. Where is the Sprotect? --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 07:20, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Once this is over, can we make a bunch of empty edits or something, just to clear the edit history of this crap? --Doc Tropics ^{Message in a bottle} 07:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

This is just getting worse and worse... any time with that Sprotect, now... Rowsdower45 7:38, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Could we track down this vandal by his IP and get him charged with a hate crime? The pictures of Hitler and "Poles must be destroyed" comments going along with them fall squarely into this category. Balcer 07:46, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately (or fortunately) no... hate speech isn't necessarily hate crime. Plus, someone who is doing this isn't worth the time it would take to do anything more than a simple ban. Bigjake 08:13, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Sprotect granted - SpLoT / ^(talk) 07:51, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

HUZZAH! Protection!

Did the article just get deleted? - SpLoT / ^(talk) 07:52, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

AmiDaniel is "cleaning history", apparently. - SpLoT / ^(talk) 07:54, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I was gonna say, if that a$$hole found a way around the Sprotect, I'm quitting. Rowsdower45 7:57, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Good, it's all back to normal.....hopefully. Norum

Some of the vandalised versions are still in the history. Could they be removed as well? Balcer 08:12, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Sorry everyone, the vandal's editing from a fairly wide range (namely 172.0.0.1/8) and using multiple autoconfirmed sleeper accounts, so there's not much we can do except wear him down by blocking his sleeper accounts. The article's currently sprotected and will remain so for a short while. I'll probably need to remove some edits from the history sometime soon, so don't be suprised to see the article suddenly disappear again. Sorry about all this, and I'll do what I can. AmiDaniel (talk) 08:17, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Hey, howcome when I click on the link from the front page, it takes me to editing the article rather than viewing it?--293.xx.xxx.xx 08:50, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

User:AmiDaniel is working hard to keep the integrity of the article intact... there was some racist vandalism that needed to be removed, and what you saw was a momentary unavailability of the article while he fixed that. Cheers. -/- Warren 08:57, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

The link on the main page looks ok to me. Try again. I think you must have clicked the link when the history clean-up was going on. - Aksi_great (talk) 08:58, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

It's been semiprotected for almost two hours now. I'm going to unprotect it and see how it goes. —Angr 10:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Fine with me (today's FA really shouldn't have even been sprotected this long, but they were unique circumstances) -- he seems to have given up. Just please oh please, keep a close eye on it, as I'm off to bed :D. AmiDaniel (talk) 10:30, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Okay. It's on my watchlist, and where I am it's only 11:30 AM, so bed is still several hours off for me. —Angr 10:34, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Looks like you'd better protect it again 220.240.233.150 11:42, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] People's Republic of Poland

The paragraph is of low quality. Xx236 16:01, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

"sieg ****ing heil" is not the best beginning i've seen. It's been deleted now, but i put a {{vprotected}} on it to make sure it deesn't re-occur I hope it was the right thing to do TDN 20:25, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for wanting to help, but putting {{vprotect}} on doesn't actually protect the article. Only admins can protect articles, and it's common practice not to protect the day's Featured Article unless the vandalism is coming so thick and fast we can't keep on top of it. —Angr 21:29, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

A poor practice, imho. (sorry but could not resist commenting it here, seeing how many people waste time reverting, and only imagining how many people have seen the vandalised article already). The cost seems so obviously much higher than the disgrace of sprotecting the article. --Lysy^talk 22:23, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I know it's frustrating, but sprotecting the day's featured article would be really bad PR. Wikipedia's whole gimmick is that we're the encyclopedia anyone can edit -- and preventing editing by non-logged-in users on each day's single most visible article would completely undermine that. Wikipedia's critics would have a field day with what they would perceive to be hypocrisy on our part if we regularly protected the FA. —Angr 22:33, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I know, I just needed to air this. Thanks for taking time to explain this, anyway :-) --Lysy^talk 22:36, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Lysy. Few months ago I did an analysis of few featured main page articles, and 90% of edits were vandalism, 9% were minor changes. I really wonder if the 'publicity' argument is worth so much wasted time in terms of good editors having to revert and police the article, and edit history being warped by hundreds of v/rv. Yeah, I know Raul has a subpage about it, but I had to air this, too :) -- _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk}  22:57, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Correct name?

I propose moving this article to Order of Virtuti Militari as it seems that is the correct English name for this order. Before I submit a "requested move" I'd like to know if there's any controversy as to what the correct name is. Seeing as the article is a FA this would be a significant change. JRWalko 19:03, 5 August 2007 (UTC)