The idea of establishing this order to award the highest command staff arose in the Soviet leadership in the summer of 1943. Initially, it was supposed to be called "For fidelity to the Motherland". To work on the project of the Order were involved prominent Soviet artists-medalliers. For example, the design sketch of the artist N. Neyelov looked as follows: the central round medallion depicted profiles of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin turned to the right, and in the lower part - the inscription "For fidelity to the Motherland".
The artist A.I. Kuznetsov, the author of the drawing of the Order of the Patriotic War, was also invited. He received the task to create a special order - for the award to the Soviet commanders for the large-scale successful combat operations, so the external design of the order should have differed from the previously established awards, it was assumed in his design to use precious stones.
In the course of work on the sketch of the order appeared its new name - "Victory". The establishment of the Order coincided with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution - November 8, 1943. The war was still going on, the enemy was still very strong, but the most difficult trials were considered passed, and no one doubted the victory over fascism. By this time Hitler's troops had suffered a crushing blow: the defeat near Moscow, the surrounding and destruction of the Stalingrad group, the defeat of enemy hordes on the Kursk Bulge, the forcing of the Dnieper River and the liberation of Kiev - all this is evidence not only of increased fighting skills, courage and bravery of Soviet soldiers and officers, but also of the high military art of the highest command of the Soviet Armed Forces.
All design drawings of the Order (as well as trial samples) basically depicted a red star decorated with diamonds. On different sketches of A.I. Kuznetsov in the central round medallion varied the same images: the State Emblem of the USSR, a sickle and hammer, the unfolded red banner and the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower. The final version of the Order of Victory was chosen by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on November 5, 1943; and on November 8, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Order itself, its statute and the description of the sign were established. The statute says: "The Order of Victory, as the highest military order, is awarded to the highest commanders of the Red Army for the successful conduct of such combat operations, on the scale of several or one fronts, as a result of which the situation radically changes in favor of the Red Army.
The Order represented a large convex five-pointed ruby star, richly set with diamonds. The total weight of precious diamonds in the order was to be 16 carats.
The basis of the Order of Victory, the size of which was equal to 72 millimeters between the ends of the opposite rays, was made of platinum. In the central round medallion were placed gold leaves (oak and laurel), framing the walls and towers of the Kremlin, and under them - the Mausoleum of Lenin. In the lower part of the circle on the red enamel ribbon there was an inscription "Victory", in the upper part of the medallion with letters of white enamel there was an inscription "USSR". On the reverse side of the order was made a device for attaching it to clothes.
The first awarding of the Order "Victory" took place in 1944 - five months after its establishment. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR the merits of two military commanders - Marshals of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov and Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky - were noted.
In early 1944, Marshal Zhukov took command of the First Ukrainian Front, and soon the Southern flank of Hitler's armies was dealt a crushing blow. As a result of a successful offensive in March, the front troops had already moved 350 kilometers forward by early April, defeating a large group of enemy troops and freeing 57 cities and hundreds of settlements.
During the Great Patriotic War 19 awards were made with the Order of Victory. They were twice awarded to Generalissimo I.V. Stalin, Marshals G.K. Zhukov, and A.M. Vasilevsky. One order each - for skillful leadership of the troops - Marshals I.S. Konev, K.K. Rokossovsky, F.I. Tolbukhin, L.A. Govorov, and S.K. Timoshenko, as well as Army General A.I. Antonov. Marshal Meretskov was awarded the Order of Victory for his distinction in the war with Japan.
The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated August 18, 1944, approved the sample and description of the ribbon of the Order of Victory, and also determined the order of wearing the bar with the ribbon of the Order of Victory. The width of the silk moire ribbon was 46 millimeters. In the middle of the ribbon there was a red stripe 15 millimeters wide, on both sides of it (closer to the edges of the ribbon) there were green, blue, light blue and burgundy stripes, the ribbon was bordered with orange and black stripes. The size of the bar on which the ribbon of the Order of Victory is attached is 46 x 8 millimeters.
The highest Soviet military order was awarded to five foreign military leaders for their contribution to the overall victory over fascism. These were Marshal Joseph Broz Tito - Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, Marshal M. Roll-Zimerinsky - Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army, French General B. Montgomery - commander of the Army Group in Western Europe, Mihai I - former King of Romania (at the final stage of the war, the Romanian troops took part in hostilities on the side of the allies).
In June 1945, in the German city of Frankfurt am Main, G.K. Zhukov presented the sparkling Order of Victory to the American Army General D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Western Europe. "I am amazed by such a great award of the Soviet government, - said D. Eisenhower - and I am honored to receive such an order from the hands of Marshal Zhukov.
After the Second World War, D. Eisenhower became a politician, and he was asked to become president, but ... "the candidate for election in 1952 was not to have the award of the communist state. And the Order of Victory was handed over to the D. Eisenhower Museum in Abilene. In this regard, it is a very curious testimony of one of the adjudicators of the American general: "The Order of Victory" was estimated at $ 100,000. Eisenhower carefully counted the diamonds, took into account their size ... But what about rubies?
Then they appealed to the experts, but they could not name their exact value, because they could not understand - the real or synthetic rubies are strengthened on the order. Nobody managed to make a final decision, because nobody in the U.S. has ever seen genuine rubies of this size.