Single page 8" x 6", front and verso. The pass is issued by the Military Prosecutor of the 18th Army with directive for Lt. Col. Kalashnik to depart to Malaya Zemlya to fulfil the special task he was charged with by the Prosecutor. The pass bears the seal of the Office of the Military Prosecutor of the Army. As evidenced by the sealed entry on the verso, Kalashnik arrived at Malaya Zemlya on the same day, and went back two days later, on 15 September.

In very good condition. The creases at the corners and the missing (burned off) piece at the lower right-hand corner do not reach any of the document's components. The separations to the top and bottom of the vertical fold line can be easily repaired with tape as those areas are blank on the verso. The typed text, seals, and handwritten lettering are perfectly legible.

Malaya Zemlya was a small area uphill from the shore of Tsemes Bay near Novorossiysk which was recaptured on 4 February 1943 by about 800 Soviet Naval Infantry troops during the Battle of the Caucasus. The marines held the beachhead for 225 days, until Novorossiysk was liberated on 16 September 1943.

As important and heroic as this episode was, it was blown out of all proportion when Leonid Brezhnev, who was then a colonel and a senior political officer with the 18th Army, decided in late 1970s to immortalize himself as a major driving force in that war, and ordered to write a book of memoirs. Sycophancy did the rest. Malaya Zemlya was turned into one of the most important battles of the entire war. In Brezhnev's defense, he did visit the place a few times during the 225 days. As a political officer, whose role was to raise morale and hand out commendations.

Wouldn't we like to find out though what that "special task" of the Military Prosecutor was? Three days before the battle was over?

Please note that the pen in our photo is for size reference.