• LanyrdSkynrd [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    27·
    12 days ago

    Anyone know of an actual source for this fact? Wikipedia removed it, and the only other references are sketchy websites that seem to have picked it up from wikipedia and reddit threads with no sourcing. Seems like it should be something easily verifiable.

    • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      22·
      11 days ago

      From what I can it’s almost certainly not true. There’s no one central database for Order of Lenin recipients (there were thousands given out throughout the years, scattered about the archives of the Soviet Union), but seems like most of the Western businessmen getting Orders of Lenin were from the 20s when they heavily contributed to technological develop of the newly created state during the NEP. Given that Boiardi would’ve gotten the award during/after WWII, when there’s not really any records of the USSR giving out Orders of Lenin to Western businessmen at that time, I’m pretty confident that this is not real. All that said, Boiardi did contribute heavily to the allied war effort, and many of his factories worked round the clock to produce rations for the USSR during lend/lease starting in 1942, and that is well attested.