hunyadi

OK - its generic....

Thats not just generic! Thats the Holy Hungarian Crown with the Hungarian Coat of Arms of all the Houses of the Hungarian Kings held by the angelic heavenly host! In addtion One should notice how the crown and the shield shines for all the glory of the allied brotherhood! Mere generic pshhhawww!

In reality - yes its a cap badge. Can you post what is written on it? I cant make it out from the phots...

The female uniforms look like they are out of a 60's James Bond movie Some things are best left in the past...

OH - there is a uniform...my mistake

"They spend about $4 million on new designs and Putin wasn't pleased at all."

I dont know - whats not to like?

"SAZABAD NEP" (Free People)

Interesting to see the events as they were known in 1976. Heck I was...well...young then. Interesting to see they mention 'home front' activites. The group by 1956/57 was pretty thin by that time. As your paraphrase states, 'More Soviet Citizens recieved it': this is becasue it was a certain prison sentence to return to Hungary as the Communist Party was illegal under Horthy and these volunteers were the die hards. (As a side note - the Rakosi Battalion as they were known was named so after Matyas Rakosi who had been condemned to death, but international pressure had reduced it to life in prison, so to bring more attention to his case, they named the Battalion after him - tragic as we will see later) So after the SCW, many escaped to the last bastion of communism, Stalins Russia. Many married Russian women, became members of the Soviet State Security, etc and as a result became Soviet citizens. Even Matyas Rakosi when he became the deputy prime minister in 1946 was a Soviet citizen, not Hungarian. (He was traded for captured Hungarian battle flags in 1940 from the Soviet Union - how the world might have been differnet had he been executed...Laszlo Rajk would have probably held the power instead) Rajk along with the others in the SCW were more 'pure' in their Lennin and Marx than Rakosi ever was, in the realm of political debate, Rakosi by 1948 / 49 had more contradictions in policies and idiology than one could count. As such the 'home grown' communists posed a threat to his power and his status, additionaly the SCW veterans knew how to organise and had seen actual combat - so he did what any other self respecting communist dictator would do - he executed them. Rajk was not shot however - he was hung by one executioner and then his neck was broken by another. His death took about 5 minutes, all the while his wife was forced to listen to his death in a cell just above the gallows. (In 1949 when Rajk and his wife were arrested, so too was their 4 month old boy. The State Security officers took him to an orphanage, gave him a russian sounding name. Even though Rajks sister-in- law was only one blakc away. It was the first time in Hungarian history where an infant was arrested) Kadar - one of the few who would not get arrested and tortured to confess till 1951 (he was a home grown communist who served Rakosi, but still had his pure intentions) fainted during the execution - of course he would go on to run the HUPR from 1957 until 1988.

Gero was typical of the 174 who got the medal - who had managed to survive - he was such a die hard Rakosi supporter, being one of three in the "Defense Council" formed in 1950, which was illegal and held in secret from the government. It consited of Gero (in charge of economic development) Farkas (miltiary) and Rakosi (party dictator) - Gero and Farkas knew how easily it was to be replaced - so they complied. From 1950 to 1953 the Defense Council controlled the nation...

By 1956 - so many were simply gone, lost party membership or dared to not even apply as in the past it had made one a 'target'. Similar actions had happened with the Hungarian Partisans Association. "Oh comrade, you know how to fight and were fighting against facsism? tell me what you think of comrade Rakosi?"

Before there were nice diamond shaped badges...there was the Kossuth Academy... this was the badge worn 20cm from the shoulder seam on the left arm. It was worn only by the cadets and the staff. There was no regulations regarding the formation of a badge to wear that you actualy graduated from the main academy in 1948. The badge was founded on April 10th 1948 and was used until 1949. A very rare item...

This is very common occurance on the enamel of items from the late 1940's and 1950's. Its almost like the 'patina' from the base leeches out and onto the enamel. Though purists cringe, it can be cleaned with a pencil eraser. (I like to use the artists eraser as its pliable and gets into the deep recesses.) But like silver patina - it does come back

Very nice to see the serial number on the document and the badge to match

But he was not alone in his heroic efforts...his wife was also bestowed with the Szakma Kivalo Dolgozo badge for working in a textile mill as a skilled laborer.

A year later, the valaint worker was bestowed with a very nice Kivalo Dolgozo

Not only did he deserve the badge in 1951, but again in 1953. Being a wise worker, he stuffed the document in the back of the same book...

But that was 1953...lets see what he was doing beofre that...On December 1st, 1951 Domian had increased his individual production by 300% and was awarded for his efforts...

Got this grouping the other day and want to share it. In February of 1950 the first gathering of the Sztahanovisztas occured. Badges were handed out and they all celebrated their work for the three year program 1947-1949. The Workers Party called the three year plan a sucsess after only two and a half years. In 1950 the new five year plan was launched with expectaitons of 300% or more in production. To fill the deficincies of regular production, the Party envisioned even more 'voluntary labor' to fill the quotas. So from 1950-1953 there was a massive dive to become Sztahanovites. The Doman family answered the call - Ferenc worked within the Light Industry and was rewarded for his efforts...he worked in a shoe factory...

reverse of the badge

Here is a fairly common award with the Kadar Crest, but not seen too often with the Rakosi crest. This is "State Agricultural Excelent Worker" (i.e. collective farm) badge. I like to call these the 'sunshine on a stick' badges as the badge has the representation of a sun with the shafts of wheat growing into a wreath around the national crest. Its actually quite a heavy badge.

It is a stunning piece - no where compares to the 'sunshine on a stick' badge that I got... Though I wont forget that you wanted to turn it down at first glance...

Would he lend it to you foe web publication? We would love to see these pieces.

If you knew him - that would be a laugh. He is one of those guys who makes it all about money...he trusts no one, money is the only talker...

The Labor Merit Medal was the lowest grade of the "Order of Labor" series. It was sort of above the Kivalo Dolgozo series but below the Order of Labor. As the "Kivalo" series was more specific (and arbitrary at times) for labor production, the Labor Merit Medal was for 'advances' and 'merits' in the Hungarian agricultural, indistrial, and even governmental economies. Certainly a two time winner of the 'Stahanoviszta' title would help to get you recognition for such an award, but not necessarily.

As for bieng 'rare' or 'scarce'; yes - these are very difficult to obtain. Though the Labor Merit Medal held no monetary award and as a result held no yearly maximum quota, not many are available on todays market. When they do come up for sale, large wads of cash are exchanged for one. Aside from an auction two years ago, this is only the second one I have held. Naturaly in its scarcity, Gordon and I were ready to arm wrestle for it.

To add more desire and angst at not bieng able to buy it, our dealer 'French' (he cant remember to say 'my beautiful friend - he says 'my beautfiul French' ) infomred me that it also came with an Order Of Merit of the HUPR Vth class, complete with boxes and documents to the same individual.... I even threw my wallet at him and he wouldnt budge....

This is not the Order of Labor in Bornze, but rather the lowest form - the Labor Merit Medal of 1950

Also - got lost on the shooting badge the pin back type with the serial number is the early type from 1957 to early 1960's (1962-63???) After this they went with the screwback design.

Currently I dont have a photo of the fulls size document, but it followed the standard A3 type of document in a folder.

Oh - ooooooooohhhhhhhhh..... it just dawned on me that my early type Munkasor comabt jacket (date 1961) with the 'odd loops' on the left breast pocket...was probably where that badge went...

Szia Peter - It is very interesting that you grandfather was awarded the WW1 Merit Medal. Was his father killed during WW1? I have never heard of these awards being awarded for this to the sons. I also see that he was given the non-combat award. Very nice display. You are very lucky to have such items from that period. I taught for many years at the Bolyai Janosz Katonai Foiskola and may cadets did not know what their grandfathers or great-grandfathers did during the war.

UDV!

Karolyi

Never owned of Porsche.... but I do own a Lada...one of the best cars I ever had BTW!

Have constantly thought about it, but what was the meaning of putting the central image of a dam in the Order of the Red Banner of Labor? Was there a historical link to the time it was issued?

Well - Heves is a town as well as a county in Hungary. This is not a long service medal either. It may be a competitions medal of some sorts? Really dont know. Though period to the 1930's, I dont think the ribbon would go with this as the ribbon is for a Fire Cross or the WW1 Commemorative Medal. All of the firemans medals that I have seen generaly used a tri color ribbon of equal parts (red, white, green), solid red, solid orange, etc...