BalkanCollector

Petar Matić died yesterday at the age of 104. His death marks the end of an era when heroes weren't chosen through nationalistic chauvinist bias. May the heroes rest in peace!

Never stopped, never will!

Spomen-značka za učešće na dobrovoljnim omladinskim radnim akcijama 1946-1952 (Remembrance Badge for Participation in the Voluntary Labour Actions 1946-1952) One could earn this one for participation in multiple labour actions. I've seen a few documented examples for participation in 4 and 5 labour actions.

Labour Action B. Potok 67 (Bubanj Potok, Serbia)

Plaketa Ivica Habunek - OK SSOH Zagreb - Medveščak Plaque Ivica Habunek - District committee of the Association of the Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia, Zagreb - Medveščak.

Badge for Highway Brotherhood and Unity Zagreb - Belgrade 1949 (Autoput bratstvo i jedinstvo Zagreb - Beograd 1949). This badge is very interesting since it has characteristics of early Yugoslav orders. For example, it's as large as Order for Merits for The People, it has a screw instead of a pin like other labour badges at the time. I think this one was awarded as a decoration for special merits rather than a participant's badge.

Here's a recent addition. Labour Action Belgrade 86 (ORA Beograd 86). This one is almost twice as large as other badges which are mostly a few centimeters wide.

Here's a plaque I posted in another topic.

I haven't been much active in posting new stuff but I'm collecting labour action items more than ever. Here's something that isn't a badge but it's related to labour actions. A plaque of the Festival of the Highway Builders 1959 (Festival graditelja autoputa 1959). The festival was held in Niš, Serbia. My grandpa was one of the delegates from his labour brigade at the festival and he recited some poems. The last photo shows him at the age of 20 (standing 5th from left) among other delegates, their brigade commander Krsto Popivoda (standing 2nd from left), who was a People's Hero and a Hero of the Socialist Labour of Yugoslavia, and famous Yugoslav actor Ljuba Tadić (standing 3rd from left).

A bit off-topic but I've never heard of someone who collects medals selling their ancestor's medals.

WOW! Incredible collection. I love the box variations.

Is there any way you can get more detailed photos of this decree? Especially the part I marked because it may hide some information. It's impossible to read it with this resolution.

Amazing photos! Thank you AndresT and steveBobby for sharing!

I can see why. GMIC was the first forum that popped up when I googled some stuff related to Yugoslav militaria back when I was just starting to collect. Naturally, the next move was to join it so here we are almost 8 years later.

The focus shifted from forums to sites like facebook, instagram and so on. In my opinion, forums are the best way to share info and find what you need because they can be organized extremely well. Other sites like instagram or tiktok mostly serve to see who can collect more likes which is just a show off competition if you ask me. Plus, I often see pointless discussions there with lots of false information. Sometimes those discussions even lead to fighting in the comments. I've never seen stuff like that on the forums, at least not those I regularly visit like GMIC.

This forum has sadly been mostly dead for years now when it comes to Yugoslav stuff.

It's a shame an order was broken into pieces but at the same time it's interesting to see how the pieces itself were attached.

Thank you for the additional info!

It has been an awful lot of time since the last reply to this topic but here's something I recently added to my collection. Plaque for 35th anniversary of formation of the 15th Vojvodina Brigade "Šandor Petefi" (Sándor Petőfi), named after a Hungarian revolutionary. This brigade was formed mostly out of Hungarian from Yugoslavia who joined the Yugoslav Partisans.

Thank you for your opinions!

I need opinions on this piece. Is it authentic or not?

Extraordinary page! Thank you very much for sharing!

Thank you for the info!

That's an amazing addition! Is there any info on how much orders of this type were issued?

I've seen his Czechoslovak Order for Freedom being offered by a couple of different accounts on facebook which is highly suspicious, most likely a scam. You said you got his OVZ 1st class so there are probably quite a few different owners of Jovanović's awards. Good luck!