Carol I

I wish they were mine, but unfortunately they are in the top drawer of the chest of orders of King Oscar II of Sweden. I took the photo a couple of years ago when I was visiting the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Here is an image of a Grand Cross of St. Stephen (centre bottom) along other orders to have an idea about relative size.

Kevin, your medal appears to have a porous appearance as if it was cast. Is it really so or is a photo artefact?

As mentioned in another post, there was an initiative to manufacure replacements for the awards lost or confiscated from war veterans. I guess yours could be one of those.

Igor, I think it would be hard to pinpoint the period of these awards as they have been used with the same design throughout their whole existences. The medal above is one of the oldest Romanian decorations. It existed with that design since 1870 if I remember correctly. Following the introduction of the "cross", it came to be known as "The Peacetime Military Virtue Medal". The "cross" was established in 1880 to reward outstanding bravery acts during the war, hence its name "The Wartime Military Virtue Medal". Since WWI it was the highest bravery award for lower ranks. It used the same design during its whole existence.

This is an interesting combination, Christer. The medal is "The 30th anniversary of the liberation from the fascist domination", i.e., the 30th anniversary of 23 August 1944. On the booklet however it is written "The 30th anniversary of the day of the armed forces", i.e., 25 October 1944. I wonder how it came to this.

Today is the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Mărăşeşti, one of the major battles on the Romanian front of WWI that thwarted the attempts of the Central Powers to defeat the reorganized Romanian Army in the summer of 1917. No less than 50 Orders of Michael the Brave were awarded for bravery acts during this battle. The other two major battles took place at Mărăşti and Oituz. The event was marked by a ceremony at the Mărăşeşti Mausoleum. Photos from the event can be found on the page of the Romanian Presidency.

Most likely the names were Zaharia Alecu and Popa Alexandru.

Does anyone know whether the red sash on his right (with a lozenge-shaped gold badge) is that of an order?

A mourning photo of Patriarch Teoctist with the Grand Cross insignia of the Order of the Star of Romania and the Grand Officer insignia of the Greek Order of the Orthodox Crusaders of Jerusalem (from the site of the Romanian Patriarchy)

The President of Romania has awarded today the Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania to the late Patriarch Teoctist "as a sign of recognition for the way in which Patriarch Teoctist has dedicated his whole life to the devoted service of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the national unity and the ideal of rapprochement through dialogue of all Christian Churches". Until now, the collar had only been awarded to heads of states.

Order for Civil Merit, republican issue (1946/7-1950) (See Bulgarian Order of Military Merit, Different Obverse)

Coming back to the original topic of this thread, here is another model of fakes.

Did it have a propeller blade next to the headstone?

He was 26 at the onset of WWI, so he had plenty of time to wear it.

He could have been a railroad employee.

Manufacturer's creativity in action...

Can anyone identify the neck decoration of Gen. Dragalina? It does not look Romanian.

Anytime, Kevin.

Romanian orders changed ribbons well before WWII, so the manufacturers should have had enough time to update their stock. As far as I remember, none of the ribbon bars seen used old-style ribbons, so I would rather think that the result was mainly caused by the "creativity" of the manufacturers, not their stock. I wonder why the Romanian ribbons have swords on them...

One the "nice" realities of communism: deleting history (remember "1984"? ). The removed words were Maiestatea Sa Regele (His Majesty the King). This is a fragment of Gen. Dragalina's order to the troops before heading to the frontline on the 11th of October 1916 (one day before being wounded). It reads (the deleted words in red): "Ofiţeri şi soldaţi ai Armatei I-a rom?ne, din acest moment am luat comanda armatei şi cer imperios la toţi, de la general la soldat: ?n primul r?nd .... apărarea cu viaţa a sf?ntului pam?nt al ţării noastre, apărarea vetrei strămoşesti, a ogorului şi a cinstei numelui de rom?n. Cer la toţi cea mai deplină ascultare şi cea mai strictă executare a ordinelor... Trupa care nu ?naintează, sa moară pe loc... Dumnezeu, Maiestatea Sa Regele şi Ţara vor răsplati pe viteji, iar numele lor va trăi pe vecii vecilor ?n istoria neamului. Cu Dumnezeu ?nainte! Victoria e a noastră!"

Here is his face. General Ioan Dragalina is one of the famous Romanian generals of WWI. Born in 1860 in Caransebeş, at that time in the Austrian Empire, he studied towards becoming an officer of the Austrian Army. However, following his convictions and ideals in 1887 he resigned from the Austrian Army, moved to Romania and joined the Romanian Army. He was considered one of the most talented Romanian generals at the onset of WWI. Only two days after he was appointed commander of the 1st Army he went to the frontline to inspect the troops and was wounded in the arm. The wound got infected and in spite of being operated, he died two weeks later. It is said that while in hospital he followed actively the operations of his troops engaged in a successful counteroffensive against the 11th Bavarian Division of General Paul von Kneussl. I guess the bas-reliefs on the monument represent him inspecting the frontline and following the operations while wounded in hospital. During WWII, his son Corneliu commanded the 6th Army Corps in Crimea and at Stalingrad.

There are very few Russian Orthodox churches in Romania as they belong to the minute Russian minority. Most of the churches are Romanian Orthodox, as is the majority of the population (about 85%). Of the remainder, the two most important ones are Roman Catholic and Protestant (4-5% each), the rest being divided between many other denominations. There is some information on Wikipedia about religion in Romania, but I think Kevin gave you a nice summary of the situation. I may suggest to start with the site of the National Tourist Office.

Translation: "This monument was raised during the rule of our glorious King of Greater Romania, Ferdinand I and His August Wife, Queen Maria. The prefect of the Timiş-Torontal county, Dr. Anton Bogdan, by the initiative of the "Choral Society The Ploughman" of Sustra, led by George Ardelean, teacher and chorus leader and Costa Ştefănel, chairman. 1927"

Laurens, as mentioned above, the Military Virtue ribbon for the Romanian orders indicates direct contact with the enemy and therefore a homefront activity would have qualified the recipient only for the war ribbon, not the full bravery ribbon. Of course, this does not exclude the use of the wrong ribbon on the bar. P.S. I cannot comment on the other ribbons/awards on the bar.