Hungary Kiv?l? ?j?t? Kit?ntető Jelv?ny

[Gordon Craig]

Kiv?l? ?j?t? Kit?ntető Jelv?ny

?The Ministers Council foundation decree number 38/1974(X.30)MT.

The Minister of this organ is the competent authority in a nation wide sphere of authority for the President of the Bureau of Inventions. The National Council of Co-operative Trade Unions is a partner in the awarding of this decoration. The awarding of this decoration is made to recognize significant innovation or systematic innovation of the activity/work/function. The award is presented by the concerned enterprise. The leadership of the Co-operative Trade Union proposes candidates for the award. There is a monetary reward with this award. The award is made in Gold, Silver and Bronze degrees.? (The amount of the monetary reward was not specified in my reference material)

I apologize for the poor translation but it is a little difficult to understand. Perhaps someone else on the forum can add something to what I will be saying here. The above seems to indicate that the award is available on a nation wide basis to all government ministries on behalf of the Bureau of Inventions. I believe there is substantiation for this statement in two badges I found in the same case.

Last week, while brows through a pile of ?junk? in a militaria store here in Budapest I came across a small, red cardboard case which contained the above mentioned Kiv?l? plus another small SzOT badge which neither Charles or I had seen before. The SzOT badge was also marked as a Kiv?l? ?j?t? hence my statement that more than one organization could issue this type of award. I would assume that SzOT would have issued a larger sized badge with this miniature.

First, a picture of the cased Gold award that I found in the store.

[Gordon Craig]

A close-up view of the award.

[Gordon Craig]

The reverse of the award.

[Gordon Craig]

The award document issued by the "Koh?- ?s G?pipai Miniszterium" (Ministry of Founderies and Engineers)

[Gordon Craig]

The Gold, Silver and Bronze awards with their miniature. It would appear that the miniature was not always awarded with the full size medal. This is not unusual in Hungarian awards.

[Gordon Craig]

Here is a picture of the miniature SzOT award.

[Gordon Craig]

And the reverse.

[Gordon Craig]

The last picture is of a cased set of the first badge I posted in the late issue plastic cases. I have "borrowed" this photo from Zsolt's store.

Regards,

Gordon

[hunyadi]

I wonder also if this particualr badge was awarded to a foreigner? Family name is certainly not Hungarian, but there have been long standing historical ties with Poland.

[Ulsterman]

Very interesting. i have been eyeing the one on eBay for a while.

Any chance you can find the chap on the award certificate?

Is he in the Budapest phonebook?

I'd love to know how one got these awards.

[Gordon Craig]

Ulsterman,

They were awarded for being "innovative" hence the name. The reason for the award of this medal is in the text of the first post. If you were eyeing the one in Zsolt's store I think you may have waited too long. I didn't find it there when I went looking earlier today. Perhaps I missed it though!

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Ulsterman,

Phonebook? Phonebook? What's a phone book? I spent the last 25 years of my working life living and working in Communist countries and I never, ever saw a phonebook. Haven't seen one since I arrived in Budapest either. Since everyone uses a mobile phone in Hungary it would be really difficult to put together a phonebook.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Ulsterman]

Ulsterman,

Phonebook? Phonebook? What's a phone book? I spent the last 25 years of my working life living and working in Communist countries and I never, ever saw a phonebook. Haven't seen one since I arrived in Budapest either. Since everyone uses a mobile phone in Hungary it would be really difficult to put together a phonebook.

Cheers,

Gordon

What? Not even a yellowpages?

Do I smell business opportunity here?

[hunyadi]

I have a yellow pages for my district that used to come out. The last time I saw one was about three years ago. It was a private affair and even came with a map. But I think the company went under. Its a cultural thing - the communists didnt wnat phonebooks as they figured that people could use it to network against the government. Same reason that shoping malls were outlawed as well - didnt want people gathering in one place at one time when the old woman started complaining that the bread had run out. Even with the change of political ideals, a phonebook doesnt seem a necessity, "didnt have one before, why need one now?". Plus everyone went over to cell phones as MATAV the Hungarian telephone company held the monopoly over the lines. T-Com moved in and said 'fine you charge them this much, I will charge them less and my customers can call from anywhere' captialism at its best...Should have won T-Com an Innovator Medal

Edited November 22, 2007 by hunyadi

[Gordon Craig]

Charles,

Good repsonse. Keep them dumb and separate. They did the same thing with maps. I once showed a street map to a woman in Moscow to ask directions and she was totally lost. She had never seen a street map before. People who never lived in a communist environment have no idea how controlled things were.

Regards,

Gordon