Hungary Hungarian Awards to Soviet Friends

[hunyadi]

OK - I have been fortunate enough to get Soviet awards to Hungarians, and I have always been looking for the very elusive documents for the Rakosi era - esp. the more higher awards.

So - when my 'dealer' got a lead on some 'sorry but they are to Russians' documents of the early HUPR era... how could I resist...

First up is a Gold Class Order of Merit of the Hungarian Peoples Republic: Awarded Sept 9th 1952. Basicaly the document says its for 'our hungrain soviet friends' good work etc...

Of particualr interest is the actual signature of Istvan Dobi the chairman of the Presidents council during the early years of the HUPR as well as being the Prime Minister for several years...

[hunyadi]

Nice that it also came with the carrying document

[hunyadi]

Up next is an interesting one - Order of Merit of Hungarian Peoples Republic 5th Class - to a Soviet Captain for his part in the liberation of Hungary. This was awarded on April 4th, 1950 (Liberation Day of Hungary - five years on)

Key to notice here is the crest in the center of the document. It was printed with blue dye as this was intended for miltiary recipients. All of these formal documents are larger than A4.

Also with a carrying document

[hunyadi]

And lastly - the cream of the crop - a 4th Class of the Order of Merit of the HUPR.

Again this was awarded to a 'Hungarian Soviet friend' of interest is the award date of May 1st, 1950. Workers Day...

This is a civil document - so the ink is back to its normal color for the crest. Also if you notcie the autograph of Dobi is a stamp 'autopen' form.

[hunyadi]

carrying document:

If the number of the award is correct (645) - this means that after May 1st 1950 only 100 more were ever awarded (total between 1949 October 24 to 1953 April 4th was only 745)

Edited February 26, 2008 by hunyadi

[Guest Rick Research]

Oho! Is there anything on the back which would indicate that these were never delivered to their intended recipients?

Many years back, a HUGE pile of Friendly Socialist (and even WW2 U.S.) award paperwork for intended Soviet recipients came out...

the ones I plucked out for those foreign awards intended for Soviets have pencilled notations on back showing that they were never presented to their intended recipients.

I'm wondering if such complete documentation from (?) inside Hungary indicates these never reached the Soviet Union?

[hunyadi]

The backs of all these are plain - no notations. From my information these three came from an advanced collector who had collected them from the recipients (probably military and industrial advisors during the time)