Czechoslovakia Czechoslovokian People's Militia tunic

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

I know, I know... this is all I need. To start into yet another area of collecting within our hobby. But this is Soviet bloc so hey... why not. And it was just too good a deal to pass up.

Tunic:

Label:

Pictures are the sellers (leisurestreasuresllc) and used with his kind permission.

As stated in the title it's a Czechoslovokian People's Militia ((in Czech Lidov? milice, in Slovak Ľudov? mil?cie... hence the LM on the shoulder patch) tunic. The seller was not sure and had listed it as a 1970's Czech military tunic. Here's his description:

"I am not positive what this is, but I don't think that it is army. Generally the Czechs have alittle bit more Esprit de Corps than what this tunic exhibits. It might be for some sort of paramilitary organization. IT is cirtian that it has alot of spagetti on it. I'm not in love with it by any means, so I'm passing it along."

I did a bit of research after finding it (on Ebay by the way) and discovered the following sites:

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/P...Czechoslovakia)

http://armada.vojenstvi.cz/povalecna/studie/7.htm

Needless to say if anyone has any further information on either the organization, their uniforms, badges, insignia, awards, etc., I'd be deeply grateful if you'd be willing to pass them along here for everyone's benefit.

I'll post closer pics/scans of the badges, ribbons and insignia once I have it in hand... hopefully early this coming week.

Dan :cheers:

[Gordon Craig]

Dan,

Down the slippery slope you go! Nothing wrong with collecting in a new area. Keeps the brain working with the research. I've seen a few of these LM tunics for sale but passed as I have simply run out of room. Just a couple of comments.

1-I get the impression that you did not pay a lot for this tunic which is probably good;

2-the tunic comes with lots of badges and a large ribbon bar and those will be fun to research but I doubt that they were origninal to the tunic. I would think that someone who acquired that many medals/badges would have to have been around long enough to have a fairly high rank in the organization and I do not see any indication of rank on this tunic. Hopefully, some knowledgable member of the forum can make more useful comments than mine, which are meant to be constructive, and not meant in a negative vien.

Regards,

Gordon

[seb16trs]

Dan,

Down the slippery slope you go! Nothing wrong with collecting in a new area. Keeps the brain working with the research. I've seen a few of these LM tunics for sale but passed as I have simply run out of room. Just a couple of comments.

1-I get the impression that you did not pay a lot for this tunic which is probably good;

2-the tunic comes with lots of badges and a large ribbon bar and those will be fun to research but I doubt that they were origninal to the tunic. I would think that someone who acquired that many medals/badges would have to have been around long enough to have a fairly high rank in the organization and I do not see any indication of rank on this tunic. Hopefully, some knowledgable member of the forum can make more useful comments than mine, which are meant to be constructive, and not meant in a negative vien.

Regards,

Gordon

hello, I believe too this is a great idea. But you must choose between a service jacket (with ribons bar and a few insignias) or parade one (full medals).

I believe there're too many insignias and the ribon bar is too big for a simple soldier; the good point is to find some doc'.

I see a proficiency badge for army, a distinguiehed soldier badge, a big LM badge... I'm not sure this jacket deserves all of them. But this is a very good start! Those jackets are not easy to find...

[Ulsterman]

Whoa Nellie!

Nice tunic. If you get it, may we see a close up of the ribbon bars please?

and the badges of course.

Ta-

[Hauptmann]

Dan,

Down the slippery slope you go! Nothing wrong with collecting in a new area. Keeps the brain working with the research. I've seen a few of these LM tunics for sale but passed as I have simply run out of room. Just a couple of comments.

1-I get the impression that you did not pay a lot for this tunic which is probably good;

2-the tunic comes with lots of badges and a large ribbon bar and those will be fun to research but I doubt that they were origninal to the tunic. I would think that someone who acquired that many medals/badges would have to have been around long enough to have a fairly high rank in the organization and I do not see any indication of rank on this tunic. Hopefully, some knowledgable member of the forum can make more useful comments than mine, which are meant to be constructive, and not meant in a negative vien.

Regards,

Gordon

Hi Gordon,

Many thanks for the input. I totally agree re: all the gewgaws and no rank. Kind of hoping there will be a sign of rank insignia that's been removed or something. But figure for what I paid the badges and ribbon bar by themselves have to be worth more. But once I have it in hand and can do additional pics/scans I'm hoping we'll be able to learn something more.

Thanks!

Dan

[Hauptmann]

hello, I believe too this is a great idea. But you must choose between a service jacket (with ribons bar and a few insignias) or parade one (full medals).

I believe there're too many insignias and the ribon bar is too big for a simple soldier; the good point is to find some doc'.

I see a proficiency badge for army, a distinguiehed soldier badge, a big LM badge... I'm not sure this jacket deserves all of them. But this is a very good start! Those jackets are not easy to find...

Many thanks for the additional info. Hoping you and some of the other members will be able to tell me what's what re: the badges and ribbons once I have it in hand and do better pics/scans. I'm totally clueless in this area... so any help is deeply appreciated.

Dan :cheers:

[Hauptmann]

Whoa Nellie!

Nice tunic. If you get it, may we see a close up of the ribbon bars please?

and the badges of course.

Ta-

Yupperdo! Happy to oblige. Soon as I have it in hand. It's supposed to be shipped out today so hoping I'll have it by early to mid week this next week. Just as soon as it arrives I'll pop down, crank up the Epson and post some good shots of everything. As I say I'll definitely need some help with this one as this is a totally new area for me and I have little if any info on any of it save what I find on here and the web in general.

Dan :cheers:

[Tom R]

Dan;

Congratulations. I looked long and hard at this item, but couldn't get the seller to email any photos. Wasn't interested so much in the tunic, as the badges. Once again congrats on a great steal.

Tom

[Hauptmann]

Dan;

Congratulations. I looked long and hard at this item, but couldn't get the seller to email any photos. Wasn't interested so much in the tunic, as the badges. Once again congrats on a great steal.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Many thanks! It seems alot of sellers don't want to bother with additional photos if an item is below a certain dollar amount. I even had one write back once that the items I asked about were simply listed too cheap to bother with making and sending more photos. To me this is idiocy! Just because an item's starting bid is low doesn't mean it can't go through the roof. And not providing additional photos can definitely hurt the chances of that. Especially with items that are being faked as showing reverses and details can often show an item for what it truly is.

I used buy it now (Ebay) to get a 1957 German 50 tankers badge. Right before buying it I requested a photo of the reverse. I waited a bit but the more I thought about it I felt it looked good from the front as well as the pin from what could be seen when blowing up the sellers pic and I didn't want to miss getting it at the price it was listed at. The seller never replied to my pic request and his communication after my purchase was... shall we say extremely lacking. Generally a word or two. I just received it today and it's great... but it would have been nice to have the pic of the reverse to start with. I've seen several copies of the 57 awards on Ebay (mostly Luftwaffe ones) for about the same price but looks like I lucked out this time which was my hope.

And I know Ebay charges for additional photos but two solutions are to put two or more images into one pic to post on Ebay or simply state additional photos can be requested.

Rest assured though... good pics will be on the way soon as I have it in hand. I for one can't wait as I've got alot to learn about this one.

Stay tuned...

Dan :cheers:

[Tom R]

Dan

Anxiously awaiting the treasure.

Tom

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

Okay... just got it in today. And it's a beaut! Very nice material, well made. The buttons have a great look to them. I could only scan the front but on the reverse they have what looks like a type of floral pattern on 3/4's of it and then some small stars (3 or 4) on the rest.

The ribbons are "not" on a bar... they are however (at least several of them) not only pinned on but also stitched into place.

Everything is in terrific condition. I could not be happier. Anyhow enough jabber from me... here's the pics:

Ribbons:

[Hauptmann]

Button:

Edited September 22, 2008 by Hauptman

[Hauptmann]

Badges:

Edited September 22, 2008 by Hauptman

[Hauptmann]

[Hauptmann]

[Hauptmann]

[Hauptmann]

[Hauptmann]

Colored protectors between the cloth and the nuts:

[Hauptmann]

Hope this about covers it. Tried to show everything I thought might be of interest... but if you need something I haven't thought of let me know and I'll do my best to oblige.

Sure hope one of our members may be able to ID the ribbons (Can't imagine who... ) and also hoping for ID's on the badges.

Many thanks in advance!

Dan :cheers:

[Guest Rick Research]

:Cat-Scratch: VERY interesting! No sign of RANK at all?

Ribbons, see Lukasz Gaszewski's invaluable ribbons of the world website:

http://www.medals.lava.pl/cs/cs2.htm

from which I get

Top row= Medal for Devoted Work for Socialism/ Deoration for Merit in the People's Militia 1st Class/ same again

Second row = ? lots of red ribbons, don't know which used a hammer and sickle device/ ???/ 25th Anniverary of February 1947 Communist coup, 1972

3rd row = Medal for Service to the Homeland 1955/ ??? with fancy device/20th Anniversary of Liberation 1965

4th row = upside down Medal for Devoted Work for Socialism/ 40th Anniversary of liberation 1985/ Medal for Liberated Political Prisoners 1947 (HOW IRONIC )

From the weird order, I suspect some of these must have been added-- but by the wearer himself or Persons Unknown?

Post 14 top right next to the International Gay Military Dating Club badge is a simple souvenir pin from the Soviet city of "Poltava."

The little Soviet pin in Post 15 says "Festival of Youth Central Telegraph."

Most of the Czech badges do indeed seem to be police related.

[Gordon Craig]

Dan,

The "International Gay Military Dating Club" pin is actually related to the Warsaw Pact Brotherhood In Arms idea (USSR/Csech). I have one somewhere, with the translation of the wording, but it is not unpacked yet. I am sure someone else will be able to give you a translation of the wording on this badge.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Dan,

In trying to find the battery charger for my digital camera today (us collectors gotta hate moving!!!!) I came across the Czech badge of two guys hugging each other. I have been told previously, by a forum member that speaks the language, that the wording on the badge could be translated in two possible ways;

1-Establishing Combat Relations, or

2-Building Combat Friendships

Now I need a nice tunic like yours to put my Czech medals/badges on!!

I modified this post to add the dates badge was used. I was told it dates from the 70s/80s time period.

Regards,

Gordon

ps-I haven't found the charger yet!!!!

Edited September 27, 2008 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

Dan,

I don't know if you have identified any or all of the badges on this tunic yet but here is one in case you haven't. The badge below the WP Brotherhood in Arms related badge is the LM Bestenabzeichen badge. Pardon the DDR nomenclature but I don't know what it is called in Czech. Here is a picture of the Armed Forces badge for comparison purposes.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

The reverse of the badge.