Czechoslovakia Medals from Czechoslovakia

[HuliganRS]

Here's my first Czech medal.

It's the Medal for Service in SNB:

Edited November 21, 2005 by HuliganRS

[Paul R]

Interesting medal... What is the SNB?

What is the medal awarded for? Long Service, achievement, ect?

PAul

[Ed_Haynes]

Nice. For some reason, there don't seem to be many Czech medals about.

Only a few at http://www.omsa.org/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=644

Edited November 21, 2005 by Ed_Haynes

[HuliganRS]

Paul,

Here you go:

State Security (Czechoslovakia)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In former Czechoslovakia, State Security (Czech: St?tn? bezpečnost, Slovak: ?t?tna bezpečnosť) or StB / ?tB, was a plainclothes secret police force from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as a investigative, intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, any activity that could possibly be considered antistate fell under the purview of StB.

From its very establishment on June 30, 1945, StB was bound to and controlled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The Communists used StB as an instrument of power and repression: StB watched and intimidated the political opponents of the Party and forged false criminal evidence against them, thus paving the way for the coup in 1948. Even then, before Czechoslovakia became a Communist state, StB used many brutal practices such as forcing confessions by means of torture or drugs, blackmailing and kidnapping. After the coup, these practices became common and widely used, supported and taught by Soviet advisors.

StB's part in the fall of the regime in 1989 is still uncertain. The fact is, that the reportedly dead student, Martin ?m?d, was actually an StB agent named Ludv?k Zifč?k. The rumour about a student killed in a demonstration enraged the public, easing the road to the overthrow of the Communist regime; StB's involvement in this crucial point therefore leads to various conspiracy theories.

The State Security was dissolved on February 1, 1990.

Organization

The State Security was a part of the National Security Corps (Czech: Sbor n?rodn? bezpečnosti, SNB) along with Public Security (Czech: Veřejn? bezpečnost, VB) ? an uniformed force that performed standard police duties. Both forces had headquarters at regional and district levels. They were supervised by Ministries of Interior of Czech and Slovak Socialistic Republics, but operationally directed by the federal Ministry of Interior.

[HuliganRS]

Nice. For some reason, there don't seem to be many Czech medals about.

Only a few at http://www.omsa.org/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=644

Ed,

I already added mine. I have some more coming so I'll be filling in some blanks...

Rusty.

[Marcus H]

Here are some of mine I regret I can't remember all the titles of the medals as I lost them in a 'crash' of computer.

.Volunteers Cross

Edited November 23, 2005 by Marcus H

[Marcus H]

Not really Commie era though these:

A medal for conscrpition one reference says, but I don't recall it being that.

[Marcus H]

A WW2 War Cross of sorts, a variation for Volunteers perhaps.........Ed you'll know all these I'll bet.

Edited November 22, 2005 by Marcus H

[Marcus H]

Commerative medal of the Czech army 'abroad', I think this may be an service recognition type medal instituted in 1943 I've read and it does come with devices denoting where the duration of service was, UK etc

[Marcus H]

A Political Prisoner Cross, again comes with a device and there is a 'realeased political prisoner' medal too.

[Eric Schena]

Hi all:

The Hungarian thread prompted me to look for other threads on the lesser collected Eastern Bloc nations and Czech decorations have always been a favorite of mine despite being so very hard to locate here.

The best site I have found on them is: http://www.vyznamenani.net/

Here's an example of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, 1955-1960 type (the lion still has a crown on its head and a cross in the shield - in 1960, these were removed). I have to say that I have always been highly impressed with the quality of Czech decorations - extraordinary high quality, though you would not know if from my scan).

Cheers,

Eric

[ilja559]

My medals

[dragos03]

I only have this medal (the one on the left). It is the Dukla Commemorative Medal, cased and with a document, awarded to a Romanian soldier in 1959.

The one on the right is a post-communist Slovak medal, also awarded to a Romanian.

[Guest Darrell]