Poland Polish Communist Group - Genuine or Fantasy?

[vladtheman03]

Hello all,

I bought this group from a Polish dealer about a year ago. I'd like to know whether you think it's a genuine group or a put together?

The group consists of:

Top row:

Order of Polonia Restituita

Merit Cross 1st Class

Cross of Valour

Partisan's Cross

Merit Cross 2nd Class

30th Anniversary of PRL

Liberation of Warsaw Medal

Medal for Victory and Freedom

Bottom row:

Medal for Victory and Freedom

Capture of Berlin

Fire Fighting Merit Gold

Medal for Defence of the Motherland Silver

Medal for Defence of the Motherland Bronze

Decoration for Merit in Protection of Public Order Silver

Decoration for Merit in Protection of Public Order Bronze

Medal in Service of the Nation Silver

There are a couple of points which don't quite add up.

Firstly the medal for victory and freedom appears twice - did this happen?

Also the medals for service in defence of the motherland 2nd and 3rd classes appear after the medal for fire fighting merit 1st class. They are worn on the same ribbon, but, again is this combination possible?

[Aahauge]

seems genuine. Sometimes ppl by accident received 2 medals - in this case Victory and Freedom. Most often it was due to two different authorities awarding the medal on the same occasion. If you had the documents you would probably see that one was awarded by the government and one by Kadr MON.

Ribbons and sequence seems allright - a little confusion or misplacement is allright on this "actual" medal bar as opposed to a plain ribbon-bar. When veterans received new medals they were often attached, where they found space......to be later relocated, which sometimes failed.

The ribbon-bar was very official and I have never seen any misplacements.

Best regards Aahauge

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

I agree, it seems original! Its recipient must have been engaged in the underground (most probably left-wing) movement during the war, then drafted in the People's Army and served during the Berlin Operation (he did not need to participate in capturing Berlin to receive the medal). After the war he served either in the Militia (the behind the Iron Curtain counterpart of other countries' Police) or in security organs, as indicated by the last three medals.

The Fire Fighting medal should come last, but the recipient decided to put it higher, probably because it was gold, compared to the remaining medals in silver or bronze. Other than that, the sequence is perfect.

The double Medal for Victory and Freedom was a rare thing to see, but it happened.

Regards

[Paul R]

Thank you for sharing this amazing medal group.  A communist partisan during the war?