Interesting photographs of decorated people

[steveBobby]

wearing two IV level 2nd class order of bravery

 

[Graf]

8 hours ago, steveBobby said:

wearing two IV level 2nd class order of bravery

 

Very interesting One of them is the rare Model with the lily Also the uniform is a rare I am trying to figure out what Regiment could be  Thanks

[steveBobby]

2 hours ago, Graf said:

Very interesting One of them is the rare Model with the lily Also the uniform is a rare I am trying to figure out what Regiment could be  Thanks

I can't guarantee that my translation is accurate enough, I will attach the original text below.

（Снимка на подполковник Боян Тодоров Станчев  като командир на 7-а трудова дружина）

The uniform is known as the Labor Front uniform M32. The officer in the photo is from the Labor Front. When the uniform changed again in 1936, he stopped wearing the second order of bravery. 

about the labor front，I took some passages from the book：

12. Types of Labor Service

12. 1. Mandatory Labor Service Invented in Bulgaria

In 1920, Alexander Stamboliski takes an idea into reality: He drafts young people for constructive work in peace and not as destructive force in war and creates the first Labor Army in service of the country. The concept was not unanimously supported. But it affected the world and survived in Bulgaria in some form for 80 years.

The details of the Stamboliski Labor Service and its derivatives are complex and confusing but badges together with various sources of information allow to develop an outline of the organization (details on the original mandatory Labor Service are from "Meet Bulgaria", published in 1931 by R.H. Markham, Staff Correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor on the Balkan Peninsula).

The Bulgarian nation of 6 million had mobilized by draft in WWI an army of 900,000 soldiers. 100,000 were killed or missing in action, 150,000 had been wounded. In 1918, the defeated Bulgaria had nothing to show for the sacrifice. It even lost some of its land. The nation was angry and ready for a change.

Alexander Stamboliski (1879-1923), a Bulgarian politician with an agrarian background, had resisted the war before its beginning and had warned Tsar Ferdinand that he would lose his head if he took Bulgaria into the war. The regime considered Stam- boliski's warning treasonous and jailed him for life. When Bulgaria capitulated in 1918, Ferdinand did not lose his head but his position as head of Bulgaria, and he was forced to leave the country. Stamboliski was freed as hero and man of wisdom. As leader of the Agrarian Party, he advanced quickly to the position of Prime Minister in spite of tensions with the 24-year-old inexperienced Tsar Boris III, Ferdinand's son, who now occupied his father's position as head of state.

Alexander Stamboliski, the man who had opposed the war, had to sign the humiliating Peace Treaty of Neuilly on 27 November 1919. Its ARTICLE 65 states that "universal mandatory military service shall be abolished in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Army shall in the future be constituted and recruited only by means of voluntary enlistment." ARTICLE 66 limited the total number of military forces in the Bulgarian Army to 20,000 men, including officers and depot troops.

Stamboliski recognized that training young people physically and teaching them discipline required service in an army. He initiated a mandatory Army of Labor for the Common Good, to provide young people with orderliness and physical strength while improving the infrastructure of the country. This Labor Army was designed to promote the ideas of brotherhood and solidarity of social classes and produce materially useful and tangible results for the country. Men and women, single or married, were drafted to perform essential public works in the National Labor Service ("trudova povinnost").

The Labor Service was divided in two parts. Young men, upon reaching age 18, were drafted into a one-time 8-month service, equivalent to the conscription for basic military training. The discipline of the drafted young "trudovaks", their methods and their life style were that of military recruits. They were given gray uniforms and on their caps was the official badge with the words "Labor for Bulgaria". They had their flags, their music, their songs and their bands. On entering the service, they took an oath to be faithful to Tsar and country and to perform all their assignments responsibly. They were organized in units under military-style command and given practical vocational training.

A second part of the Labor Service consisted of an annual 3-week call for all adult citizens (men until age 40, women until age 30) including those who had completed the 8-month service before. This was similar to an annual exercise for army reservists. As a rule, only the men were called, and they seldom served more than 10 days a year. Substantial tasks have been accomplished by the yearly labor service, even though the law was not applied evenly in all communities. But when the local officials were energetic and all the men had been required to do at least ten days of service annually, many local improvements were accomplished.

The Labor-Service program was weakened by a later provision that allowed the wealthy to purchase their release from the draft. Another negative influence came from the World War I Control Commission that opposed the military style of the program as an attempt to rearm in violation of the Treaty of Neuilly.

In spite of some weaknesses, the Labor Service remained a success. It is reported in the early 1930s, that streets had been widened, paved and straightened; hundreds of miles of local roads been constructed, bridges had been built, schools and reading rooms been erected, water been piped to villages, and in several districts even electric power plants had been built. Dikes have been erected along low-bank rivers. In a wide, low plain near Sofia, a winding river has been shortened and land been reclaimed. Trees had been planted on hundreds of acres by the annual temporary laborers. Helpful public health improvements had been introduced.

The 1930s statistics show that 45,000 young men were drafted each year into the 8-month Labor Service. Approximately three quarters of a million adults were subject to the annual 10-to-21-day call. To promote the idea of service even more widely, 800,000 school children were required by law to work a number of days each year for the common good.

It is important to remember that the mandatory Labor Service had been created as a substitute for the military draft. Therefore, when the military draft was reintroduced in the late 1930s under the clouds of the coming war, the Labor Service became a place for lesser Bulgarians who were considered to be not qualified for military service. Jewish men between 16 and 55 years of age were now drafted for 6 to 7 months a year into labor camps. The food was sufficient but bad. The command structure consisted mainly of retired officers and sergeants, some of them abusive, others supportive. The Labor Service helped to protect Jews in Bulgaria from deportation and the Final Solution. But the mandatory Labor Service had now descended to become a second- class alternative for military service and was populated exclusively by minorities with limited rights. This development destroyed Stamboliski's original goal to foster brotherhood and solidarity. After that, the Labor Service never completely recovered from this stigma.

 

or have this：https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Строителни_войски

 

Another Labor Front official, Wearing the badge "Working for Bulgaria"

 

[Graf]

32 minutes ago, steveBobby said:

I can't guarantee that my translation is accurate enough, I will attach the original text below.

（Снимка на подполковник Боян Тодоров Станчев  като командир на 7-а трудова дружина）

The uniform is known as the Labor Front uniform M32. The officer in the photo is from the Labor Front. When the uniform changed again in 1936, he stopped wearing the second order of bravery. 

about the labor front，I took some passages from the book：

12. Types of Labor Service

12. 1. Mandatory Labor Service Invented in Bulgaria

In 1920, Alexander Stamboliski takes an idea into reality: He drafts young people for constructive work in peace and not as destructive force in war and creates the first Labor Army in service of the country. The concept was not unanimously supported. But it affected the world and survived in Bulgaria in some form for 80 years.

The details of the Stamboliski Labor Service and its derivatives are complex and confusing but badges together with various sources of information allow to develop an outline of the organization (details on the original mandatory Labor Service are from "Meet Bulgaria", published in 1931 by R.H. Markham, Staff Correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor on the Balkan Peninsula).

The Bulgarian nation of 6 million had mobilized by draft in WWI an army of 900,000 soldiers. 100,000 were killed or missing in action, 150,000 had been wounded. In 1918, the defeated Bulgaria had nothing to show for the sacrifice. It even lost some of its land. The nation was angry and ready for a change.

Alexander Stamboliski (1879-1923), a Bulgarian politician with an agrarian background, had resisted the war before its beginning and had warned Tsar Ferdinand that he would lose his head if he took Bulgaria into the war. The regime considered Stam- boliski's warning treasonous and jailed him for life. When Bulgaria capitulated in 1918, Ferdinand did not lose his head but his position as head of Bulgaria, and he was forced to leave the country. Stamboliski was freed as hero and man of wisdom. As leader of the Agrarian Party, he advanced quickly to the position of Prime Minister in spite of tensions with the 24-year-old inexperienced Tsar Boris III, Ferdinand's son, who now occupied his father's position as head of state.

Alexander Stamboliski, the man who had opposed the war, had to sign the humiliating Peace Treaty of Neuilly on 27 November 1919. Its ARTICLE 65 states that "universal mandatory military service shall be abolished in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Army shall in the future be constituted and recruited only by means of voluntary enlistment." ARTICLE 66 limited the total number of military forces in the Bulgarian Army to 20,000 men, including officers and depot troops.

Stamboliski recognized that training young people physically and teaching them discipline required service in an army. He initiated a mandatory Army of Labor for the Common Good, to provide young people with orderliness and physical strength while improving the infrastructure of the country. This Labor Army was designed to promote the ideas of brotherhood and solidarity of social classes and produce materially useful and tangible results for the country. Men and women, single or married, were drafted to perform essential public works in the National Labor Service ("trudova povinnost").

The Labor Service was divided in two parts. Young men, upon reaching age 18, were drafted into a one-time 8-month service, equivalent to the conscription for basic military training. The discipline of the drafted young "trudovaks", their methods and their life style were that of military recruits. They were given gray uniforms and on their caps was the official badge with the words "Labor for Bulgaria". They had their flags, their music, their songs and their bands. On entering the service, they took an oath to be faithful to Tsar and country and to perform all their assignments responsibly. They were organized in units under military-style command and given practical vocational training.

A second part of the Labor Service consisted of an annual 3-week call for all adult citizens (men until age 40, women until age 30) including those who had completed the 8-month service before. This was similar to an annual exercise for army reservists. As a rule, only the men were called, and they seldom served more than 10 days a year. Substantial tasks have been accomplished by the yearly labor service, even though the law was not applied evenly in all communities. But when the local officials were energetic and all the men had been required to do at least ten days of service annually, many local improvements were accomplished.

The Labor-Service program was weakened by a later provision that allowed the wealthy to purchase their release from the draft. Another negative influence came from the World War I Control Commission that opposed the military style of the program as an attempt to rearm in violation of the Treaty of Neuilly.

In spite of some weaknesses, the Labor Service remained a success. It is reported in the early 1930s, that streets had been widened, paved and straightened; hundreds of miles of local roads been constructed, bridges had been built, schools and reading rooms been erected, water been piped to villages, and in several districts even electric power plants had been built. Dikes have been erected along low-bank rivers. In a wide, low plain near Sofia, a winding river has been shortened and land been reclaimed. Trees had been planted on hundreds of acres by the annual temporary laborers. Helpful public health improvements had been introduced.

The 1930s statistics show that 45,000 young men were drafted each year into the 8-month Labor Service. Approximately three quarters of a million adults were subject to the annual 10-to-21-day call. To promote the idea of service even more widely, 800,000 school children were required by law to work a number of days each year for the common good.

It is important to remember that the mandatory Labor Service had been created as a substitute for the military draft. Therefore, when the military draft was reintroduced in the late 1930s under the clouds of the coming war, the Labor Service became a place for lesser Bulgarians who were considered to be not qualified for military service. Jewish men between 16 and 55 years of age were now drafted for 6 to 7 months a year into labor camps. The food was sufficient but bad. The command structure consisted mainly of retired officers and sergeants, some of them abusive, others supportive. The Labor Service helped to protect Jews in Bulgaria from deportation and the Final Solution. But the mandatory Labor Service had now descended to become a second- class alternative for military service and was populated exclusively by minorities with limited rights. This development destroyed Stamboliski's original goal to foster brotherhood and solidarity. After that, the Labor Service never completely recovered from this stigma.

 

or have this：https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Строителни_войски

 

Another Labor Front official, Wearing the badge "Working for Bulgaria"

 

Hi Steve excellent work Yes I was inclined towards the Labor Military unit Thanks

[Graf]

[Graf]

[steveBobby]

On 6/7/2023 at 4:13 PM, Graf said:

Very interesting photo! I see someone in the photo wearing a badge that I don't recognize. Maybe someone can provide some possible answers?

[Graf]

Hi Steve,

It is not very clear I can not identify at this stage the badge I hope someone from the forum can do it

 

Cheers

[steveBobby]

I saw a picture on facebook wearing a rare badge “Badge for Mine Clearance in the Danube River Basin”

 

[Igor Ostapenko]

3 hours ago, steveBobby said:

I saw a picture on facebook wearing a rare badge “Badge for Mine Clearance in the Danube River Basin”

 

It’s Russian Imperial period badge 

[Graf]

Hi Igor,

Let me disagree

although those badges are similar there is an obvious differences I suppose the Bulgarian Badge was made using the Russian as a model

 

Regards

[steveBobby]

This should indeed be attributed to two badges, not Imperial Russian.

I am attaching here a relevant link from a Bulgarian website：https://www.morskivestnik.com/mor_kolekcii/mor_heraldika/mkrasteva.html

 

Sincerely

Steve

[Graf]

2 hours ago, steveBobby said:

This should indeed be attributed to two badges, not Imperial Russian.

I am attaching here a relevant link from a Bulgarian website：https://www.morskivestnik.com/mor_kolekcii/mor_heraldika/mkrasteva.html

 

Sincerely

Steve

Well done Steve Very good research I agree and as I stated those are two different badges

 

[BalkanCollector]

16 hours ago, steveBobby said:

 

That's a really interesting badge! 

[steveBobby]

More photos from the same exhibition, I haven't found any photos of recipients wearing mine clearing badges in the Black Sea, please add to this thread if someone can, I think it would be interesting

mine clearing badges in the Black Sea

 

[Graf]

4 hours ago, steveBobby said:

More photos from the same exhibition, I haven't found any photos of recipients wearing mine clearing badges in the Black Sea, please add to this thread if someone can, I think it would be interesting

mine clearing badges in the Black Sea

 

Amazing pictures Steve

[steveBobby]

A physical photo of this badge has never been found, and this is the clearest photo I could find. In some Bulgarian articles it is described as a badge of honor awarded to the commander of the submarine after the First World War. 

Rear Admiral Kryuchkov's photo

[Graf]

Very interesting photo Thanks for discovering for interesting pictures

The text on the picture is " Captain II Rang( Grade or Level) Ivan Variklechkov"

He is listed in the new book "The Bulgarian generals and their Awards" page 60

Yes he was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1937

 

[Graf]

Hi Steve,

i am trying to find more information about this excellent and extremely rare badge No luck so far

[steveBobby]

13 hours ago, Graf said:

Hi Steve,

i am trying to find more information about this excellent and extremely rare badge No luck so far

Greeting Graf！

This is a real problem and I haven't seen a badge like this in any of the reference books. I found the following description in an article（https://www.morskivestnik.com/mor_kolekcii/mor_heraldika/znachki_ub.html）：

“Нагръден знак за подводно плаване обаче има вторият командир на подводницата УБ-18 контраадмирал Иван Вариклечков (1891 – 1974 г.), който е помощник-командир на този боен кораб по време на командването на лейтенант Никола Тодоров. Със заповед по Флота № 2 § 1 от 17 януари 1920 г., основана на заповед по Военното ведомство № 707 от 15 декември 1919 г. на Иван Вариклечков му е присвоено званието „Подводен и торпеден офицер”, понеже е свършил с успех командирския курс на подводното училище в гр. Кил и училището за самодвижещи се мини в гр. Фленсбург. В свой рапорт до началника на Флота от 22 юли 1920 г. той се подписва като „подводник-торпедист лейтенант Вариклечков”. Със заповед по Флота № 57а § 1 от 7 септември 1927 г. му се дава право да носи „възпоменателния знак за подводно плаване”. Този знак напълно му приляга. Със заповед по Флота № 66 § 2 от 25 май 1916 г. мичман I ранг Вариклечков е назначен за младши офицер на подводник № 18. Със заповед по Флота № 40 § 2 от 10 май 1917 г. е назначен за командир на подводник № 18, като му се признава встъпване в длъжност от 2 май 1917 г. Със заповед по Флота № 35 § 1 от 28 август 1917 г. командирован в подводното училище за командири в гр. Кил. С рапорт на командира на УБ-18 капитан-лейтенант Никола Тодоров лейтенант Иван Вариклечков е предложен за награда с „Орден за храброст – IV степен, I клас” за участието му в бойните действия с подводника на море.”

It seems that researchers from Bulgaria itself have not been able to obtain the physical badge.But in any case, historical photos prove the existence of this badge.

（Maybe they will have some consistency in shape）

 

Yours

Steve

[Graf]

10 hours ago, steveBobby said:

Greeting Graf！

This is a real problem and I haven't seen a badge like this in any of the reference books. I found the following description in an article（https://www.morskivestnik.com/mor_kolekcii/mor_heraldika/znachki_ub.html）：

“Нагръден знак за подводно плаване обаче има вторият командир на подводницата УБ-18 контраадмирал Иван Вариклечков (1891 – 1974 г.), който е помощник-командир на този боен кораб по време на командването на лейтенант Никола Тодоров. Със заповед по Флота № 2 § 1 от 17 януари 1920 г., основана на заповед по Военното ведомство № 707 от 15 декември 1919 г. на Иван Вариклечков му е присвоено званието „Подводен и торпеден офицер”, понеже е свършил с успех командирския курс на подводното училище в гр. Кил и училището за самодвижещи се мини в гр. Фленсбург. В свой рапорт до началника на Флота от 22 юли 1920 г. той се подписва като „подводник-торпедист лейтенант Вариклечков”. Със заповед по Флота № 57а § 1 от 7 септември 1927 г. му се дава право да носи „възпоменателния знак за подводно плаване”. Този знак напълно му приляга. Със заповед по Флота № 66 § 2 от 25 май 1916 г. мичман I ранг Вариклечков е назначен за младши офицер на подводник № 18. Със заповед по Флота № 40 § 2 от 10 май 1917 г. е назначен за командир на подводник № 18, като му се признава встъпване в длъжност от 2 май 1917 г. Със заповед по Флота № 35 § 1 от 28 август 1917 г. командирован в подводното училище за командири в гр. Кил. С рапорт на командира на УБ-18 капитан-лейтенант Никола Тодоров лейтенант Иван Вариклечков е предложен за награда с „Орден за храброст – IV степен, I клас” за участието му в бойните действия с подводника на море.”

It seems that researchers from Bulgaria itself have not been able to obtain the physical badge.But in any case, historical photos prove the existence of this badge.

（Maybe they will have some consistency in shape）

 

Yours

Steve

Hi Steve

 

Thank you for your efforts Very interesting information

[steveBobby]

I want to continue the conversation about badge wearers. 

Badge of the 8th Primorsky Territory Infantry Regiment of Princess Maria Luisa.

The number of badges of the Bulgarian Legion has been relatively limited in comparison, and I'm not sure if there are more badges issued by the Bulgarian Legion.

 

[Graf]

On 22/06/2023 at 22:24, steveBobby said:

I want to continue the conversation about badge wearers. 

Badge of the 8th Primorsky Territory Infantry Regiment of Princess Maria Luisa.

The number of badges of the Bulgarian Legion has been relatively limited in comparison, and I'm not sure if there are more badges issued by the Bulgarian Legion.

 

Well done nice work Steve!!

[steveBobby]

Decroration of the honorary title "Excellent Warrior of the Air Force (VV)"（Знак на почетното звание ,,Отличник на Въздушните войски (ВВ)"）

 

[Graf]

On 01/07/2023 at 11:13, steveBobby said:

Decroration of the honorary title "Excellent Warrior of the Air Force (VV)"（Знак на почетното звание ,,Отличник на Въздушните войски (ВВ)"）

 

Nice job Steve