Yugoslavia - Order of National Merit number #38

[USSR]

Hi all,

 

I came across this piece as part of a grouping I purchased. I'm not very familiar with Yugoslavian awards, but I understand these are generally quite common. However, this one is riveted and has a low number. Can anyone help me identify it?

 

Also, I read a post here that said Yugoslavian awards are not researchable, but the post is a few years old. Does anyone know if the archives have been opened since 2021?

 

Thank you all in advance!

 

Matt

[Kallarati Heroik]

Number 38 ? I think with that number must be very expensive.

 

It is solid silver and early production.

 

Nice catch.

[USSR]

Thanks! Any information about the year and until what number range did they use rivets?

[BalkanCollector]

Great piece! It's the lowest numbered second class of this order I've seen so far.

 

The highest numbered order with three rivets I've seen is #989 and the lowest withouth rivets #1,310.

 

When it comes to the archives, it's still not possible to research Yugoslav awards by their number, at least not to my knowledge.

 

On 12/12/2024 at 20:28, USSR said:

I came across this piece as part of a grouping I purchased.

 

Was it part of the grouping to one recipient or some sort of a mix of awards you bought?

[Wat05]

Such a beautiful example! I hope that if any archive does exist, it will be released. I would love to learn about who received this particular order!

[USSR]

11 hours ago, BalkanCollector said:

Great piece! It's the lowest numbered second class of this order I've seen so far.

 

The highest numbered order with three rivets I've seen is #989 and the lowest withouth rivets #1,310.

 

When it comes to the archives, it's still not possible to research Yugoslav awards by their number, at least not to my knowledge.

 

 

Was it part of the grouping to one recipient or some sort of a mix of awards you bought?

Thanks! It was in a lot of Soviet awards but this one ended up there too for whatever reason. Maybe the auctioneer thought it was Russian/Soviet because of the Cyrillic lettering on the nut. 

[BalkanCollector]

9 hours ago, USSR said:

Thanks! It was in a lot of Soviet awards but this one ended up there too for whatever reason. Maybe the auctioneer thought it was Russian/Soviet because of the Cyrillic lettering on the nut. 

 

Soviets received Yugoslav orders for war merits so it's not impossible that the recipient of this particular order was Soviet.

[El Ninja]

Many Soviets were awarded yugoslavian orders and medals, but after the 1948 Tito-Stalin split, many were returned or destroyed.

Notable case is the Panchevo bridge medal, which was awarded mostly to Soviets, and today is extremely rare.

Same thing happened in Albania, Enver Hoxha returned all of his yugoslavian awards to Tito.

Edit:

Highest known number for this type of the Order of merit to the people is 2834.

Lovest known for the second type is 2155.

Production of types was most likely concurrent.

Edited December 15, 2024 by El Ninja

[BalkanCollector]

23 hours ago, El Ninja said:

Highest known number for this type of the Order of merit to the people is 2834.

Lovest known for the second type is 2155.

 

Do you have pictures of those orders?

[El Ninja]

Sadly, no. Those numbers are quited in a book. Although, I would have to dig through the archive and books. They might be somewhere. 

[Kallarati Heroik]

On 15/12/2024 at 18:34, El Ninja said:

Many Soviets were awarded yugoslavian orders and medals, but after the 1948 Tito-Stalin split, many were returned or destroyed.

Notable case is the Panchevo bridge medal, which was awarded mostly to Soviets, and today is extremely rare.

Same thing happened in Albania, Enver Hoxha returned all of his yugoslavian awards to Tito.

Edit:

Highest known number for this type of the Order of merit to the people is 2834.

Lovest known for the second type is 2155.

Production of types was most likely concurrent.

Yes, Enver Hoxha sent back all yugo decaorations.

 

The same did also with Soviets, sent back his SUVOROV order.

[eatmeat]

As for II. class 1st model (3 rivets model) the lowest i have seen is 554 and the highest is 1097. This was awarded directly in the weeks/months after the war. After the 3 rivets model comes ZIN model, where number 1310 was awarded on 18.2.1946. In general the lower the number the earlier it was awarded. But this is not always true as i seen papers for numbers 2588 awarded on 12.1.1946.

Whan the orders were made each republic or military corps/division/army got a parcel of orders and they were giving them to the soldiers, so you can have a mixture of numbers and dates.

 

The higest numebr of the II. class i have seen is 49454 (with screw) but remade into a needle version i have seen 58325.

 

 

[sinissa]

Greetings to everyone!!

The direct reason for my first appearance on the GMIC pages is this discussion about extremely rare low serial number #38 on the presented Order of Merit for the People, which drew me to react.

 

To the question of how it is possible that this order ended up in the same collection with other Soviet orders, the answer can be found in Velicko/Geric/Ozolinjs book "Orders and Medals of Communist Yugoslavia" (Minsk 2007), which states that "the first of those who were awarded this order were citizens of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria, and only then Yugoslavs. This emphasized the gratitude of the Yugoslav leadership to the Soviet participants in the national liberation movement." 

 

Regarding the question about smallest and largest serial numbers of this type of order, according to Danilov's book "Varieties of Orders and Medals of Merit for the People" (Moscow, 2008). the smallest serial number that Danilov found for this type of order (with 3 rivets) is number 347, and the largest number is 2834.
It should be noted that Danilov himself does not claim his research as final, and he realize a new examples outside of this range will appear in the future. One such piece of deviation is the example shown here with number #38, although it should be noted that this is not the first case of deviation from Danilov.

 

In 2015, the Historical Archives of the City of Belgrade organized an exhibition of decorations in its possession. One of the exhibited examples was the Order of Merit for the People, 2nd Class, which was awarded to Dragoslav Marković. His order has serial number #34 and should still be exhibited in the Historical Archives.

 

The question naturally arises, how is it possible that Dragoslav Marković received this order with such a low serial number, when according to Veličko/Geric/Ozolinjs these first orders were awarded only to non-Yugoslavs? Most likely this Veličko/Geric/Ozolinjs statement does not express a rule but only an intention of the Yugoslav leadership. The proof of this assumption could be found on the same exhibition in the Historical Archives whereas another Order of Merit 2nd class was exhibited, issued in 1945. This one was awarded to Leposava Perovic (serial number not indicated in the prospectus).

 

Many regards.