Orders, decorations, and medals of SFR Yugoslavia

Orders, decorations, and medals of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were created during the Second World War and used throughout the existence of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The first decorations were created on March 15, 1943 and included the Order of the People's Hero, Order of the People's Liberation, Order of the Partisan Star, Order of the Brotherhood and Unity, Order for Bravery and Medal for Bravery.^[1] By 1960 the total number of decorations increased to 42 and consisted of 35 orders, 6 medals and 1 commemorative medal. The designers of the Yugoslav orders and medals were Antun Augustinčić and Đorđe Andrejević Kun.

The original decorations are kept at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The Yugoslav government requested that the decorations be given the status of "official sign" as opposed to other countries and states where the status of official control and warranty is reserved only for the national seal. With the dissolution of Yugoslavia the decorations stopped being awarded but continue to be protected by Article 6 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

Orders

	Order	Ribbon bar	Date of establishment[2]	Rank overall[3]	Number awarded[2]
1.	Order of the Yugoslav Star
	Order of the Yugoslav Great Star		1 March 1961	1	127
	Order of the Yugoslav Star with Sash		1 February 1954	6	159
	Order of the Yugoslav Star with Golden Wreath			14	320
	Order of the Yugoslav Star on Cravat			24	322
2.	Order of Freedom		12 June 1945	2	7
3.	Order of the People's Hero		15 August 1943	3	1,386
4.	Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour		8 December 1948	4	114
5.	Order of the People's Liberation		15 August 1943	5	262
6.	Order of the War Banner		29 December 1951	7	205
7.	Order of the Yugoslav Flag
	Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Sash (I rank)		26 November 1947	8	1,421
	Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Wreath (II rank)		14 November 1955	19	1,300
	Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Star on Cravat (III rank)		26 November 1947	28	1,443
	Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Star (IV rank)			32	955
	Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Silver Star (V rank)			35	769
8.	Order of the Partisan Star
	Order of the Partisan Star with Golden Wreath (I rank)		15 August 1943	9	627
	Order of the Partisan Star with Silver Wreath (II rank)			17	1,531
	Order of Partisan Star with Rifles (III rank)			29	ca. 29,000[4]
9.	Order of the Republic
	Order of the Republic with Golden Wreath (I rank)		2 July 1960	10	1,150
	Order of the Republic with Silver Wreath (II rank)			18	6,310
	Order of the Republic with Bronze Wreath (III rank)			27	11,088
10.	Order of Merits for the People
	Order of Merits for the People with Golden Star (I rank)		9 June 1945	11	4,668
	Order of Merits for the People with Silver Rays (II rank)			20	39,534
	Order of Merits for the People with Silver Star (III rank)			30	282,864
11.	Order of Brotherhood and Unity
	Order of Brotherhood and Unity with Golden Wreath (I rank)		15 August 1943	12	3,870
	Order of Brotherhood and Unity with Silver Wreath (II rank)			21	55,675
12.	Order of the People's Army
	Order of the People's Army with Laurer Wreath (I rank)		29 December 1951	13	536
	Order of the People's Army with Golden Star (II rank)			22	9,137
	Order of the People's Army with Silver Star (III rank)			31	45,384
13.	Order of Labour
	Order of Labor with Red Banner (I rank)		1 May 1945	15	7,096
	Order of Labour with Golden Wreath (II rank)			25	36,338
	Order of Labour with Silver Wreath (III rank)			33	182,910
14.	Order of Military Merits
	Order of Military Merits with Great Star (I rank)		29 December 1951	16	2,609
	Order of Military Merits with Golden Swords (II rank)			26	24,141
	Order of Military Merits with Silver Swords (III rank)			34	94,685
15.	Order of Bravery		15 August 1943	23	120,636

Medals

Rank	Medal	Ribbon bar	Date of establishment[2]	Number awarded[2]
1	Medal for Bravery		15 August 1943	205,590
2	Medal for Merits for the People		9 June 1945	430,666
3	Medal of Labour		1 May 1945	133,233
4	Medal for Military Merits		1 January 1952	87,699
5	Medal for Military Virtues		29 December 1951	115,589
6	Medal for Merits		1955	845

Commemorative medal

Rank	Commemorative medal	Ribbon bar	Date of establishment[2]	Number awarded[2]
1	Commemorative Medal of the Partisans of 1941		14 September 1944	27,629

Instituted on 14 September 1944 for award to those actively involved in partisan or political units between 1941 and the end of WW2. At first, the Commemorative medal of the partisans of 1941 was considered to be the lowest of rank among the orders, but later lost that status to be considered outside of the before mentioned group and listed below medals.

Other Medals

Rank	Medal	Ribbon bar	Date of establishment[2]	Number awarded[2]
	"Death to fascism, freedom to the people" Medal		1965	7,960
	"10 Years of Yugoslav Army" Medal		1951
	"20 Years of Yugoslav People's Army" Medal		1961
	"30 Years of Yugoslav People's Army" Medal		1971
	"30 Years of Victory over Fascism" Medal		1975
	"40 Years of Yugoslav People's Army" Medal		1981
	"50 Years of Yugoslav People's Army" Medal		1991
	Distinguished Marksman Medal		1953
	Medal for the participants of President Tito's Visit to India and Burma of 1954-1955		1955	1,200
	Medals of the Association of Yugoslav Fighters in the International Brigades in Spain (two medals awarded together)		1956	250 each
	UNICEF Medal		1958

See also

• Orders, decorations, and medals of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
• Orders and medals of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

References

1. Sammler.ru: Производство наград (Russian)
2. Sammler.ru
3. Sammler.ru: Орденские планки
4. Skupina avtorjev, Herojem revolucije v vojni in miru, Tokovi revolucije, NIRO Zadrugar, Sarajevo, 1981, p 63, COBISS 34783233

External links

• Orders and Decorations of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1945-90 by Lukasz Gaszewski, 2003
• Sammler.ru: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• За заслуги... Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia © 2001-2003 Yuri Yashnev