Order of the People's Hero

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Order of the People's Hero
Order of the National Hero.jpg
Order of the People's Hero of Yugoslavia, 1st Class
Awarded by Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Type Medal
Awarded for Distinguishing oneself by extraordinary heroic deeds
Status Incepted
Statistics
First awarded 1942
Last awarded 1993
Total awarded Around 1,400
Precedence
Next (higher) Order of Freedom
Next (lower) Order of the Hero of Socialist labour
OrderNationalHeroYU.PNG
ribbon

The Order of the People's Hero (Serbo-Croatian: Orden narodnog heroja, Cyrillic script: Oрден народног хероја; Slovene: Red narodnega heroja, Macedonian: Oрден на народен херој) was a Yugoslav gallantry medal, the second highest military award in the SFR Yugoslavia, It was awarded to individuals, military units, political and other organisations who distinguished themselves by extraordinary heroic deeds during war and in peacetime. The recipients were thereafter known as People's Heroes of Yugoslavia. The vast majority was awarded to partisans for actions during the Second World War. A total of 1322 awards were awarded in Yugoslavia, and 22 were awarded to the foreigners[1].

The bulletin of the Supreme commaned of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia no. 12–13 (December 1941 and January 1942) announced the establishment of the title of "People's Hero" for heroic and self-sacrifing participants of the People's Liberation Struggle. The first person to be awarded the title was Petar Leković. On 15 August 1943, the title was formalized as an order together with Order of the People's Liberation, Order of Bravery, Order of the Partisan Star, Order of Brotherhood and Unity and the Medal for Bravery.

The Order consists of an oval gold badge showing a soldier with rifle and banner superimposed upon a rayed star surrounded by a wreath of laurel. The badge is suspended from a red ribbon, with a narrow white stripe towards each edge. The design for this and the other Orders were undertaken by the painter Đorđe Andrejević Kun and the sculptor Antun Augustinčić. From its inception until around 1993, the Order had been awarded nearly 1,400 times. Marshal Josip Broz Tito was awarded the Order three times: in 1944, 1972 and 1977.

The holders of the order were entitled to certain benefits, like free fares on public transport, and pensions for the surviving family members of deceased people's heroes. Although the benefits have since been downscaled, post-Yugoslav countries still provide certain benefits to people's heroes. Many schools and streets in post-war Yugoslavia were named after people's heroes, and many of the names remain, to varying degrees in different successor countries.

Several cities in Yugoslavia were awarded the order, and proclaimed Hero Cities: Beograd, Cetinje, Drvar, Ljubljana, Novi Sad, Prilep, Pristina and Zagreb[1].

Contents

[edit] Notable recipients

Petar Leković became the first People's Hero in February 1942.
Marija Bursać became the first woman Hero at 15 October 1943.
Josip Broz Tito was awarded the order three times.

Notable recipients of the order include:

[edit] Foreign citizens recipients of the order

[edit] Hero Cities

[edit] Public and political organizations recipients of the order [1]

  • SKOJ (Young Communist League of Yugoslavia)
  • OK SKOJ (Municipality comity of SKOJ) of Drvar

[edit] Military Units recipients of the order

[edit] WWII units [1]

  • 1st Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
  • 2nd Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
  • 3rd Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
  • 4th Montenegrin Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
  • 5th Montenegrin Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
  • 6th East Bosnian Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
  • 10th Herzegovinian Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade

[edit] Kosovo War units

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[edit] Statistics

Tomb of the People's Heroes at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery.
Tomb of the People's Heroes at Belgrade fortress contains graves of Ivo Lola Ribar, Ivan Milutinović, Đuro Đaković and Moše Pijade.
Tomb of the People's Heroes in Ljubljana

A total of 1,307 awards were awarded in Yugoslavia by 1957.[1]

By sex

1,220 were male and 87 were female.[1]

By place of birth (not ethnicity)[1]
By social status[1]
  • 506 workers
  • 207 peasants
  • 404 intellectuals
  • 78 former members of the Yugoslav royal army
  • 73 clerks
  • 39 other occupations
  • 5 unknown
By year when they joined Partizans

658 of them were also members before World War II. The majority, 1,261, joined partisans in 1941; there were 41 heroes from 1942 and five from 1943.[1]

By the way they died

Of the National Heroes who died in the war, there were:[1]

  • 624 killed in combat
  • 104 shot themselves
  • 55 other suicides
  • 30 died from fatal injuries
  • 20 killed in prison
  • 13 hanged
  • 12 massacred
  • 4 died of disease
  • 3 buried alive
  • 3 strangled
  • 1 impaled
  • 1 burned on a skewer
  • 5 died in accidents

[edit] See also

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: People's Hero of Yugoslavia

[edit] References

  • Narodni heroji Jugoslavije (People's Heroes of Yugoslavia), "Mladost", Belgrade, 1975 (Serbo-Croatian)
  • Војна енциклопедија (Military Encyclopedia), Belgrade, 1975 (Serbo-Croatian)
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Зборник народних хероја Југославије, Omladina, Belgrade, 1957 (Serbo-Croatian)

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_People%27s_Hero"