Order of the People's Hero
| Order of the People's Hero | |
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 Order of the People's Hero medal and ribbon bar |
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Awarded by  Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro |
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| 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 (1948-1992)[1] Order of the Yugoslav Flag (1998-2006)[2] |
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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, and third overall Yugoslav decoration.[1] 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.[3]
In 1998, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia decided to award the Order of the People's Hero again and decorated several military units, but no individuals.
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[edit] History
[edit] Socialist Yugoslavia
The bulletin of the Supreme command 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-sacrificing participants of the People's Liberation War. 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[3].
[edit] Serbia and Montenegro
Following the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed, and later renamed Serbia and Montenegro. In 1998, it passed a law that continued to use some of the decorations of former Yugoslavia, among them Order of the People's Hero,[4] making it the fourth highest order after the Order of Yugoslavia, Order of the Yugoslav Star and the Order of Freedom.[2]
The Serbian media ridiculed several proposals to decorate Slobodan Milošević with the Order of the People's hero because he would have had to decorate himself.[4][5] It was never given to any individuals, but several military units active in the Kosovo War were decorated:[5]
- 124th Police Intervention Brigade, Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs
- 126th Brigade for Air Reconnaissance, Military of Yugoslavia
- 250th Air Defence Missile Brigade, Military of Yugoslavia
[edit] Notable recipients
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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
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[edit] WWII military units recipients of the order
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[edit] Statistics
A total of 1,307 awards were awarded in Yugoslavia by 1957.[3]
- By sex[3]
1,220 were male and 87 were female.
- By place of birth (not ethnicity)[3]
- Croatia - 282
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - 284
- Serbia (including Kosovo)- 256
- Montenegro - 247
- Slovenia - 156
- Macedonia - 63
- abroad - 17
- By social status[3]
- 506 workers
- 207 peasants
- 404 intellectuals
- 78 former members of the Royal Yugoslav Army
- 73 clerks
- 39 other occupations
- 5 unknown
- By year when they joined Partisans[3]
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.
- By the way they died[3]
Of the National Heroes who died in the war, there were:
- 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
- Orders and medals of Socialist Yugoslavia
- Orders and medals of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
- Hero of the Soviet Union
[edit] References
- Narodni heroji Jugoslavije (People's Heroes of Yugoslavia), "Mladost", Belgrade, 1975 (Serbo-Croatian)
- Војна енциклопедија (Military Encyclopedia), Belgrade, 1975 (Serbo-Croatian)
- ^ a b Orders and Decorations of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1945-90 by Lukasz Gaszewski 2000, 2003
- ^ a b Orders and Decorations of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1990- by Lukasz Gaszewski 2000, 2003
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Зборник народних хероја Југославије, Omladina, Belgrade, 1957 (Serbo-Croatian)
- ^ a b "Zakon o odlikovanjima" (in Serbian). Vreme. 1999-04-24. http://www.vreme.com/arhiva_html/vb7/13.html. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
- ^ a b "Milošević bi morao sam sebe da odlikuje" (in Serbian). Blic. 2000-06-08. http://www.blic.rs/stara_arhiva/drustvo/130907/Milosevic-bi-morao-sam-sebe-da-odlikuje. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: People's Heroes of Yugoslavia |
- ZAKON O OSNOVNIM PRAVIMA LICA ODLIKOVANIH ORDENOM NARODNOG HEROJA (Law on Basic Rights of Persons Awarded the Order of the People's Hero) (Serbo-Croatian)
- Narodni heroji Jugoslavije (People's Heroes of Yugoslavia) (Serbo-Croatian)
- Narodni heroji (People's Heroes) (Serbo-Croatian)
