Vyznamenání za zásluhy - 10 let lidových milicí

Medal of Merit - 10 years of the People's Militia.
Die Auszeichnung - Für Vedienste - 10 Jahre des Volks-Miliz
This decoration, which is more reminiscent of costume jewellery, was put on a par with high state orders. It was a humiliation for all honest patriots, resistance fighters who fought against fascism with weapons in their hands. The way of awarding, the way of wearing it, all this was demonstrably at least stupid, if not downright shameful. It was one side of the National Front that decided to reward its loyalists. Fortunately, it was also the beginning of the end of the rule of the ignorant and the rabble .
Comrades from the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which on May 14, 1957, on the anniversary of the Communist coup ( Victory February ) prepared a gift for the members of the People's Militia. A decoration called :
FOR MERIT - 10 YEARS OF THE PEOPLE'S MILITIA
The decision to establish it stipulated that it was a one-time award and the decoration would be made on 25 February 1958, when the People's Militia units would celebrate ten years of existence .
The actual decoration was established in two classes or grades. In the statutes or statutes of the orders it is specified exactly to whom the order is awarded :
1 .class is bestowed on those deserving members of the LM who have contributed greatly to the organization and construction of the LM units, or have shown bravery, courage and heroism in combat actions. If they suffered injury or death while serving as an LM member.
The 2nd class is bestowed on members, LM, who were active in actions organized by the LM headquarters and performed their duties in an exemplary manner.
If we decipher this rationale, the decoration was awarded almost across the board to the point of inflation. This is evidenced, among other things, by the fact that this decoration still appears in large numbers at collectors' auctions .
The Government of the Czechoslovak Republic, by its Decision No. 1090 of 6 December 1958 and by its Decree, incorporated this decoration into the system of orders and decorations of the Republic. This alone raises astonishment that a party decoration should subsequently become a high state decoration. The only similar practice was that of fellow Nazis in Germany, who created the Order of the Blood from a medal.
The decoration was presented in a small etui covered with red artificial leather. The etui is the same for both grades. Even nowadays we commonly encounter confusions of the 1st and 2nd degree .
Second class decorations :
There was some confusion in the literature and among LM members because the Class II star was more popular. In the literature and at a high level of scrutiny e.g. in the work :
Dr. Vladimír Macháček and Colonel Václav Amort : Czechoslovak Orders and Decorations (Prague 1964 ). Here the description of the decoration in the text part is given on p. 12 and the decoration is shown in colour on Table 3, understandably wrong,in reverse. Unfortunately, this was an official and essential work and so it was not long before the
Robert Werich's work.
Orders and Decorations of all nations from 1965, this error appears. Other foreign collectors and historians drew on these works. The author even refers to information provided to him by our representative body. It was again Mr. V. Měřička, who explained this issue in the OMSA magazine The Medals Collector. In 1974, Robert Werlich repeats this mistake, because he supposedly checked with the representative office again.
No one in the CSSR addressed this issue and so the error is again found in the Notebooks, as well as in a 1972 publication by the CSLA Main Political Administration (authors Zdeněk Lipský and Ludmila Knetlová. This publication, entitled :
Czechoslovak Orders and Decorations, Rank Designations and Main Types of Uniforms of the Czechoslovak People's Army, has a military-promotional purpose. I do not wish to describe here all the publications and articles published, but it can be said that all the writers have calmly accepted the claims of Messrs Amort and Macháček without checking the facts.
It is interesting that we do not know the author of this truly failed distinction. When asked who the author was, the following was said :
The art design for both levels of the award came from the staff of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. I was further reminded that the secretariat of the Communist Party of the Czechoslovak Communist Party administers this award.
By a resolution of the Government of the Republic, this essentially Party decoration was classified as a State decoration and, in addition, a decision was taken on the order of wearing this "jewel-like" decoration. The list of the order of wearing is already worth our attention and therefore it will not be out of place to get acquainted with it.
1. Silver Star of the Order of 25 February
2. Star of the 1st degree of the Czechoslovak Military Order of the White Lion " For Victory "
3. Gold Star of the Czechoslovak Commander's Order of Jan Žižka of Trocnov
4. 1st degree award " For Achievements - 10 years of the People's Militia
5. Star of the II. degree of the Czechoslovak Military Militia. Voj. Order of the White Lion " For Victory "
6. Silver Star of the Czechoslovak Commander's Order of Jan Žižka of Trocnov "
7. 2nd degree decoration "For Merit - 10 years of the People's Militia"
8. 1st degree star of the Czechoslovak Military Order for Freedom
9. Star of the Czechoslovak Partisan.
I am convinced that even a layman will realise what a humiliation of the orders obtained in the fight against fascism. From this order it follows that this decoration becomes a high state order, which, however, was received by almost every member of the LM .
The decoration was awarded once, on 25 February 1948. Perhaps it can be written that even among LM members this decoration was unpopular, surely many realised themselves that it was already too much. This decoration was worn perhaps only on 1 May on uniforms, otherwise I have not seen anyone, unless they had to, wearing this star.
However, this was also the reason for the dissatisfaction of the LM members who wanted and demanded some kind of classic "metal" and so on 18 December 1969 the government instituted the medal
For Merit for the People's Militia, which consists of two medals (see article here ).
Literature : Václav Měřička : Czechoslovak decorations part IV 1945-1975
Statutes of orders and decorations contained in the Collection of Laws and Regulations of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Sources : Printed by Red Law , Minutes Z-73

Archive : Alt.