Order of the National Hero

The Order of the National Hero ( _sh. орден народног хероја/"orden narodnog heroja", _sl. red narodnega heroja, _mk. орден на народен херој) was a Yugoslav gallantry medal, the second highest military award in the Socialist 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 National Heroes of Yugoslavia or People's Heroes of Yugoslavia (the variance comes from the variable meaning of the adjective "narodni"). The vast majority was awarded to partisans for actions during the Second World War. A total of 1322 awards were awarded in Yugoslavia, and 17 were awarded to the foreigners.

The bulletin of the Supreme commaned of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia no. 12-13 (December 1941 and January 1942) announced the establishment of the title of "National Hero" for heroic and self-sacrifing participants of the National 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 National 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 1400 times. Marshal 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 national heroes. Although the benefits have since been downscaled, post-Yugoslav countries still provide certain benefits to national heroes. Many schools and streets in post-war Yugoslavia were named afternational 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, Priština and Zagreb.

Notable recipients

Notable recipients of the order include:

* Boško Palkovljević Pinki
* Božidar Adžija
* Maks Baće Milić
* Vlado Bagat
* Vladimir Bakarić
* Josip Broz Tito
* Marija Bursać
* Boško Buha
* Anka Butorac
* Krste Crvenkovski
* Rudi Čajavec
* Rodoljub Čolaković
* Peko Dapčević
* Nada Dimić
* Petar Drapšin
* Stjepan Filipović
* Ivan Gošnjak
* Petar Gračanin
* Većeslav Holjevac
* Žikica Jovanović Španac
* Edvard Kardelj
* Boris Kidrič
* Franjo Kluz
* Lazar Koliševski
* Rade Končar
* Sava Kovačević
* Josip Kraš
* Nikola Ljubičić
* Veselin Masleša
* Miloš Minić
* Kosta Nađ
* Marko Orešković
* Moše Pijade
* Koča Popović
* Ognjen Prica
* Ivo Lola Ribar
* Velimir Škorpik
* Slavko Šlander
* Mika Špiljak
* Milan Tepić
* Hristijan Todorovski Karpoš
* Veljko Vlahović
* Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo
* Žarko Zrenjanin

Foreign citizens recipients of the order

* Sergei Biriuzov
* Ivan Bulkin
* Andrey Vitruk
* Pavel Dmitrienko
* Vladimir Zhdanov
* Michał Żymierski
* Pavel Yakimov
* Boris Kalinkin
* Semyon Kozak
* Ivan Konstantinov
* Luigi Longo
* Rodion Malinovsky
* Alexander Managadze
* Grigoriy Ohrimenko
* Ludvík Svoboda
* Vladimir Sutetz
* Fyodor Tolbukhin
* Vasiliy Ulisko
* Alexander Shornikov

Hero Cities

* Belgrade
* Zagreb
* Ljubljana
* Novi Sad
* Prilep
* Priština
* Titov Drvar
* Cetinje

Public and political organizations recipients of the order

* SKOJ (Young Communist League of Yugoslavia)
* OK SKOJ (Municipality comity of SKOJ) of Drvar
* SUBNOR (Union of Veterans of People's Liberation War)
* Union of the Spanish War veterans of Yugoslavia

Military Units recipients of the order

* 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
* 1st Lika Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
* 2nd Lika Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
* 1st Vojvodina Proletarian People's Liberation Strike Brigade
* 2nd Krajina People's Liberation Proletarian Regiment "Dr Mladen Stojanović"
* Side Battalion of the Supreme Command of People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia
* Workers' Battalion of the Užice People's Liberation Proletarian Regiment
* Central Hospital of People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia
* Partizan Hospital on Petrova Gora

tatistics

A total of 1307 awards were awarded in Yugoslavia by 1957.

By sex

1220 were male and 87 were female.

By place of birth (not ethnicity)

* SR Croatia - 282
* SR Bosnia and Herzegovina - 284
* SR Serbia - 256
* SR Montenegro - 247
* SR Slovenia - 156
* SR Macedonia - 63
* abroad - 17

By social status

* 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 joind Partizans

Almost all recipients were members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, while 658 of them were also members before World War II. The majority, 1261, joined partisans in 1941; there were 41 heroes from 1942 and five from 1943.

By the way they died

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

ee also

* Hero of the Soviet Union