Orders, decorations, and medals of Bulgaria

Principality of Bulgaria/Third Bulgarian Tsardom (29 April 1879 – 15 September 1946)

The decorations of the Principality of Bulgaria (29 April 1879 – 5 October 1908) and the Third Bulgarian Tsardom (5 October 1908 – 15 September 1946) were divided into orders, medals and honorary insignia. Orders were awarded to civilians and military personnel for particularly great merits in service of the state (For example, commanding an army to a victory). Honorary insignia (Badges) were awarded for a specific merit or achievement or due to a specific event (For example, being wounded in action) and medals were presented on the occasion of a political or historic event or for merit (For example, on the anniversary of independence). Most of the Imperial commemorative medals were only issued once, to participants at the commemorated event and only the highest level personnel could be expected to be at all these events during their term in high status society. No-one was issued every commemorative medal, as during the turbulence of coups, counter-coups and change of monarchs, the high level society was in near constant change.

The Principality of Bulgaria's first order was created with Article 59 of the Tarnovo Constitution, The Order of Bravery, which came into force on 1 January 1880 (The order itself shows the date 1879 on the reverse). The highest Tsardom of Bulgaria award was the Order of Saint Cyril And Saint Methodius awarded to those who brought outstanding excellence to the culture of the Tsardom of Bulgaria (The People's Republic of Bulgaria also created an Order of the same title in three classes but that was a far lower level award for merit in education and science and is not to be confused).

Orders

Medals

Table Medals

Unofficial Medals

These "medals" were "issued" or "awarded" by various groups and organizations including government departments but are not fully recognized as officially awarded medals and are not authorized to be worn on official uniforms. Despite being unofficial medals, they are still held in high regard.

People's Republic of Bulgaria (16 September 1946 – 10 November 1989)

• Note: Wider ribbons indicate 3 sided imperial type suspension/Narrower ribbons indicate 4/5 sided soviet type suspension.

With the exile of Tsar Simeon II all Imperial Bulgarian awards were discontinued and banned (Other than those created after the pro-soviet coup of 4 September 1944), including the wear of such awards. Traces of the Imperial award system were left in the following ways;

• Until 13 December 1950 various awards were issued with male and female type ribbons.
• Until 13 December 1950 male ribbons were still issued as a trifold, some medals such as the medal for "Participant in the Anti-Fascist Struggle" continued to have a trifold ribbon until the award was discontinued with the collapse of the People's Republic.
• Two new orders were created with the same name as imperial orders, The Order "(Saint) Cyril And (Saint) Methodius" and the Order "For Bravery".
• The Order of Civil Merit ribbon was used for the new Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (which had similar award criteria).

Honorary Titles

| |- |[[File:Лауреат на Димитровска награда III ст..jpg|120px|centre]] (3rd Class). Лауреат На Димитровска Награда (III Степен). Laureat Na Dimitrovska Nagrada (III Stepen). |23 May 1949 / 1959 |Awarded to people for their achievements in science, technology and culture. | |- | Mother Heroine. Майка Героиня Mayka Geroinya |13 December 1950 |Awarded to mothers who gave birth to and raised ten or more children. Originally named Hero of Maternal Glory this award was renamed Mother Heroine on 9 June 1952.

| Лауреат На Международна Ботевска Награда. Laureat Na Mejudunarodna Botevska Nagrada. |24 July 1972 / 1986 |Awarded to poets for their poetry and contribution to peace, democracy and social progress. Awarded to only four people every five years. Laureates:

This award ceased with the collapse of the People's Republic but was reinstated in 1996.

| | |29 April 1979 |Awarded to prominent Bulgarian and foreign scientists who were specialists in the field of ancient Bulgarian and Slavonic studies. | |- | | |18 January 1979 |Awarded to Bulgarian Cosmonauts, the only two being Georgi Ivanov, 1979 and Aleksandar Panayotov Aleksandrov, 1988.

Orders

Medals

Republic of Bulgaria (10 November 1989 – 29 May 2003)

With the collapse of The People's Republic of Bulgaria their award system was discontinued (Officially on 5 April 1991) with the exception of orders bestowed on foreign nationals. All communist and imperial awards were allowed to be worn. The soviet style 5 sided suspension was dropped, with the exception of the medal 50th Anniversary of Victory Over Hitler's Fascism, which had a 5 sided enamel suspension and the Imperial tradition of different ribbons for different sexes were reintroduced for certain awards. Between 5 April 1991 and the introduction of The Order For Loyal Service Under The Banner in 1994 there were no official state awards for Bulgarian citizens. As of 29 May 2003 a totally new award system was introduced and as of the 9 June 2003 the previous system was officially abolished.

Titles

Orders

Medals

Republic of Bulgaria (since 29 May 2003)

Legal organisation of the current Bulgarian Honours System is contained in the Constitution and the Decree on Intellectual Stimulation. Orders are established by the National Assembly and are awarded by the President of the Republic. The nomination of a foreign person is made by the Ministry of External Affairs, whereas Bulgarian nominees are selected by the Council of Ministers.

Titles

Orders

Medals

Table Medals

Badges

Recipients

;Grand Crosses

• Souphanouvong
• Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden ;Cordons
• Valdas Adamkus
• Akihito
• Albert II of Belgium
• List of titles and honours of Beatrix of the Netherlands
• Carl XVI Gustaf
• Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca
• Emil Constantinescu
• Jean-Luc Dehaene
• Süleyman Demirel
• Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway
• Harald V of Norway
• Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark
• Thomas Klestil
• Margrethe II of Denmark
• Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway
• Queen Paola of Belgium
• Dilma Rousseff
• Nicolas Sarkozy
• Queen Silvia of Sweden
• Queen Sonja of Norway
• Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani
• Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
• Zhelyu Zhelev ;1st Class with Swords (Military)
• Kliment Boyadzhiev
• Radko Dimitriev
• Ivan Fichev
• Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
• Georgi Ivanov (cosmonaut)
• Prince Joachim of Denmark
• Stiliyan Kovachev
• Vasil Kutinchev
• Mihail Savov
• Georgi Todorov (general)
• Stefan Toshev ;1st Class (Civilian)
• Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov
• Cécilia Attias
• Irina Bokova
• Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
• Ignat Kaneff
• Krzysztof Krajewski
• Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
• Louis Michel
• Alois Mock
• Bujar Nishani
• Colin Powell
• Anders Fogh Rasmussen ;Other or Unknown Classes
• Ivan Abadzhiev
• Nicolae Ceaușescu
• Benita Ferrero-Waldner
• Gustáv Husák
• Islam Karimov
• Jarosław Lindenberg
• Tatyana Lolova
• Musa Manarov
• Georgi Markov
• Yordan Radichkov
• Wincenty Rzymowski
• Viktor Savinykh
• Anatoly Solovyev
• Vladimir Georgiyevich Titov
• Rangel Valchanov

References

References

1. "Institution:Orders and Medals". [[President of Bulgaria.