Orders of Socialist Yugoslavia awarded to Russian diaspora representatives

Abstract

The article analyzes the state award system in the socialist Yugoslavia. It deals with awarding the Russian diaspora representatives in the country the state orders. Paper is based on official government gazette, which contained the list of persons awarded the state awards, as well as the archival documents: Yugoslav Army Official Military Personnel Files, kept in Military Archives. On the one hand, after Yugoslavia was liberated and Communist Party came to power, the Russian diaspora representatives were subjected to repression by the Yugoslav secret services and the Soviet counterintelligence. On the other hand, the policy of the new government in Yugoslavia was aimed at integrating Russian emigrants loyal to the country and to the regime, as evidenced by the practice of presenting Russian emigrants of both the first and second generations to state awards — heroes-partisans of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and figures of science, culture and art. During the study, cases of awarding the same persons with orders of both the pre-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the post-war socialist Republic were identified, which indicates the continuity of the state communicative policy towards emigrants. However, state award system in socialist Yugoslavia also implied an educational function in relation to Yugoslav society, therefore, the Russian diaspora representatives never received the highest awards of Communist Yugoslavia — the Order of Freedom and the Order of the People’s Hero, established in 1945 and in 1944 respectively. The highest order awarded to a representative of the Russian diaspora was the Order of the Partisan Star. A certain number of Russian members of the Resistance movement were awarded a Partisan memorial badge of 1941. And the Order of Merit for the People was awarded not only to the fighters of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and Russian members of the Resistance movement, but also to figures who made a great contribution to the development of the economy, culture and science of Yugoslavia. It is noteworthy that the conjuncture of Soviet-Yugoslav relations directly affected the measures applied to Russian emigrants, and the holders of Yugoslav orders were no exception and were also subjected to repression during the Soviet-Yugoslav tension. After the Soviet-Yugoslav relations normalized, orders were awarded mainly to the Russian scientists and artists.