National Order "For Military Merit".

[d-riemer]

For about 3 years after the overthrow of the old regime in 1944, Bulgaria continued awarding the royal Order for Military Merit just slightly modified. The changes were apparently not tightly controlled and many variations from the main line can be found. All interim orders are identified by the national colors on the reverse. All orders awarded after the establishment of the Republic in 1946 are in addition recognizable by a wreath between ribbon and order. But then the lion state symbol on the order is either with or without a crown, a crown or no crown is suspended above the order and three kinds of ribbon are in use, etc. Supposedly, all these Military Merit Orders were made from parts left by the old regime. The picture shows 4th-class (gold) and 5th-class (silver) interim Orders for Military Merit.

After 1947, an Order for Military Merit did not exist in Bulgaria for 27 years until the new order was initiated.

Here are Breast Stars of the Order of Military and Civil Merit 2nd Class (only 4 points of the exterior rays) for comparison. Both are from the Interim Period after 9 September 1944. The Military Merit Star shows the lion with a crown and a crown is also used as suspension of the neck order (not shown). This order with all the royal symbols was still presented in September 1947 to a lieutenant general, one year into the Peoples Republic Bulgaria. The neck orders of the Military and the Civil award (not shown) have the lion in the front center and the national colors in the center of the reverse. No Cyrillic initial of Ferdinand is anywhere as seen on the face of orders from the time of the monarchy.