Show your Bulgarian things! :)

[Theodor]

Hi,

I am curious to see what Bulgarian things have reached where around the world Maybe many of you have Bulgarian medals, uniforms, helmets, daggers or other things. So why don't we show them in this thread? Saying We, because I'm starting it with a picture of some junk. Many things are packed and stored, other are too big, so here are just a few Bulgaria things from my collection that were available for the picture:


The belt is royal /saying it because the commies made similar/.
Now please show something from your collection

[David F]

HI Theodor,The only Bulgarian things i have are the 2 medals in the pictue that were brought back by my brother who went there on holiday a couple of years ago
Best wishes from Scotland
David F

[Theodor]

Hi David,

Thank you vey much! That's the "Cherry cannon" on the left medal - a cannon barrel made of a drilled cherry tree, reinforced with iron rings... It was the "artillery" of the brave riot in 1876 against the Ottoman empire. So it's a kind of commemorative medal for april 1876? Sorry, medals are far away from my knowledge

[matt johnson]

Hi Theodor,

Here are my only Bulgarian items. The Imperial Bulgarian orders are some of the most beautiful that were made.
Best Regards,
Matt

[matt johnson]

Here is a better image of the picture. I guess that it is his name written on the back of the photo.

Matt

[Peter_Suciu]

Hi Theodor--
Your Bulgarian M36 helmet is nicer than mine but I picked this up recently and it was pretty cheap. I wish I could have found one with the decal.

[Denis]

Hi Theodor,
Does this kind of "things" count ?

[Dave Danner]

Matt, that is a really nice group!

The text looks like "Polkovnik Rakarov". Polkovnik means Colonel.

Most of my Bulgarian stuff is here: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/mi...a/bulgaria.htm

Dave

[Rick Research]

I don't find Rakarov in the Saxon Albert Order-Knight 2nd with Swords roll, but that's no surprise, since MY Colonel isn't in there either-- no name on his giant portrait, but he appears to be Infantry Regiment 13 circa 1930 here, and the only listed Bulgarian holder of an "SA3aX" was a cavalry captain...

This one falls into the "bad haircut" category:

[Rick Research]

Can't make out the regimental devices on this close up from a WW1 German-Bulgarian group shot I'll post in Imperial later (homemade German "tropical" visor caps )--

both are wearing the Soldiers Cross for Bravery 4th Class, earned as cadets.

Type up "Bulgarian" in the search box in here and in Imperial Forum and see what comes up!

BTW-- wasn't it DANGEROUS to have this "counter-revolutionary class enemy" stuff under the Peoples' Republic?

[Theodor]

Wow, beautiful stuff you people have!!!!

Wow Denis, beautiful stuff!!!!!!!!!

Matt, this is an impressive lot!!! Do you have information about the colonel? If not, I can try to find. There are 4 big volumes, containing information about 95% of the Bulgarian officers till 1945 /saying 95%, because unfortunately a few are missing, but only a few/. The information - if find - would be very short, because it is based on the orders available for the officers - birth date, dates of promotions and units. If interested, please let me know, but I'll be where these volumes are kept after exactly 2 weeks.
This is an offer for all - if you have a name of Bulgarian officer and want to find out more - just let me know. As said, the info is only a few dates, but more than nothing after all.

As for the stuff being dangerous during the commie times - no, it was not. Only fire weapons or edged weapons. Fire weapons - jail. Edged weapons - not oficially forbidden, but when discovered, they were simply confiscated and going to someone commie's collection... Well, gndarmery "memorabilia" would be really dangerous for an ex-gendarmery man, but anyway there were no ex-gendarmery men, the commies just killed them all, so no problems
On the other hand the commies really loved to have these beautiful items. Starting from 1944 and finishing maybe in 1989, they used every good occasion to "liberate" goodies from the "enemy"... Daggers, swords, awards, hats, weapons... the class enemy was an enemy, but they loved to have the enemy's possessions In 1944-46 nearly all "royal officers" were fired from the army and persecuted even in their civil life. Sent to prisions, labour camps, moved to live in the deep province... Not for being really guilty for something, just for being not commies. Those who had participated in anti-partisan activities, or were just blamed to have been - they were shot in 1944-45. The rest were just considered possible danger for the regime - and did not see a good day... And during the years of persecution their homes were many times searched and anything valuable - taken.
For example - grandfather. A pilot, captain from the Air force. At september 1944 /when the commies came/ he was Adjutant of the Commander of the AF Flight school at the town of Kazanlak. In 1945-46 he spent 1,5 years in jail for "steeling several coaches of /forgot what exactly raw matherials - leather or something like this/ from the airfield workshops" - needless to say he did not, also there were no such workshopsat, not even close to - the airfield... Well, he was luckier, several of his colleagues were sentenced to death at the same trial again for nothing... And while he was in jail, the commies several times searched the house of this "enemy of the people", leaving with his uniform, awards, dagger, sword, radio, forks.... No comment needed

[Theodor]

And here is my small "medal corner" - only a few awards:



Now something more ordinary, down to the trenches Bulgarian WWI Luger holster and a lanyard /attached in a strange way to an unknown to me holster/



And here can be seen the holster and the lanyard in use /the last man to the left has exactly the same holster; unfortunately this old scan is very poor quality/



These gents are in the trenches of the Southern Balkan front, 1917. Here they are again:




I am wondering a little about the second from left, the one with the glasses. His helmet looks strange, the left side. Could it be a battle damaged shell, or maybe has a front armour put /Stirnpanzer, if not wrong for the spelling/. Any ideas? Again the scan is old and bad...

[Rick Research]

I could not see any scans in the last post!

here is another photo, taken on a Danube steamer at Budapest. The pickle-pussed Hungarian medical officer seems to be jealous about the nice Bulgarian Military and Civil Merit Orders he is surrounded by!

I also have an award document, 1947, for the Military Merit Order-Commander-- tiny crown removed off the lion, otherwise the same as a Royal issue-- to a Soviet Major General. Too big to post under the new Forum size restrictions-- and if I shrink it, it becomes too tiny to read!

I also saw an award document from 1946-47 for a Bulgarian "Order of SAINT Alexander Nevsky" to a Godless SOVIET officer... that is SOOOOOOO weird, and have no clue what such a mere ?1945-47 Order must have looked like!

The only "transitional" circa 1945 Orders I have seen have all been the Bravery Order IV-1 pinback class, no crown on lion, and lines on center motto ring instead of "1941."

[Theodor]

...no more problems with the pictures I think, thanks to Dave I think I fixed the images...

[Dave Danner]

Youe web server does not allow "hot-linking" to non-html files. This means that you can't directly link to pictures (web servers usually do this to stop massive downloading of porn, or so I have heard...not that I've ever looked at internet porn or anything like that).

Here is the error message:

A Hotlinking Error Has Occured!

We have detected a hotlinking error. Hotlinking is when you link to images or NON html files on 0catch.com from another host. Hotlinking is not allowed for our FREE Accounts. Hotlinking is allowed for our paid accounts. Your account can be upgraded in the user section when you have logged in.

You can probably see your scans because they are already in your computer's cache. I would suggest that you put the pictures on the other image host you have for your first picture in the thread, or perhaps e-mail them to an association member who can post them as attachments.

Regards,
Dave