Awards of
World War IIThe Polish military award, the Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945, was created on October 26, 1945, to award all those who took part in the fight for Poland's freedom against the German occupiers.
The medal was established by a resolution of the Council of Ministers and approved by the State National Council of the Home Council of the People's Republic on October 26, 1945. According to the decree, the medal is established in honor of the victory of the Polish people and its allies over the barbarity of Hitlerism, the triumph of the idea of democratic freedom, and is intended to reward people who, through their actions and suffering, led to this victory and triumph, both in Poland and abroad.
The Medal of Victory and Freedom was awarded to:
- soldiers of the Polish People's Army (Ludowa) of the Polish Army in the USSR;
- soldiers who took part in the defensive war in 1939;
- soldiers of the Polish armed forces in the West, provided that they returned to Poland after the war;
- Poles who Fought against the Germans in the Allied armies;
- Polish partisans fighting at home or abroad;
- Members of Soviet, Yugoslav, or French partisan units;
- Members of the armed forces who served at least three months before May 9, 1945, in auxiliary or service units.
Since 1992, the awarding of the medal has been considered complete. In total, 670,000 people have received it.
The award was made of brass, in the form of a regular circle with a diameter of 33 mm. There are two varieties of the medal. The early version has a crownless Polish eagle and the coat of arms of the Polish People's Republic in the center. Along the upper semicircle is the inscription KRN (Krajowa Rada Narodowa), separated by dots. In a later version of the award, the abbreviation KRN was replaced with the full inscription KRAJOWA RADA NARODOWA, and two oak leaves were added to the bottom.
The reverse bears the four-line inscription RP / ZWYCIESTWO / I WOLNOSC / 9.V.1945 (Polish Republic / Victory / and Freedom / May 9, 1945).
The medal is attached to a 35 mm wide silk moiré ribbon with an eyelet and ring. Since 1960, the ribbon has been 33 mm wide. In the first versions of the award, the medal was made in the colors of the Polish flag, consisting of two identical vertical stripes of red and white. The post-1946 version of the award features a ribbon of five alternating vertical stripes: three red and two white.
The 1945 Victory and Freedom Medal is worn on the left chest, after the Oder, Neisse, and Baltic medal.