Orders of the First Republic of Slovakia
by Tom Bergroth and Pavol Marcis
Wandering the internet looking for something else entirely, I found myself on the website of the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood and my eye was caught by an exhibition catalogue from a couple of years back. It only cost a few euros, so I sent for it... and when it arrived in short order, I found a real gem on my hands.
It turned out that in the autumn of 2023 the Museum had held an exhibition of Slovakian orders in their collection in memory of the Museum's co-founder Rudolf Rezníchěk, who had died the previous year. He'd had a particular interest in Slovakian awards, and his own collection had formed the basis of the Museum's holdings.
The exhibition must have been magnificent, the photographs in this book certainly are. It's worth getting a copy for them alone and yet the pages are also crammed with historical and descriptive detail which also make the book a delight.
The work opens with a brief history of how the First Republic of Slovakia came into being in 1939 beginning with the formation of a Czechoslovak state in the aftermath of the First World War with Slovakia being an autonomous region within the new state, having previously been an extremely short-lived Communist state that only lasted about three weeks in 1919. The 1938 Munich Agreement carved Czechoslovakia up with most being ceded to Germany and Slovakia to Hungary, but the following year the nominally independent Slovakia emerged as a puppet state of Nazi Germany. It lasted only until the end of World War II, when Czechoslovakia was reformed under Soviet control. In 1993 Slovakia finally became a free state. However, it is the period 1939-1945 that concerns us here.
The new state began by banning the use of any decorations awarded under previous regimes and so had to design some of its own. They established replacement decorations quickly then set down to devise some orders as this was still a time in which the exchange of orders between the leaders of states was a major tool of diplomacy. As Slovakia entered the war against Poland on Germany's side, the first order created was a War Victory Cross to distribute to leading military personnel both Slovakian and amongst their allies. This was soon followed by the Order of Prince Pribina and the Order of the Slovak Cross, both of which could be awarded for civil and military merit to both Slovak citizens and foreigners.
Each of these orders is described in exquisite detail with plentiful illustrations of the classes and variants that were established over the short period in which the First Republic of Slovakia existed. I shall have fun trying to track down images for my website now that I know what I am looking for.
Other medals instituted by the First Republic of Slovakia are also listed and there's a note that the current Republic of Slovakia designed its own orders with little reference to these historic orders. There's also a fascinating section on the metallic content of the awards, apparently one of Rezníchěk's interests as he was an engineer by profession and he established a specialist laboratory at the Museum for such analysis.
Looking at the Museum's website, this is the fourth exhibition catalogue they have published. If they are anywhere as good as this one I shall have to get hold of them!
You can get a copy from the Museum here.
Page last updated: 2 May 2026