Folia Historica 30. (Budapest, 2015)

II. KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Sallay Gergely Pál: Finn kitüntetések a Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum gyűjteményében

an all-purpose decoration to be awarded during peacetime, too, Mannerheim, already in his capacity as regent, instituted the Order of the White Rose of Finland on 28 January 1919. The third Finnish order, the Order of the Lion of Finland, was established on 11 September 1942 by President Risto Ryti. The primary purpose of its institution was the preservation of the prestige of the Order of the White Rose. Its grades are awarded for both civilian and military merit.

Finland and Hungary became independent countries at around the same time and soon established strong political and cultural relations with each other, as well as cooperation in the field of military intelligence. Owing to that "medal relations" had been very active from the beginning, i.e. the early 1920s, through the entire 20th century, except for the most critical part of the Cold War period. Certainly, several of the awards between the two countries during the period had a diplomatic character.

For those interested in the study of Finnish-Hungarian "medal relations" the Hungarian National Museum offers a research opportunity, as a total of ten Finnish orders, decorations and medals, two of them accompanied by award certificates, are being preserved in the Museum's collection. Some of the insignia had been acquired from estates, and therefore their onetime Hungarian recipients, as well as the dates and circumstances of their bestowal are known. Regarding the rest of the collection items, no accurate information is available, but hallmarks in some cases make educated guesses possible.

In the publication, the author introduces the Finnish medals in the Museum's collection, with special regard to their Hungarian relations, and sheds light on certain interesting episodes of the two countries' historical relationships.

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