Order of Socialism

The Order of Socialism was a Czechoslovak order established in 1951 as the highest state decoration (the Order of the Republic and the Order of Labour were established at the same time). It was to be conferred “for entirely exceptional merits in the victory of socialism in the Czechoslovak Republic, gained in building, in the struggle against reaction, or in the defence of the state.” The order was awarded only once, on 31 July 1951, to Rudolf Slánský, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, on the occasion of his 50th birthday. In 1953 it was effectively replaced by the Order for the Building of the Socialist Homeland (formally, the Order of Socialism was not abolished until 1959), transformed in 1955 into the Order of Klement Gottwald – for the Building of the Socialist Homeland. The early replacement by a new order is explained by its conferral on Rudolf Slánský, who was sentenced to death and executed in 1952.