Silver medal National heroes - Karel Janoušek proof
Silver medal National heroes - Karel Janoušek proof
The product can also be purchased directly in the stores of the Czech Mint
Product description
The National Heroes cycle presents, after Bedrich Homola and Heliodor Pika, the third army general who fought for the freedom of our country. The silver medal of the Czech Mint pays tribute to Karel Janousek.
Karel Janousek's story seemed to embody the troubled Czech history of the 20th century. He passed through the legions where he was wounded in the legendary battle at Zborov and commanded one of the evacuation trains during Siberian anabasis. He was in the Czechoslovak army where he decided to exchange the office for the aircraft cockpit and commanded the Air Force of the First Czechoslovak Army during the mobilization in 1938. He joined the foreign army where he enforced the creation of independent Czechoslovak wings in the British Air Force RAF and was appointed to the rank of marshal for his merits. He passed even through the communist jail where he was sentenced to death by a rope which was thanks to attenuating circumstances changed to a long-term prison. At the end of his life, he experienced half the reforms of the Prague Spring that at least partially rehabilitated him, but the general public does not know his name despite all the sacrifices he placed on the altar of his homeland.
The obverse side of the medal from the atelier of academic sculptor Jiri Dostal is dominated by Marshal's portrait accompanied by the RAF insignia. "The reverse side composition is made up of a silhouette of the upward Spitfire airplane overlaid with vertical stripes commemorating marshal's imprisonment. Between the stripes there is the inscription "THE PRISONER OF THE COMMUNIST REGIME", which, with the compositional composition and font type, reminds us of the brutal expression of the period after February," explains the author of the medal.
Each medal is stored in spectacular packaging in the form of a booklet that describes the life story of Karel Janousek. The acclaimed Czech historian PhDr. Petr Koura, Ph.D. is the author of the treatise.