Burma (Myanmar). A 1975 Burmese Military Merit Order, Prototype

Two-piece construction, in silvered and gilt bronze with red enamels, manufactured by Ikom of Zagreb circa 1975, illustrating a right-facing rifleman, on a five-pointed patterned star, the star backed by a wreath of oak leaves and bearing eleven red enamelled berries, measuring 42.5 mm (w) x 40.5 mm (h), scattered gilt wear and contact marks evident on the rifleman, original ribbon, near extremely fine.

Footnote: On March 2, 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government had been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalized or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism, which combined Soviet-style nationalization and central planning. A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. Until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the general and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). During this period, Myanmar became one of the world's most impoverished countries. There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years, and these were almost always violently suppressed.