Russian Order Book with Picture

[Dietrich Maerz]

Rick,

attached the booklet with picture. As you can see, the Red Banner was converted to the later regulation. The picture shows the original condition.

Dietrich

[Dietrich Maerz]

Next Page

Next page with reverse of the orders.

Dietrich

[Rick Research]

What's he got for collar tab insignia?

Nice conversion job, very neat.

I sure can't read the photo unit stamp, though-- is it clearer or faded out?

I'd guess that second Red Star entry, for November 1951, is a "batch" 15 years long service award, meaning he went in 1935/6, but must have gotten the heave ho before a 20 years Red Banner in 1955/56. Comrade Zhigolov appears to be all of 16, even in 1942!

That's a first type book-- I've showed 1938 and 1939 editions in the Orders Booklet thread. is this a 1942 or a 1941 on the last page?

VERY, VERY unusual to find one of these DURING the war.

[Dietrich Maerz]

Stamp

Here's a close-up of the stamp. It is faded.

[Dietrich Maerz]

Collar

Close-Up of collar. I have no idea!

[Dietrich Maerz]

Booklet Date

Date on last page is 1940

[Rick Research]

Hello, Comrade Yakov Sergeevich!

Naha!!! He is a Kapitan of Rifles-- those devices being indicative of an elite unit, like what would later be known as Guards.

The bullion edges to his tabs indicate he was a line officer and not a Commissar.

Could be infantry, could be Border Guards.

I don't know-- the photo stamp IS much clearer, but you have made it so big I can't read entire words.

While standing upside down on my desk, could you make the stamp alone close up the size to be visible all at once on a monitor screen?

I find 5.8 inches square does that on my scanner.

Soon all shall be revealed... and if not, we'll get Vadim!!!!

[Dietrich Maerz]

Stamp

Rick,

I'm really sorry. I have no scanner, only a camera and this is the best I can do. I'm sorry.

Dietrich

[Rick Research]

We'll make Vadim stand on HIS head! Looking at it upside down, I get (finally, my glasses keep falling off!) "Prezidium..." so probably just "Of The Supreme Soviet of the USSR."

But, his tabs are definitely not the same shade as his piping, which means green tabs, brick red piping = a Border Guards unit, or the brick red and red mix of NKVD Troops.

Just been checking my Soviet photos, and can't tell those two shades from the B&W images, only from reverse stamps.

[Vadim K]

Rick, assume the upright position

Ok, ok, get off the desk, thats all it says: "Prezidium Verhovnogo Soveta Soyuza Sovetskih Sotsialisticheskih Respublik", a regular stamp, no mystery there (and dont ask me how I could actually read that...).
I agree with you, either border guards or NKVD, I dont think there is any way to tell from a black/white photo though.

[Rick Research]

Yup, sure is nice to be able to call on people who can read smudgy, blurry things in odd alphabets... upside down.

This is interesting to me, trying to figure out usage of Orders Books.

I've seen 1940s, and seen ones like this from 1942-- but back before I was checking editions in the back-- so I wonder if the "1942" ones just used up 1940 printings... until they ran out.

Never encountered a 1941 Booklet. ???

Nor one for 1943 or 1944.

[Vadim K]

ok, since I want to be like Ricky when I grow up... did some search on the net, found this photo, you cant see much of the collar tabs but this is what the caption says:

M35 NKVD Officer's service tunic. The NKVD Internal Troops (NKVD-GUVV) insignia, the target with crossed rifles, can be seen on the collar tabs of the M35 pull-over (gymnastiorka).

"Target with crossed rifles" - thats what our guy has. So it sounds like Yakov Sergeevich might have been NKVD after all...

[Rick Research]

Ah, but what KIND of NKVD?

That was the blanket organization for everything from firemen and traffic police to Gulag guards and counter-intelligence agents!

The target and rifles was used by infantry "pre-'Guards'" too, but the collar tab and piping was the same color for them.

I've got photos of NKVD "troops" (what we'd loosely equate probably to the Waffen SS) and NKVD frontier troops/border guards... and can't tell the red from green in black and white, only that the tabs and piping show a distinct shade difference for those two branches of the enormous Super-NKVD.

[Vadim K]

Ah, but what KIND of NKVD?

man, you just like to make things difficult, dontcha? I think this is as far as we are going to get with a black/white picture though...

[Rick Research]

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