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    Soviet Shoulder Boards


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    Guest Rick Research

    I don't know any way to tell WHICH branch of State Security any given blueberry blue piped tunic/smock is with dark blue "Waffenfarbe" 6 sided boards, NKVD troops versus NKGB. But the "other" NKVD (police, fire, etc) weren't State Security, and had their own uniforms. There are threads way back in the old pages with wartime SS, Militia (civil police) insignia and a M1943 Police General's uniform. Different colors when not SS. Not blueberry blue. (5 sided blueberry blue - cavalry, not SS.)

    The bottle boards weren't general issue, I don't think, but a rare ephemeral variant before the boards were standardized.

    State Security NKVD blueberry blue from 1943 carried straight on through name changes MGB and KGB.

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    The bottle boards for officers were like the "wave" boards for NKVD/NKGB Generals; they were supposed to be NKGB but seem to have been used by NKVD while NKGB seemed to have used the regular boards too. Really difficult to nail down; I could post shots of all these on tunics...if i could post pics : (

    Here is a nice shot of an NKGB General following Malenkov at the VP in 1945; his boards have the "wave".

    DD

    Edited by Daredevil
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    Guest Rick Research

    That's because the NKVD (which stands for nothing more sinister than People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) was a vast "umbrella" organization covering everything from firemen to concentration camp guards and the secret as well as "street" police.

    But all the various subdivisions had their own uniforms and colors, so it's like the difference between the German Green Police and General ("Black") SS--all under Heinrich Himmler, but with very distinct basic purposes.

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