russian federation My collection of Russian and CIS cap badges

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Dear fellow collectors,

The topic of modern Russian and CIS cap badges is very dear to me, since when I started collecting cockades 4 years ago I precisely started from some modern pieces that will be shown in this thread. Since then my collection grew from half a dozen to >800 pieces and yet I never lost the passion for post-Soviet cap badges. Unfortunately, some (many, in the latest times) come at unreasonably high prices and at the same time deals with Russian sellers are sometimes complicated by technical difficulties.

Nevertheless, I have been able to mass a decent amount of such cap badges which I now show you, hoping you'll appreciate and help me with your useful remarks.

Let's start with some CB and BBC cap badges (in fact used also by units of the BB МВД  and at times by ФСО and ФСБ). The first cockade on top, with large wreaths has been obtained by soldering a private's cap badge into a larger basis, probably one belonging to am M69 Soviet parade cap badge. This is clearly fictional and probably was produced either as for a dembelskaya forma, or as outright smoke and mirror for tourists/foreign collectors. This said, I liked the idea of that cap badge a lot and bought it anyway!

All other cap badges differ in one respect or another. We have cap badges initially built with a beautiful two-piece structure (the star is fixed onto the St George colours and is a separate piece), proceeding then towards a simplified one-piece stamped structure. The larger cap badges without wreaths on the left side of the 4th and 5th row from top are for Generals. In the last row we have then Soviet-style cap badges produced after 1991. In fact, the officers cap badge on the left shows no clear signs that would support the thesis of post-Soviet production, but has been added given the wide use that the Russian Armed Forces made (and make?) of it.

 

 

 

Then we have some ВМФ cap badges, for 1994-97 (coat of arms eagle) and 1997-present (Armed Forces eagle). Once again, in the last row we have Soviet-style cap badges produced after 1991 and still widely used in the Russian Armed Forces.

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2015 by TacHel

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Let's then continue with МВД, ФСО, ФСБ and cossacks cockades.

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Moving on, we come to ФСБ Border Guards.

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Now let's pass to the well known eagles worn in the upper part of Russian caps, to an early tricolour beret badge as well as to the recently re-introduced BBC wings.

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Finally, the plastic ushanka versions of several cockades shown above, plus the first cockades of my larger CIS section, in this case some Ukrainian ones.

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Finally, everything I've got about the CIS: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Belarus, PMR and Kazakhstan (with a curious Soviet-style silver cap badges displaying a blue star..having no clear idea what that was, I thought it could be an early Kazakh cap badge [?]).

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Hope this was appreciated! 

[paul wood]

 

Very nice and most appreciated as was the most interesting Bulgarian selection

Paul

 

 

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Dear Paul, thank you so much for your appreciation! Slowly but steadily I'll try posting all the different sections of my collection, which I finally managed to decently photograph. The Soviet and CIS sections account for more than half of my collection, but the effort I had to put into finding German pre-Nazi paramilitary cap badges or Spanish Civil War ones is hardly matched by anything else. I should be able to post the German 1920s-1930s badges today.

[TacHel]

Nice, you're really not missing much are you?!

 

My fav is the Soviet Marines one. 

Edited June 22, 2015 by TacHel

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You are too kind!

When it comes to Russia, although I think I've done my homework properly, I still miss a few pieces and all the early 1990s transitionary ones. Yet, I'm still short of very many when it comes to other CIS nations. The fact is that these don't come for cheap at all and I have quite a problem with purchasing current say Belorussian cap badges for higher prices than the ones I pay for original Cold War or even war-time pieces! 

[TacHel]

I know quite a few places to get them on line, even the older now defunct ones...  If you run out of options, drop me a PM.