01-23-2013, 08:43 PM (This post was last modified: 01-23-2013, 08:53 PM by Synthesis.)
A few years ago, a good friend presented me with the primary piece of his "collection"--a late-80s/early-90s officer's dress uniform of the KGB, with captain's epaulets. Now, by and large, everything about it looks correct for an unissued uniform: it has the correct gold thread pogony with royal blue highlights, royal blue collar insignia, blue pipping on the sleeves and breeches, no holes thread holes for badges or medals on either breast. There's a very typical, square maker's cloth sewn lightly on the inside as well, with the usual instructions of how to wash it, size, etc.
After keeping it stored for a while now, I decided to figure out what I was going to do with it. While dusting it off and investigating it, I noticed something odd for the riding breeches that came with it: a factory label (very different from the maker's label on the tunic) tightly sewn in. I recognized immediately the Russian word for Minsk, which didn't really surprise me, but the rest did confuse me: "кбво швейное ателбе".
A quick Google search suggests that "кбво" is the acronym for a military museum in Minsk, while "швейное ателбе" is a tailoring company. Does anyone know what this means? I thought the whole set was just unissued surplus, but might the breeches (and maybe the whole thing) be a reproduction for the Minsk Museum? Or faked to look like that? Or is it something else entirely?
No need to panic here, everything is fine and genuine:
КБВО: Краснознаменный Белорусский Военный Округ (Red Banner Belarussian Military District)
Швейное Ателье: as you found out, it does mean Tailoring/Sewing Company. The breeches you have were manufactured at the local official Belarussian sewing company.
01-23-2013, 09:08 PM (This post was last modified: 01-23-2013, 09:10 PM by Synthesis.)
Hah, thank you! I probably should have remembered that the acronym came from what the Minsk Military Museum is named after.
I didn't know that a clothes for a uniformed service of the KGB would be organized along the military districts, since it is not the Defense Ministry, but that makes pretty good sense. Or the factory just uses the same label for all the uniforms it manufactures, and couldn't be bothered if it is for State Security. It's quite a beauty of a uniform, my poor camera skills aside, but uninssued dress uniforms often are--kind of wish I didn't leave it in a bag in a box for so many years.
EDIT: If you or anyone else can discern anything else from the other labels, by all means do share. :)
The uniform (as set of elements) is genuine, however, I think it was never worn - the white removable labels were removed by the owner in 99% of cases at the beggining of use.
On the other hand - it's possible that this uniform indeed belonged to a KGB captain, but he had it on once or twice only.
Al-muell Wrote:The uniform (as set of elements) is genuine, however, I think it was never worn - the white removable labels were removed by the owner in 99% of cases at the beggining of use.
On the other hand - it's possible that this uniform indeed belonged to a KGB captain, but he had it on once or twice only.
As I said in the first post, I'm almost certain it's unissued--between the cloth tags on the blouse and tunic, and the absence of any sort of badge or pin holes. It would be pretty odd to have a dress uniform for a captain with no service badges whatsoever, even in the KGB, I think.
The white one indicates that the garment to which it is attached was manufactured in 1971 (or 1977, difficult to figure out is the last digit is a 1 or a 7) in infamous Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan (you may want to check its radioactivity :rolleyes:).
The second label indicates the place of manufacture (K???) and should also have the year on it (under the folds, unfortuantely).
Checking again, it's "77" not "71". I guess it's not uncommon for blouses to be mixed and matched . Still, Kazakhstan, and Semipalatinsk no less! Then again, I'm sure there are plenty of shirts manufactured in less-than-popular parts of Nevada too, it shouldn't surprise me. These places sometimes get lumped together after all.
I'll be sure to take a smoothed-out photograph of the jacket label, since that's of the most interest.
