NKVD Shoulderboards.

[Makarovii]

I recently bought a pair of repro NKVD shoulderboards (S/Bs) and they have red piping. Is this acurrate? I have since seen "original WWII" era NKVD S/Bs and they have no piping. Could they both be correct?

[otlichnik]

Well, it depends on rank and uniform class.

Firstly, all WWII era boards should be piped. Unpiped boards came into use much later, 1960's I think.

M1943 (WWII) Officer boards are either olive (field) or gold (service, which were also used for parade) background with royal blue piping and stripes. Enlisted boards were either olive background with dark red (not raspberry) piping (field) or royal bue with dark red piping (service and parade).

NKVD Border guard boards were different. Officer boards had forest green piping and stripes. Enlisted service/parade boards were forest green with raspberry piping. I forget right now what their field boards were - olive with forest green piping???

Also, NKVD and NKGB officers used special "bottle-shaped" boards from 1943 to 1944.

Shawn

[Makarovii]

Thanks for the info. I will be on the look-out for the field S/Bs, olive with red piping.

[otlichnik]

You have to be very careful about the red!

Regular red, which is strangely the most common, was used for armour and artillery personnel. Infantry used a raspbery, a sort of bright pinkish-red. It is the next most common. The real NKVD/NKGB ones had a dark brick red and are very rare.

What were the unpiped ones you saw? If they were unpiped roayl blue they were like service boards for KGB enlised personnel from the 1960s. I have such a set and have seen a few others for sale.

Shawn

[Makarovii]

Here are the NKVD S/Bs I have:

[otlichnik]

Hmmm. It is always hard to be sure about colours on scanned images. However, this set does not look "right". State security blue is usually darker. We call it royal blue but the Soviets called it corn-flower blue. Also the red looks like plain red not brick-red. My guess is that these are M47 militsia (police, part of MGB and later MVD) boards or possible Cossak (Don?) boards.

Shawn

[Tal Inbar]

It doesn't look right...I believe it was purchused from a known dealers who's main experteese is reproductions.

[Makarovii]

Could someone post a photo of the field S/B with the brickred piping and/or the service boards? The majority of my reference material covers the Army not the Security Services. TIA