07-31-2003, 03:22 AM
About this general's tunic: the school badge seems like a post- 1961 badge (it's a bit hard to make out in the photo, but I'm assuming it to be the blue diamond, red star and crest) for completion of a voyennoe uchilishche (cadet training school), whereas a general SHOULD be wearing at least a white academy badge. These blue diamonds were more seen on junior officers' tunics. Also, the officer's Combined Arms Qualification badge is usually seen only on a lower officer's tunic (lieutenant through colonel). I have NEVER seen this badge on the tunic of a general, neither in the thousands of photos I've seen, nor on the uniform of any of the hundreds of Soviet generals I've seen in real life, travelling on the Moscow subways in Soviet and post-Soviet times. I have a feeling that it is a lower-ranking badge scorned by those of flag rank as beneath their position.
