Rick, Doug,
A couple of precisions here:
. In the Police Museum in St Petersburg, there are two KGB uniforms displayed side by side, one of a colonel (don't remember his name) piped in dark blue as normal for KGB, and one of a general (also don't remember his name :( ) with the summer coat, all piped in red.
. Nobody in the St Petersburg collecting underground has ever heard or seen a KGB general's uniform piped in dark blue (boards included), regardless of the period.
. The dark red/dark blue combination that Doug mentioned was used for just a couple of years at the end of the 1950's~early 1960's by the MGB. I recently purchased directly from the family an officer's parade jacket with dark-red collar tabs and dark-blue piped boards. I also saw about a year ago in Paris a cap to this uniform, that is piped dark-blue around the crown with a dark-red band.
I forgot to mention one thing regarding your first pair of boards. During the war period, quality control was apparently somewhat lax when it came to minor details. What I mean to say, is that I have seen wartime airforce boards that were piped in a variety of colors, ranging from the usual light-blue to the NKVD/KGB dark-blue. I would not be otherwise surprized if it was one of these occurences.
Marc
A couple of precisions here:
. In the Police Museum in St Petersburg, there are two KGB uniforms displayed side by side, one of a colonel (don't remember his name) piped in dark blue as normal for KGB, and one of a general (also don't remember his name :( ) with the summer coat, all piped in red.
. Nobody in the St Petersburg collecting underground has ever heard or seen a KGB general's uniform piped in dark blue (boards included), regardless of the period.
. The dark red/dark blue combination that Doug mentioned was used for just a couple of years at the end of the 1950's~early 1960's by the MGB. I recently purchased directly from the family an officer's parade jacket with dark-red collar tabs and dark-blue piped boards. I also saw about a year ago in Paris a cap to this uniform, that is piped dark-blue around the crown with a dark-red band.
I forgot to mention one thing regarding your first pair of boards. During the war period, quality control was apparently somewhat lax when it came to minor details. What I mean to say, is that I have seen wartime airforce boards that were piped in a variety of colors, ranging from the usual light-blue to the NKVD/KGB dark-blue. I would not be otherwise surprized if it was one of these occurences.
Marc
