09-28-2010, 02:48 AM
I disagree.
Ask Marshal Rokossovskii who sat in prison and all the other guys who were both kept hostage as "military experts" during the 1920s to keep the Red Army from falling apart after the Revolution about their non-political service to the Motherland.
I'll also remind everyone that for a long time one of the questions on award citations and biography cards was "Has individual served in White, bourgeouis, or foreign Army?" and I'm sure the existence of such a question wasn't congratulatory or to increase his chances for awarding.
Just as religion and nationalistic trappings such as the "tsarist shoulder boards" were brought back into tolerance with the Great Patriotic War to placate the masses and gather as much possible support for the State that was fighting for its existence, these photos of soldiers wearing imperial decorations represent a similar, post GPW time. These brave soldiers who "fought for their country" wouldn't have been caught wearing their Russian imperial awards through the '20's or '30's or they would have been dead and/or in prison.
Ask Marshal Rokossovskii who sat in prison and all the other guys who were both kept hostage as "military experts" during the 1920s to keep the Red Army from falling apart after the Revolution about their non-political service to the Motherland.
I'll also remind everyone that for a long time one of the questions on award citations and biography cards was "Has individual served in White, bourgeouis, or foreign Army?" and I'm sure the existence of such a question wasn't congratulatory or to increase his chances for awarding.
Just as religion and nationalistic trappings such as the "tsarist shoulder boards" were brought back into tolerance with the Great Patriotic War to placate the masses and gather as much possible support for the State that was fighting for its existence, these photos of soldiers wearing imperial decorations represent a similar, post GPW time. These brave soldiers who "fought for their country" wouldn't have been caught wearing their Russian imperial awards through the '20's or '30's or they would have been dead and/or in prison.
