Admiral Kuznetsov's M43 Tunic?

[ekrogh]

This is my first post on this site, and I am very happy to discover it. I am primarily a German U-Boat collector, but have added a few Soviet WWII items to my collection, and am seeking some expert opinions.

I purchased this M43 tunic awhile back at a local militaria show here in Southern California. While not an experienced Soviet collector, I have handled enough German WWII cloth to be of the opinion that this is a period tunic.

While researching the tunic, I came across a picture of Admiral Kuznetsov wearing a similar uniform. I have also read the account of how the Admiral convinced Stalin to allow him to wear the Marshall's star on his shoulder boards in the excellent book "World War II Parade Uniforms of the Soviet Union" by James Sinclair and Douglas Drabik.

Here are some scans of components of the tunic. It was difficult to get a good detailed shot of the full tunic given the image size limitations. Hopefully someone will have insight into the history of this tunic.

Here's a period photo of Admiral Kuznetsov.