Soviet uniform piece

[vikingraider1]

I mean the actual tassles. I have both on different uniforms and the one on the DEMBEL uniform is not as modest as the VDV parade uniform.

[Nack]

Ah. I've never seen white Soviet shouldercords up close, so I'll take you word for it. I figured that to make the cords for a dembel uniform, the soldier would get a bunch of regular cords and add them together, cut and "tease" some of them to make frilly tassles, and so on. So you are saying that there were different types of while shouldercords to begin with, right?

[Riley1965]

There is what appears to be a beret emblem attached to a 20th Anniversary of the GPW. Isit a beret emblem and if bot what is it?

[Nack]

I think I see what you are talking about--it looks like an officer's cocade stuck on a GPW anniversiary ribbon. It is actually attached to the tunic?

[Riley1965]

There is a 20th anniversary of the GPW 5-sided suspension minus the medallion on the jacket. It has some sort of hat device attached to it that looks similar to the cap device for the airborne troops beret. Looking at the picture it is on the right side. I will try to post a close-up of it.

I was wrong. The badge attached to the 20th Anniversary of the GPW is an Officer's Cap Badge, except airborne and aviation units.

I have a question. Included with the uniform(Dembel) was the medallion for the 20th Anniversary of the GPW. Should I repair the ribbon mount and attach the medallion or should I leave it alone?

[Nack]

If it was my tunic, I would put the medal back together and take the cap badge off. It is, of course, up to you.

[Riley1965]

I followed your advice. The medal is whole again and the cap device is in a medal sleeve with my other Soviet badges. Thanks for the advice.

[ibaya]

Originally Posted by riley1965

Who officially would wear this shoulder cord ?

The braided cords are called "aksalbanti", and they were worn by honor guards and parade troops in capitol and Hero cities.

There were two varieties, silver- and gold-colored. Each end had a cord loop, one attached underneath the shouldermark, the other looped around a jacket button. The only adornmets on these were long metal tapers at the ends of cords, which dangled from the jacket button loop. The airborne troops pictured in a previous post illustrate the silver variety. The gold variety usually adorned officer-cut uniforms.

Another picture, with what appear to be silver cords, although the winter coats ("shinel") are officer-style.

More silver cords. The uniform is enlisted cut -- you can tell by the quality of the cloth and the jacket collar style.

Here is a picture of a KGB honor guard at Lenin's Mausoleum. In this shot, the officer-style winter coat with gold-colored cords. Notice the thin gold edging along the shouldermarks, which are not to be confused with officer cadet ("kursanti") shouldermarks.

Originally Posted by Nack

I get your question Riley--the person who jazzed up this uniform had to get the cords from somewhere, presumably a military store, so someone would have worn cords like these, so who was that?

If that is your question, my answer is I'm not sure. My guess is that the fancy shouldercords were hand-made from regular cords. Attached is a picture of paratroops wearing a single white cord--the cord on your tunic looks like it was made out of a few similar white cords.

My guess is ... curtain cords and tassels! :D

Demobilized conscripts jazzed up their uniforms, enough to make a Gilbert & Sullivan character proud, to impress their family and friends when they returned from military service. Common embellishments included tie tacks with a kopek coin soldered on it (for the Soviet crest, or "gerb"), shiny metal letters to replace the rubber "CA" on the shouldermarks, embroidered edging/piping. For some, the glitterier -- the better!

As long as they looked reasonably normal when they left their units, officers usually didn't inquire too closely -- it would have been considered petty and churlish to rob them of their minor glories on such a happy occasion.

[Riley1965]

Thanks to all!!! Uniforms are a new area of study for me. I would like to thank everybody that posted replies which in turn educated me in the subject of Dembels. In the future I will need a tunic of a Colonel. I have someone doing the archival research for me. when I know what type of unit this Colonel was assigned to I'll know what uniform I'll need. I have his and his Sister's medals all documented.

I forgot to ask...What type/model of service coat is my DEMBEL?

[Nack]

[QUOTE=ibaya]My guess is ... curtain cords and tassels! :D

Ibaya--I just got another dembel tunic and the shouldercoards are indeed handwoven amalgamations of what might be curtain cords, with some lengths frayed into tassles. Spot-on! Thanks for the insight.

Riley--you've got what appears to be a M69 service unifom tunic there.

Here's another dembel uni.

And another.

Another dembel.

And another, sorry for the small pic.