Dress uniform regulations

[Tal Inbar]

Hi

Nice section! here is a schem for your official full deess uniform:

[Skrabichewski]

Here is a good example of a veteran wearing awards with civilan clothes including a bunch of Polish Orders and Medals below Soviet awardsas the regulation dictates. Interestingly enough he screwed up a bit by hanging the Patriotic War Order above Alexander Nevsky.

Dmitry

[kabanchik]

It is my understanding, that under the older uniform regulations, in use until the 1980'sor so, when the orders and medals were worn in this sloping style, that the ones closest to the center front (button area) of the uniform, are of a higher order, and they radiate outward in rows, away from the center, each descending row preserving its own order of precedence. That is why the Nevsky is lower, but still closer to the center, owing to its higher level of importance.

[otlichnik]

As far as I know there are no regulations for wearing orders and medals on civilian clothes.

The state law on orders and medals spells out precedence of awards which must be followed no mater what they are worn on. However, as for regulations specifying exactly where they should be placed, those exist for military uniforms only - for example the illustration from the 1989 uniform regs that Tal provided in an earlier post.

On military uniforms, awards were worn diagonally according to the 1955 regulations. I don't think they were officially worn that way after the 1958 regulations were introduced but I will have to check. They were certainly worn level and not diagonal from 1969 on.

Kabanchik is correct that the higher awards were towards the collar and the lower towards the outside. However, that said, this guy did not do a good job of placing his orders ....

Shawn

[kabanchik]

Please bear in mind that this illustration is from the 1989 edition of the Regulations for the Wearing of the Military Uniform, published only at the very end of the Soviet era. Earlier editions tell a different story, and I must respectfully disagree that medals and orders were worn horizontally after 1969. Some reference books in my library show official Soviet Army training posters from the late 1970's, with the decorations being worn DIAGONALLY.

[otlichnik]

Kabanchik,

Interesting observation. I will have to check to see what regs I have here with me. I know I brought my M1989 regs to Bosnia but I am not sure about the rest. I know I did not bring my posters....

It would be good to track down the exact change. If it occurs after the M1969 regs than it must have changed in one of the minor updates issued in the 70s or early 80s.

Shawn

[kabanchik]

I'll see if I can't turn up a period poster, to at least pin down when this change took place. There's probably quite an overlap between the new and old style of wearing the orders and medals, of course. In the meantime, does anyone else have any evidence??

[k3rvmfusa]

Greetings,
I am aware of 3 major uniform regulations- 1959, 1973, and 1989. Both the 1959 and 1973 regs stipulate that medals are to be worn in diagonal fashion with the lapel of the jacket. The 1989 regs are the first that I have seen that change it to a horizontal arrangement.

[otlichnik]

The major uniform regulations are 1958, 1969 and 1989. The first two introduced major changes - the M1958 uniforms and the M1969 uniforms. The last introduced lesser changes - mainly to field and naval infantry uniforms. Between these dates there were many, many changes issued to the regs. Some resulted in new books being issued others in only minor notifications. However, none introduced a major class of uniform.

Shawn

[vikingraider1]

The wearing of medals diagonally was introduced in 1949 with the introduction of the open necked double breasted uniforms for Air Force and Armoured officers. After that until 1969 all medals were worn in this way when worn on double breasted tunics. Conscripts wore single brested uniforms until 1968 and wore medals horizontally. In 1969, open necked uniforms were introduced for all ranks and as such they were worn horizontally, much to the chagrin of older officers who preffered to wear them diagonally.