Christmas gift to my wife

[January]

Early-1980s female KGB officer's jacket (senior lieutenant). Last photo is to show wear from original owner. Kind of a neat item; the male model for this jacket has collar tabs, but on the female version, the collar is shaped differently and tabs wouldn't work (unless specifically made for the garment). She fell in love with it immediately.

[willie777]

Umm, Ive never had anything leather before, but if Im not mistaken, an officer jacket is not supposed to have that sleeve patch, only em and prapaschorik (WO) ranks are.

[DougD]

I have to say that I am pretty sure that the coat is civilian with the added insignia to make a sale; I am near 100% sure that the patch itself is a reproduction and not original KGB. And willie is correct, even if the patch were real, it would not be on an officers coat. I think this nice civilian coat has been "E-KGB" 'ed to find a buyer. Sorry.

DougD

[willie777]

I dont think any branch of the soviet armed forces used leather for a parade uniform either. Gosh, I really hope you didnt spend a fortune on it. Then again, it may be the senior lieutenant's own civillian coat that she put military insignia on...

EDIT: I just noticed: Four sided boards are not supposed to have branch insignia on them, but if it is her own jacket, it would make sense as there are no collar tabs.

[DougD]

I don't think she would have put on a repro patch....i am amazed no wishful thinkers have called the coat "demob" yet. DD

[willie777]

How would one demobilize an officer anyway?

[DougD]

Thats the point of the demob 'fanatics', they buy some really poor item on E and then when its found out, so to speak, they simply claim 'demob' status for it (thus anybody can do anything they want to any uniform item!). They will eventually buy a bad Marshal and claim he was demob! dd

[willie777]

Well, at least that explains the sequins on the sleeve of this:D:
http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/s...0-marshal.html

[Jeffrey Meffert]

I told my wife the prosecutor's uniform I bought from Laurent right before the holidays was for her. She didn't believe me.

[January]

I wondered myself whether it might be a civilian jacket with shoulderboards and army buttons added. But the boards have definately been worn--they are rounded and crushed, not stiff and flat like they are when they're new. It just seems like way to much work to me to merit the US$30 I paid for it.

Since this was just a gift to my wife for her to wear, rather than something to display, I'm not really concerned with its pedigree--I just thought that it was neat, the price was right, and she really likes it.

The sleeve patch seemed out of place to me, too. As did parade shoulderboards on something that didn't look like part of any parade uniform I've seen. But I'm only really into army uniforms and have no references for KGB stuff. I'm still happy with it.