Kuznetsov, Nikolaj Gerasimovich, Admiral Of The Fleet Of The USSR

[Lapa]

Doug and Vadim,

I personally find this thread highly interesting, but I must say that I am somewhat uneasy with its tone.

I'd like to point out a few things here, and please realize that I am NOT taking anybody's side:
. Regarding the coat and its boards, I think that it is conceivable that Kuznetsov had it made at the date Doug mentioned, with the old 4 star boards. When the new regulation came into effect, that coat was not very old, and as such, Kuznetsov would have wanted to keep using it, and therefore replaced the older boards with the newly designed ones.
. Autobiographies are a valuable source of information; however, they are not always 100% accurate or reliable. Most historians and researchers will confirm that, on occasions, their authors, either wilfully or through bad recollection, make mistakes as they write about events that happened years ago.
Here, we have one concrete fact: the Supreme Soviet Decree of May 25, 1945 that created the new boards. On the other hand, we have Kuznetsov writing that his boards were changed in May 1944. It could very well be a case of "right month-wrong year".
In historical research, we must rely and rest on ascertained facts only. In this case, we have a choice between a dated and published state document on one hand, and a personal recollection on the other hand. Research methodology dictates to accept the former as true (it can be verified concretely and independently) until a concrete, verifiable proof (based on actual evidence) can be obtained for the latter, and therefore invalidate the former. In other words, we need a separate proof to confirm what Kuznetsov wrote; until such time, we must consider that it is likely that he made a mistake in recalling the year.

Again, I want to point out the high interest that exists among Forum members for constructive, instructive, contradictory debate. Please, don't spoil it for the rest of us by taking a defensive personal tone.

Marc