Article The cold war - Soviet Army

In military schools, due to the constant struggle of officers with non-statutory inventions of cadets, instead of plastic, two fragments of a wooden ruler were used. The shoulder strap always remained straight, and during checks, when the officer, checking the shoulder strap for inserts, squeezed it, the shoulder strap bent. Thus, the insert was invisible.

Corporals and sergeants were supposed to wear special insignia on their shoulder straps, "stripes": one, two or three narrow, and senior sergeants - one wide. The stripes were issued ready-made, from flexible plastic of yellow color, more precisely - from a material such as a calico. They had to be glued to the shoulder strap so as to cover it across, with the ends tucking under the edge of the shoulder strap. But the sergeants preferred to do it in a special way. With the help of PVA glue and the same iron, they "beat off the edges", that is, at the edge of the shoulder strap they gave the stripe a right bend angle. In combination with the insert, this gave the epaulette a special look. In some cases, instead of oilcloth strips, metal from the parade uniform were used. They were no longer glued, but pressed against the shoulder strap with the help of special wire holders.

In some units, the soldiers also worked on letters on shoulder straps or ribbons (on sailor's caps). To do this, the letters were cut from another shoulder strap and pasted over the "relatives" to give the inscription a big bulge. On a demobilized overcoat or jacket, metal letters from the dress uniform were sewn onto the shoulder straps. A respondent who served on the Soviet-Chinese border in the Piargunsky district described how the metal letters were made more convex. To do this, a metal tube of toothpaste was cut and the resulting thick foil was rolled onto the old letters like a matrix.

The buttonholes with the emblems of the branch of the military and the sleeve chevrons have undergone fewer changes. Perhaps only on the chevrons, some craftsmen managed to cut out additional inscriptions with a razor, cutting off the plastic rolled onto the fabric. Inscriptions like "DMB-92" (year of demobilization) or part number were popular.

Especially worth mentioning about the icons. Perhaps, in all troops, from a certain period of service, any self-respecting soldier or sergeant had to wear this "iconostasis". It included a Komsomol badge, best of all with a fastener screwed from the inside and a backing. In everyday clothes, this could be a barely noticeable frame cut out of plastic or non-ferrous metal in the shape of a badge, and on a ceremonial demobilization uniform it could be a whole work of art, in the form of a rocket (as in the story of Y. Polyakov) or a tank or other military attribute. This was followed by award or qualification badges: Guards badge (in guards units), "Excellent worker of the Soviet army", ("Excellent worker of the Air Force" and "Excellent worker of the Navy") "Class specialist" (master, class 3, 2, 1), "Warrior - athlete "(in common parlance -" slider ") of different degrees, special badges of the combat arms, for example," Excellent worker of border troops "," Senior border detachment "," For distinction in the Interior Ministry service "," 500 exits to border protection ", etc. ... In units related to hostilities, and in military schools, the installation was more or less observed to wear only well-deserved badges. In other cases, the badges could be either actually received or obtained in different ways - bought or exchanged. A particularly thick cover of badges should have adorned the demob jacket.

I translated about half of the article. I'm very tired. I translate this through Google transliteration (because I will get bored to translate with a notebook), so there may be errors. Well, I'm sorry. I'll continue later. Hopefully someone needs it

A merchant sells crystal chandeliers at the entrance to the barracks. The exit of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia, Milovice, 1990.

May 28 was the professional day of the USSR Border Guard. I didn’t have time to tell about it, therefore I am posting a photo today.

In the first photo, by the way, you can see the combed overcoat - I wrote about this above.
Most likely, this corporal is serving his second year and will soon go home.

T-62 tanks from the 4th Guards Tank Division during exercises, 1970s.

Soviet marines in Angola, 80s of the XX century.

Nikolay Ogarkov and Raul Castro in Havana in February 1978

Ogarkov is a very tough guy. He literally exudes charisma. He took part in the Great Patriotic War, went through it entirely, after the war he "grew" to the rank of general of the army. He paid a lot of attention to the introduction of the latest technical means into the Soviet army, paid a lot of attention to missile defense and the coordination of nuclear forces. He was an active supporter of the creation of a "new generation" army capable of effectively fighting without the use of nuclear weapons. He could openly argue with the commander-in-chief Ustinov (it seems to me that Ogarkov as commander-in-chief could show himself very well). The organizer of the largest Soviet exercises - for example, "West-81". He actively opposed the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In general, a really cool guy.

Classes on T-55A tanks of late release (with a laser rangefinder) and T-55M at the tank training center of the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School in July 1986.

The destruction of the USSR dealt a serious blow to our army, especially to military establishments. For example, out of 23 Soviet higher schools of military pilots, only 3 remain. What can be done if the authorities are more interested in keeping villas in Italy than assault and bomber aviation regiments. The photo shows the faces of history found in one of the abandoned military schools.

A political officer reads out the decree of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 410 "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, to eradicate moonshine." Bagram. Afghanistan. May 1985.

I don't know which is funnier - the emotions of the soldiers who set about creating a bottle of human height, a political officer with a serious face reading a report, or escorts with such faces as if they cut out more people than Rambo.

Shooting practice of artillerymen of the 122nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division of the 36th Army of the Trans-Baikal Military District in 1970

There are quite old artillery systems in the frame: 76 mm. cannon ZIS-3, 122- and 152-mm. howitzers M-30 and D-1. A lot of the guns of these systems lay in warehouses and the gunners were taught to work with them as well. You never know what will happen ...