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Warrant officers were also seen as being an interface between the commissioned officers and enlisted men. They possessed greater responsibilities due to their greater experience, but were also allowed to relieve commissioned officers of their duties, or even become commissioned officers after a time. Featured in this section are additional shoulder rank boards worn by the Soviet fleet and its subordinate services of naval infantry, coastal artillery, and naval aviation. The boards on this page reflect the ranks from seaman to senior warrant officer. Commissioned officer ranks are listed in the previous section. |
Earlier Period Navy Shoulder Boards |
1958 Pattern |
1969 Pattern |
Later
Period Navy Shoulder Boards |
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Boards for Greatcoat/Tunic (4-side)
Shirt Sleeve Boards (6-sided)
Enlisted "Short" Boards
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Boards for Greatcoat/Tunic (4-side)
Boards for Greatcoat/Tunic
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Shirt Sleeve Boards (6-sided)
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Shoulder Boards for Greatcoat and Tunic (Four sided) This section describes the common four-sided shoulder boards worn by warrant officers of the fleet, naval aviation, the naval infantry, and the coastal artillery. These boards were designed to be sewn directly onto the shoulders the tunics and jackets. As with naval commissioned officer shoulder boards, the fleet versions originally came in only parade and black service variations, but a summer service version was established 2 July 1973 by Order of the Ministry of Defense #144. No parade warrant officer boards were ever established. The every day boards of the subordinate services differed from the fleet winter boards only in their piping, which was either blue or red. | ||||
Fleet | Naval Aviation | Naval Infantry / Coastal Artillery | ||
Winter Service | Summer Service | Service | Service | |
Warrant Officer | ||||
Starshii Michman / Starshii Praporchik |
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Michman / Praporchik |
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Warrant Officer Shoulder Boards for Shirt (Six-sided) The shoulder boards in this section were designed to be slipped through loops on the shoulders and secured by a 14mm button featuring an anchor that was sewn through to the tunic. Most were worn with the shirtsleeve uniforms, but there were exceptions that paralleled the commissioned officer uniform regulations. It should be noted that all shoulder boards come in various lengths in order to accommodate soldiers of different sizes, the differences in length in the images below reflect this fact. The black fleet boards were not worn with the shirt, but rather with the Summer Everyday/Out of Formation and Summer No. 3 Out of Formation uniforms. They were the equivalent of the Naval Aviation and Naval Infantry service boards which followed the same regulations. Gold boards were used by all naval services when wearing the yellow shirtsleeve uniforms. White fleet boards were established on 2 July 1973 by Order of the Ministry of Defense #144 and were worn with all white shirts and white naval jackets. They are identical to the army and air force white warrant officer boards adopted in the 1980's. | |||||
Fleet | Naval Aviation | Naval Infantry / Coastal Artillery | |||
Gold | Winter Service | Summer Service | Service | Service | |
Warrant Officer | |||||
Starshii Michman / Starshii Praporchik |
Coming Soon! |
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Michman / Praporchik | Coming Soon! |
Coming Soon! |
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Enlisted Rank Boards (4-sided) In this section the rank boards of conscript sailors and enlisted extended service personnel of the Soviet naval services. These boards continue the Soviet tradition of designating each branch by different colors. Fleet services use black boards, naval aviation use light blue, while the naval infantry use black with red piping. Prior to 1980 the fleet boards of soldiers and sailors were marked with yellow two letter abbreviations of the fleet from which the sailor served. The design of the letters often differed due to manufacturer variations, some even look as if they were applied with stencils at the unit level. Rank stripes (also in yellow) were added above the letters as the soldier rose in rank. | |||
Rank |
Fleet | Naval Aviation | Naval Infantry / Coastal Artillery |
Senior Ship's Petty Officer / Starshina |
| Coming Soon! | Coming Soon! |
Senior Petty Officer / Senior Sergeant |
| Coming Soon! | Coming Soon! |
Petty Officer / Sergeant |
| Coming Soon! | Coming Soon! |
Junior Petty Officer / Junior Sergeant |
| Coming Soon! | Coming Soon! |
Junior Petty Officer 2nd Class / Corporal |
| Coming Soon! | Coming Soon! |
Seaman / Soldier |
| Coming Soon! |
Enlisted "Short" Rank Boards These rank boards were worn with the enlisted No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No.4 uniforms as well as the enlisted work uniform. As with all naval boards, the color of the differed depending on the branch of the navy that the sailor served in and the time of year. Black and white were used by fleet personnel, light blue were used by naval aviation, and black with red piping were used by the naval infantry. Black with white piping was only used by officer cadets in conjunction with the gold anchor insignia. Those with ranks
above that of conscript sailor would have yellow rank stripes across the
board in place of the Cyrillic letter abbreviations.
The naval infantry and navy Kursant boards are noteworthy for the colored
borders around them. The Kursant board below is for an apprentice seaman cadet. Other
Kursant ratings would also have yellow rank stripes to denote their rank at the
time of their being selected as a cadet. |
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Navy (Summer) | Navy (Winter) | Naval Aviation |
Naval Infantry |
Kursant |
Works cited <1> Voennaya Odezhda Voorukennik Sil CCCP i Rossii (1917-1999- godi),
Redkaya Kniga, 1999. Print |