Help with identifying my great-grandfather's pre-WWI Cossack uniform
Upvote:1
I have a similar photo of a russian soildier wearing a similar uniform, belt, hat and boots. 
Upvote:6
May be your great grandfather was mobilised to the army when the WW1 was started. The Russian army had about 1,3 million soldiers and after mobilization it was up to 5 million soldiers. Both brothers had got signs of the second degree "For excellent shooting from rifles":
https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Нагрудный_знак_«За_отличную_стрельбу_из_винтовок»
I can't say what regiment did they have military service at. But it may be a dragoon regiment. They were common soldiers. Such uniform was used before WW1, by example look to the photo Solders of 1st Leib Dragoon of the Moscow Emperor Peter I regiment
Also it's interesting, what is on the back side of your photo?
Upvote:7
They are wearing the double breasted 1907 tunic which was issued to the regular army except the guards which had a more elaborate version.
He wears the Black papaha which was preferred by Cossacks and Soldiers in Siberian regiments.
Though i just realised that this tunic was issued to troops on foot (Infantry, Engineers and artillery) and cossacks were on horses so i have made a decision to say that he is a member of one of the Siberian infantry regiments.
Upvote:13
Cossack was not just a regiment one can get drafted into, it was something hereditary and traditional. The cossacks lived in specific areas (Don, Kuban river basins, Siberia, etc), had their own settlements, basically forming sub-ethnic groups.
Now, being a cossack is really nothing traditional in Belarus. Not now, neither in the beginning of the 20th century. There were no cossack settlements, being a cossack is alien to Belarusian historical tradition. Cossacks have visited Belarus only as a part of outside army force, mostly enemy force.
So there are two possibilities: either your great-grandfather was from somewhere else (not Belarus) and was stationed in Belarus during the war. Or he was not really a cossack, maybe your grandmother has misinterpreted it.
More post
- 📝 Were pre-columbian peoples aware of "America" as a three parts continent?
- 📝 Where do the terms Red Team and Blue Team come from?
- 📝 How was the current month and day disseminated to the townspeople of Medieval Europe?
- 📝 How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
- 📝 Why was the first production PzKpfw V (Panther) called the Ausf.D, and the second production version called the Ausf.A?
- 📝 How rigorously do combat engineers follow command hierarchy?
- 📝 Travel time for African Slave trade
- 📝 How many Bolsheviks were Jewish?
- 📝 Did pirates really drink a lot of rum?
- 📝 How was St Edwards Crown fixed after Blood flattened it?
- 📝 How did former slaves typically acquire a surname?
- 📝 How were the Bulgarians regarded by the Nazis during World War II?
- 📝 Were there nurses stationed at Bude, Cornwall, UK during WW2?
- 📝 How did the Romans handle "fatbergs" in their sewage system?
- 📝 What proportion of the Arab population of Palestine pre-1948 came from families that lived there before 1880?
- 📝 Were China's problems in the past two centuries due to "missing out" on the industrial age?
- 📝 Are "I, II, III, ..." versions of archaeological versioning of layers unique to Troy?
- 📝 Why was there no concerted effort to end the Barbary pirate raids until the 1800's?
- 📝 In the first half of 20th century, how was gold inspected for authenticity?
- 📝 What is the flower-like motif appearing right on top of the arches of structures built by Qutb Shahi dynasty?
- 📝 What was the Lena River Delta U-boat base in the Arctic used for?
- 📝 How do historians treat gossip?
- 📝 Why didn't continental eurotpeans aid the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex and East Anglia) against the invading Danes and Norse?
- 📝 Is there a reason why Turkey took the Balkan territories of the Ottoman Empire, instead of Greece or another of the Balkan states?
- 📝 What is the oldest excavated/discovered piece of silk textile made for clothing or writing?
- 📝 When did humans develop the ability to sail any direction regardless of wind direction?
- 📝 Was the speed of the attack at Jena critical to victory?
- 📝 When was the potato introduced to Mexico?
- 📝 Why didn't Portugal found universities in its colonies like Spain?
- 📝 When did people stop translating their names when moving from one country to another?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Help with identifying my great-grandfather's pre-WWI Cossack uniform
- 📝 Help identifying my great grandfather’s WWI Italian Army uniform, rank, regiment
- 📝 What uniform is my Cossack great great grandfather wearing?
- 📝 Help identifying a strange uniform jacket
- 📝 Can anyone help identify the country, rank, and unit this WWI uniform is from?
- 📝 Need help identifying 2 old coins? Struck coins, one with two standing human figures facing each other
- 📝 Please help with identifying this uniform, taken in Turkey 1940s
- 📝 Why did Peter the Great name Saint Petersburg, Russia with a foreign styled name?
- 📝 Was it not clear to the WWI allies that they were over-reaching with the treaty of Sevres?
- 📝 How could temporary surrender of self-government help Newfoundland with its debts?
- 📝 Help identifying an old bayonet
- 📝 Did any of the 50 Destroyers swapped for bases with Great Britain in 1940 sink any Axis military vessels?
- 📝 Did the Great Wall of China help cause the fall of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 Which army uniform is this (2nd Boer British or WWI US)?
- 📝 Help identify this poster of early 1900's movie with a woman sitting on a bench and a man behind holding her arm
- 📝 Identifying a military uniform from the early 19th century
- 📝 What possible uniform with decoration is my ancestor from New South Wales in the early 1900's wearing?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this passenger steamship with double funnels and two masts?
- 📝 Help identifying this WW1 badge
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this uniform jacket?
- 📝 Was the Russian Black Sea fleet strong enough to help with land operations on the southern shore in World War I?
- 📝 Can anybody help identify this uniform ? Circa WW1
- 📝 Help identifying Italian uniform, rank, regiment
- 📝 Can you help identify this European military uniform and medals?
- 📝 Can anyone help to identify and date this uniform or the medals?
- 📝 Please help me identify the military uniform in picture below
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this uniform /person?
- 📝 Identifying a sword engraved with "66. A. E. 1. 61"
- 📝 How did people react to these WWI posters with their 'brutal messages'?
- 📝 Need help identifying the military service and rank