Russian Czarist era shoulder board

[Nez52]

I am making a historic graphic novel situated to Russo-Japanese war. There fought this guy whose shoulder board really puzzles me. Since he is the main character and I would like draw his ranks correctly I'd need to know what is the symbol in his shoulderpad? And does anyone have a better picture of it?

I know he should be a member of Russian 52nd Njezhin Dragoon Regiment. His ranks were JLieutenant Colonel. This is the only picture I have but you can even see the silver board with 2 red stripes on it. The rest is mystery.

[Aceton]

Except the 2 stripes, the Lt-Colonel shoulder-board should have 3 stars. If I remember correctly, in cavalry, if the lace of the shoulder-board is silver, stars should be golden. If the lace is golden, stars are silver. In the centre of the board there should be number of the regiment. However, the shape of insignia shown on your photo is not looking like 52. Maybe you are wrong with ID of the photo? Is it possible to see the whole picture?

[Nez52]

Thanks a lot for an aswer!

The whole picture you can see here: Mannerheim Museo
click the thumbnail-picture in the middle of the page to see a larger version.

But the photo is correct I believe. It is not a mirror image. There could be some turbulence on the negative thou… But still I wonder, because the mark on the shoulder board seems so clear (in it’s own way). He himself wrote about SILVER shoulder boards, but gives no further details.

I sort of solved the problem by drawing a horses head there. See the skech. And put this only on the right side. To become sort of personal tuning of the outfit

Mr Mannerheim was in his way to the front when that picture was taken. He was then supposed to know where exactly he’s going to be situated (52nd Njezhin Dragoon Regiment).

When enlisted to the war he got a promoted and became a Lieutenant Colonel. I also have a picture where you can see him BEFORE the promotion when he was serving in chief of the model squadron on the permanent staff of the cavalry officers' training school. (also Captain of the Court Stables attached to the Chevalier Guards regiment) There is only one stripe and no stars.

I wonder if his status directly under the Emperor has some effect on showing the ranks in the shoulder board? I used to think that when you get promoted you loose stars, but this system of 1 or 2 red stripes seems to mix that?

[Aceton]

Relax: there were no horseheads on Imperial boards :-) I think it's a kind of photo defect causing unclear image. Normally there should be a regimental number 52 surrounded with 3 stars. I will later check my references on how exactly should look Nezhinsky dragoons boards during the Russo-Japaneese war.

As for the last picture you have attached, there is a uniform of Chevalierguards Regiment rittmeister (captain) wearing a service dress uniform. According to the Imperial table of ranks, captains were included in the group of junior officers (ensign, podporuchik, poruchik, staff-captain, captain). Lieutenant-colonels and colonels were chief officers. Highest group were generals. All junior officers had boards with one stripe, and the exact rank was marked with stars (or no stars at all in case of captain). Chief officers had two stripes (Lt-Col - with 3 stars, and Col - with no stars).

Another tricky thing was that Guards have seniority of one rank over the line troops. It means that in case if Guards captain was transferred to the line regiment, he had automatically become a lieutenant-colonel.