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Help identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniform

Article about: Hi everyone . This is my first post in the forums. I'd greatly appreciate if you could help me with this. I have a great-great-grandfather who was, according to the family story, "colon

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    Default Help identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniform

    Hi everyone . This is my first post in the forums. I'd greatly appreciate if you could help me with this. I have a great-great-grandfather who was, according to the family story, "colonel of the Czar's personal guard". I assume this may mean the Imperial Guard. Here's the only photo I have from him. He's wearing some uniform but I don't know the exact time it was taken, so this may well not reflect his final rank:

    Help identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniform
    The facts that I know for sure was that the family was Polish or from Polish origin --his surname must have been some variant of Kozlowski, for my great-grandmother was Kozlowska-- and that he was already active when my great-grandmother was born, in 1905, and served until the October Revolution. They lived near the imperial family in Saint Petersburg, from what I recall in the same complex (now, I don't know what does that mean in that context). My great-grandmother mentioned that she usually sat just behind Rasputin when they went to the church for mass, and she remembered Rasputin's look as troubling and tantalizing. She also mentioned going to school in a carruage.

    After the Bolsheviks took power the family (my great-great-grandfather, his wife, my great-grandmother and her older sister) had to escape to Poland hidden under a wheat wagon. However, at some point (presumably before that) my great-great-grandfather was called to recognize the bodies of the Romanovs after they had been shot. My great-grandmother said her father had seen Anastasia's dead body himself and was mad at all the fuzz about the "lost princess". They relocated near Warsaw and he lived until the mid-1950s to early 60s. As for my great-grandmother, she married a Polish lawyer and they moved to Argentina via Italy after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. She died in 2001.

    I acknowledge there is not visual nor written evidence of all of this before they relocated to Poland, just oral comments from her --I don't want to sound like I'm inventing the story. This is what she lived and what she told (including to me; I got to know her). I just mention this as some context that might be useful to help identifying the image .
    Last edited by rbminis; 02-25-2015 at 02:06 PM.

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    Hello and welcome to the forum!
    As we frown on using external photo hosting sites, I have removed the link and uploaded your photo directly to this site.
    There are members here who will be happy to assist you in determining if the time frame of the photo matches your expectations.

    If you intend to upload anymore photos, please read this thread that explains how to use our own photo hosting.
    New picture posting feature - How to guide !
    Ralph.
    Searching for anything relating to, Anton Boos, 934 Stamm. Kp. Pz. Erz. Abt. 7, 3 Kompanie, Panzer-Regiment 2, 16th Panzer-Division (My father)

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    Thanks for that! Perhaps you can also help me correcting that bizarre kind-of-typo in the thread title :P.

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    Could you please post high resolution images of his chest badge and shoulderboards.

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    Quote by Mehti Safarov View Post
    Could you please post high resolution images of his chest badge and shoulderboards.
    Hi, thanks for your answer (and sorry for my delay in answering). The photo is not in optimal condition and has been framed behind a dusty glass for years and years. I took some more photos through the glass pane, although I'm not sure they show much more than the previous one. I hope you can help me .

    Help identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniformHelp identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniformHelp identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniformHelp identifying my great-great-grandfather's uniform

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    I can clearly see four stars/one stripe on his shoulderboards i.e. he's in the rank of "shtabs-capitan" which is an equivalent of 'major'.

    His badge carries the monogram of the tsar Nicolas the second. This proves he's been with the one of the imperial guards regiments.

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    Wow, that is more information than we ever had. Thanks a lot! .

    Now, is there any registry, any list, any way to locate him somewhere and get to know his final rank or his service record? I'll be in St. Petersburg and Moscow in a couple of weeks FWIW, so I can go in person if there is any chance to look for that info.

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    Quote by Mehti Safarov View Post
    That's the most relevant

    ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia
    I think I found him!! My grandmother told me his name (Pyotr) and I was able to refine my search a bit. It seems this is his service sheet. So the photo must have been taken between 1897, when he was promoted to shtabs-kapitan, and 1899, when he was promoted to captain. In 1897 he got the badge he's wearing on the photo. And it's coincident with the family story in that he was promoted to colonel in 1912 and the family lived at Tsarskoye Selo (that's another detail I got from my grandma). Thanks again for your help! I'll see if I can fetch any more information while in Russia, although this is far more than I expected to learn.

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    очень интересная история

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