Would appreciate help identifying my husband's Grandfather's uniform.

[MSand]

This is the only photograph the family has of him in his uniform. From what I am told by my mother in-law(her father),he would not speak about his time in Russia and especially about his time spent in the Russian Army. The only story passed down was that he was in the Imperial Guard. As you can see, the photo is dated 1909. The closest we could get to his given name is John Michael Slavashevech. He is the man on the left in the photo and we do not know who the young man is standing next to him. He immigrated to the US not long after this photo was taken, that's a story I'm trying to unravel as well. I do notice the differences in the uniforms but I have no idea what his rank is nor what unit he was in . Is there any significance to the while belt ? From his birth year being 1885 and the date of this photo being 1909, it would make him around 24 yrs old. Any help with this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you !

[rogge16]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry I can't help you with this but hopefully someone will have an answer for you soon.
Good luck!

Luke

[Mehti Safarov]

This is the only photograph the family has of him in his uniform. From what I am told by my mother in-law(her father),he would not speak about his time in Russia and especially about his time spent in the Russian Army. The only story passed down was that he was in the Imperial Guard. As you can see, the photo is dated 1909. The closest we could get to his given name is John Michael Slavashevech. He is the man on the left in the photo and we do not know who the young man is standing next to him. He immigrated to the US not long after this photo was taken, that's a story I'm trying to unravel as well. I do notice the differences in the uniforms but I have no idea what his rank is nor what unit he was in . Is there any significance to the while belt ? From his birth year being 1885 and the date of this photo being 1909, it would make him around 24 yrs old. Any help with this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you !

The man on the left is in a rank of petty officer (unter-ofitser). No legend on his shoulderboards means he was with some Guard unit.
The young man next to him is in a rank of lance corporal (yefreytor).

[MSand]

Any idea if it would have been an Imperial Guard unit ? That's what's been told to his grandchildren throughout the years. Appreciate your help !

[Mehti Safarov]

Used to be dozens of Imperial Guard various units in Russia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Guard_(Russia)

If you post a high resolution detalised image of his cap badge I'll try to find out what particular unit he has been with.

[MSand]

Sorry for the late delay in answering your post. This is as close as I could get it without the photo becoming too blurry.
Thank you for your help.