Tere, r/Eesti! Any military history buffs here able to help identify a uniform?
I was going through some very old photos given to me by my vanaema, and came across a great portrait of her father in uniform. Given his age in the photo, I would assume this was approximately around WWI, so I assume it’s an Imperial Russian Army uniform - the circular cap badge looks similar to what I’m seeing in basic Google searches for WWI-era uniforms. My question is about the cross badge - does anyone know what it represents? I figure it might be the emblem of a certain regiment, perhaps an all-Estonian one, so I wanted to ask in case anyone here might happen to recognize it. Aitäh, and my apologies for posting in English!
Posted Feb 15, 2023, 8:42 AM UTC
203
It's an insignia of irregular troops of Russia - i.e. units conscripted to support the regular army. The original name of that cross is Ополченский крест (literally "military cross". Established in 1812, it served as pretty much only military identification of those units.
In order to determine the actual unit, the following database may help:
https://www.ra.ee/ilmasoda/
Thank you so much! This is a huge help!