File talk:Snor-ranks-gw2.png
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These and the airforce ones were designed by Felix (LordZiba) and redone at his request to make the file smaller.
To those who might wonder about some unusual aspect of them:
- Gaps: The russian empire had one of the most elaborate table of equivalency. Every military branch, ministry and government agency had its own hierachy with each rank being able to be compared to someone in another organisation for reasons of precedence, social advantages, pay, etc... While originaly it might have seen like a good idea, not every organisation required the same number of sub-division and accompanying leaders. This meant (as here) that some organisation were forced to have gap either due to a smaller personnel size or different needs.
Added to this problem was the fact that some organisation eventualy developt higher prestige (such as strictly all-noblemen ones) meaning that the equivalency existed only on paper (Officers of the Guard were always considered to be one rank higher that their actual one).
The change to the post 1948 rank insignias *there* was in part due to an effort to streamlined the system (civilian services were cut out of the equivalency system and were given separate insignias, indicative of the proeminence enjoyed by the army in SNORist russia).
- Blank Boards: While in most western armies "blank" insignias represent the lowest rank of a level (company officers, field officers, flag officers), in the russian army it was used by the highest one of a given level. This come from the fact that until they adopted the current insignias, rank was shown (as in most european armies) by position and type of epaulettes. For example, a second-lieutanant might wear an epaulette on the left, a lieutenant wore one on the right and the captain one on both shoulders. The next level would then do the same but with some difference in the design of the epaulette (different tassle and/or decoration of the board).
When the russian changed to the current system, the ranks that wore 2 epaulettes kept wearing a "pure" version of them (with simplified design) and the ranks below them but in the same level wore "defaced" ones. The lack of blanks in post 1948 boards is partly due to an effort of modernisation (i.e. imitation of western armies) just like the soviets *here*.
