Vasily Chuikov in a dark alley?

[bru888]

I was looking up the Soviet 54th Rifle Division and found that it was part of the 9th Army headed by Vasily Chuikov. That rang a bell, so I clicked on the link for his bio:

Vasily_Ivanovich_Chuikov.jpg (211.22 KiB) Viewed 903 times

What? That doesn't look like OOB's portrait of him! Or does it? From all the bling on his chest, I deduced that photo was of him in later years, when he was Marshal of the Soviet Union or something. I searched for pictures of him at a younger age and came up with this:

Vasily Chuikov.jpg (47.57 KiB) Viewed 903 times

That indeed looks like OOB's portrait; though perhaps a tad even younger:

commander_125.png (126.77 KiB) Viewed 903 times

Regardless; at any age, I would not want to meet Vasily Chuikov in a dark alley.

[bebro]

Yeah, the top pic must be post-1945. The lower one and the portrait have those stars on the edges of the uniform collar, which is a style used until 1943. Plus he has more grey hair in the 1st pic