I would like to add some general information on the history of the epaulettes and disticntive shoulder boards (pogoni) in Czarist Russia.
Epaulettes were introduced in the Russian army and navy in 1807 and they survived only with some minor alterations until the February revolution of 1917. They were bigger and more elaborate than those in other European countries. Epaulettes of general officers had broad cords (bullions) instead of normal fringes, those of staff officers (majors, ltcs and colonels) had narrower fringes. Junior officers (called "higher officers" or "oberofitsery" in Russian terminology), ie. lieutenants, staff-captains and captains, wore so called "counter-epaulettes", that is epaulettes without any fringes. From 1827 the rank was indicated by the combination of small five pointed stars, with the peculiarity that the highest rank in each officer group (captains, colonels and full generals) did not wear stars at all. Regiments and services were denoted by background colors, company numbers by a numeral sewn onto the epaulette. Generals' epaulettes were made of gold fabric, epaulettes for officers of the imperial suite were silver. Officers of the guards and aides-de-camps wore a metal imperial cipher on their epaulettes.
It can be noted that in the same 1827 epaulettes, very similar to the Russian ones, were introduced in the army of the Kingdom of Poland, united after 1815 with the Russian Empire. They replaced the ones, more French in style, used before. Unlike the original, Russian ones, Polish epaulettes were always silver instead of gold. Epaulettes of the infantry and services were smooth, while in the cavalry they had scale-like carving. They survived until 1831, when the autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland was abolished and her army disbanded after an unsuccessful national rising of 1830.
Broad officer shoulder boards (pogoni) were authorized in the Russian army and navy in 1854, during the crimean war. They were meant to replace the inconvenient epaulettes on field uniforms, and proved so useful that they began to be worn on other types of uniform as well. They were made of gold or silver band with a single color pin stripe for the ranks from warrant officer to captain, a double stripe for ltcs and colonels (the rank of major was discontinued in 1884) and with a broad zigzag for general officers. The combination of stars and imperial ciphers closely followed that of the corresponding epaulettes. It should be noted however that unlike the pogoni of the Soviet period, the size of the stars on the imperial pogoni was identical for all ranks.
Following the February revolution of 1917, the pogoni, a symbol of the imperial power, were abolished by the Russian Provisional Government. Hated by the Bolsheviks too, they weren't reestablished in the Red Army until January 1943, and they are still used in the armed forces of the Russian Federation. Note also that yet in the imperial period they became a model for similar shoulder boards in Bulgaria and Serbia. In the post-WWII years the rule of the pogoni extended over Albania, China, Korea, Mongolia, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary (for a brief preiod) and even Cuba.
There is an excellent website (in Russian, alas) on Russian (and non-Russian) hussar regiments, which gives an abundant description on the history of both epaulettes and pogoni:
http://www.kulichki.com:8105/gusary/kruzhki/istoriya/uniform/znaki.html
http://www.kulichki.com:8105/gusary/kruzhki/istoriya/uniform/index.html
http://www.kulichki.com:8105/gusary/kruzhki/istoriya/otkrytki/vypusk4.html
:)