The NKVD is back in style, literally !

[Will]

Russia: Black Leather Coats Ordered For ‘High-Ranking FSO Officers’

On June 10, 2011 it became known that the Federal protective service, the FSO has launched a tender to purchase 60 leather trenchcoats on the official site for government purchases.

Long leather trenchcoats are infamously associated with uniforms of Soviet NKVD secret police, worn by its low-ranking officers at the height of Stalin’s pre-war purges in the late 1930s.

The coats ordered by the FSO appear to be nearly identical to the NKVD coats, according to the tender documentation and images uploaded on the website zakupki.gov.ru. The jet-black “light leather overcoat” as the item is described is meant for “high-ranking FSO officers” and features a belt and various insignia, including the image of the Russian two-headed eagle on every button.
FSO leather trenchcoats

FSO leather trenchcoats

The 60 overcoats are ordered by the service along with 60 black leather jackets for a total sum of 2.9 million roubles ($104,600).

The decision to order overcoats seems to be odd, given the fact that modern security personnel hardly ever wear uniforms. Most likely it signifies that FSO generals wanted to highlight its “elite status” and distance themselves from the rest of the army, which most of them despise.

First time the Russia’s secret services made clear their ambitions in 2006. That August a Presidential decree changed the color of the uniform of the FSB, Federal Protective Service FSO, the Service of Special Facilities (subordinate to the GUSP) and SVR from army green to black.

The color of night has never been popular with the Russian special services; black uniforms were only worn in the prison department of the Russian Empire and very briefly by policemen in the 1920s. Obviously this was not about returning to traditions; the color choice was of some symbolic importance.

Some critics hastened to compare this new fashion with the Nazi SS troops’ obsession with the color black. In fact there is a Russian history of using black for defenders of the Motherland. During the Civil War, when they were suffering defeat after defeat, the White Guard formed officers’ regiments named after generals ******, Drozdov, and Kornilov. The regiment of General-Lieutenant Sergey ****** called itself a “brotherhood of monastic knights who sacrificed their liberty, their blood, and their lives for Russia.” They wore black tunics as a symbol of their scorn for earthly goods and were strictly religious.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/wp-cont...11/07/fso.jpeg

[EricFG]

Hard to beat a leather trenchcoat, much less a black one. Except in the south where it's too hot. And at 90 bucks a pop it doesn't seem too outrageously priced although certainly not wholesale.
After seeing the pictures I think I'd ditch the belt; beltless is the way to go.

In fact, if I were a mod here I think I'd demand one from Art as payment for all the time and energy I expend here making little, if any, sense. :)
I'd supply my own M95 Nagant though.

SMAPF SMERSH, comrades! Let's see some ID.....

[deValcourt]

Well, I'm trying to find my way around the website to order one for myself. It has little to do with security services and everything to do with the design (I agree about the no belt thing - but it is an unfortunate part of most overcoats). I've wanted a leather overcoat of this basic design since I was in high school and almost had it, but circumstances at the time...

Phillip

[Jeffrey Meffert]

Well, I already got mine....

[deValcourt]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Meffert

Well, I already got mine....

That is an amazing coat. Jeffrey, I know you would never part with that one, but if you can point me in the right direction to another (even just similar), please PM me and I will be eternally grateful.;) By the by, I've found very well preserved Nagant revolvers for unbelievably low prices and in the US they qualify as relics and collectible - fully functional, and I just need to know the right one (numbers) so that I can re-create my NKVD bastard for display.:rolleyes:

Phillip

[HuliganRS]

Phillip,

Although the the Nagant's that you find are technically the same gun, OGPU & NKVD had a short barreled version. they are very rare guns and highly desirable.

[Will]

I have heard that the tradition of the black leather coat for NKVD personnel came about from an incident in the early days of the Bolshevik state. Supposedly a group of railroad men were protesting the Soviet regime and the Chekists were dispatched to settle the problem. Upon completing their crackdown the Chekists found a batch of leather coats that had been issued for use by the railway workers and they simply took them and began wearing them.

I don't have a source for this account, but it seems to make sense. Most of the early photos that I have seen of Chekists in leather coats show them wearing a short coat, double-breasted, with patch pockets, very much the style worn by railway personnel. The coats look very similar to the leather tanker jackets adopted by armored forces at a later date.

[deValcourt]

Originally Posted by HuliganRS

Phillip,

Although the the Nagant's that you find are technically the same gun, OGPU & NKVD had a short barreled version. they are very rare guns and highly desirable.

I was just basing my thought about picking up one of these from the pistols used by NKVD agents in the film Burnt by the Sun. Oh well, I still need to get the coat before the pistol...:rolleyes:

Originally Posted by Will

I have heard that the tradition of the black leather coat for NKVD personnel came about from an incident in the early days of the Bolshevik state. Supposedly a group of railroad men were protesting the Soviet regime and the Chekists were dispatched to settle the problem. Upon completing their crackdown the Chekists found a batch of leather coats that had been issued for use by the railway workers and they simply took them and began wearing them.

I don't have a source for this account, but it seems to make sense. Most of the early photos that I have seen of Chekists in leather coats show them wearing a short coat, double-breasted, with patch pockets, very much the style worn by railway personnel. The coats look very similar to the leather tanker jackets adopted by armored forces at a later date.

The black coats more likely came from the Oprichina, the personal guard started by the Tsar Ivan IV who rode black horses and black coats/cloaks. Many years later they were disbanded only to be brought back by Alexander III and later Nicholas II. They had the same basic uniforms (all black from head to boots) with a badge - if I am correct - that had a dog's head and a broom on it representing the "sniffing out" of anti-imperialists and then sweeping them away (presumably after they were either killed or banished.

The gestapo and SS bastards stole the idea from the Soviets as they did the entire structure of the NKVD/OGPU, with the addition of a particular ethnic group to be eliminated. Nonetheless, I like the story of how they went "leather" from the railway personnel coats.

Phillip

[deValcourt]

Originally Posted by vvadim_

Your fascination with black uniforms is well known, however Soviet OGPU/NKVD/MVD didn’t had any black uniforms. With exception of short lived transportation police uniform in yearly twenties and in late forties – yearly fifties.
In entire OGPU/NKVD/MVD/MGB history leather attire (including leather coats) was never adapted or issued for soviet state security personnel, ever.

I'm not terribly concerned with historical accuracy when it comes to these long coats. I just like long black leather coats cut in the WWI or WWII style. Frankly, I couldn't care less if they are security services or not. If I want to slap on a OGPU patch on the sleeve because I like the way it looks, then I will. I just received a WWII US tan wool greatcoat that is exactly the style that I like. Will I try to make it look like a Soviet Security Services coat? Probably not. But if I do, it won't be for historical accuracy. I won't be trying to pass it off as something it's not (like some people). It will be for my personal taste - and the last time I checked, everybody is allowed that, regardless of what others may think.

Now, as far as your last statement about leather never being officially issued to security service personnel, that is mostly true (high-ranking officials from colonels to generals often requested their coats to be made of leather). However, the agents themselves had a fondness for them and usually got such coats through the air force or simply had them made as I did. Not having them issued and not wearing them as their uniforms are two different things since none of the security services - with the exception of the ones operating during WWII - were ever part of the military and had their own "uniform code" which, since no one has yet to produce one, could only be assumed to be like every other nation's intelligence organs and agents (as opposed to say, a desk sergeant) only has one "uniform" that they wears for specific occasions while the rest of the time he or she dresses in whatever they please, and it seems to have pleased many Soviet security personnel to wear long leather coats.


Phillip

[Jeffrey Meffert]

you could get a nice flyer's leather coat...possibly even same manufacturer but better price because it's not nkvd