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07-22-2011, 10:09 AM | #1 |
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The NKVD is back in style, literally !
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 |
07-22-2011, 08:41 PM | #2 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
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.....
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07-23-2011, 03:26 PM | #3 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
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
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07-24-2011, 12:31 PM | #4 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
Well, I already got mine....
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07-24-2011, 02:02 PM | #5 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
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
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07-28-2011, 03:07 PM | #6 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
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.
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07-28-2011, 03:13 PM | #7 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
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. |
07-29-2011, 10:01 PM | #8 | ||
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
Quote:
Quote:
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
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07-30-2011, 04:26 PM | #9 | |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
Quote:
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
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Phillip Last edited by deValcourt; 07-30-2011 at 09:24 PM. |
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07-30-2011, 08:11 PM | #10 |
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Re: The NKVD is back in style, literally !
you could get a nice flyer's leather coat...possibly even same manufacturer but better price because it's not nkvd
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