07-30-2011, 03:01 AM
HuliganRS Wrote: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:
Will Wrote: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
Phillip
