Article The cold war - Soviet Army

A visual demonstration of the equipment of a soldier of the Soviet army

Very nice photo. See how sergeants and soldiers became like officers

The following changes in the soldier's wardrobe affected the overcoat. A row of fake buttons was added to it. They carried only a decorative role

Yah. Forgive me, comrades, but I have to interrupt my story for a while.

Unfortunately, a lot of important things have appeared and I cannot devote much time to this good forum. But I promise to come back here later.

Regarding my story... I got to 1969. And then a very interesting period awaits us. I don’t know if you liked my notes - no one has written any comments or reviews yet. And the marks are very uneven. Also, the situation with the Russian social network VKontakte is not very clear to me. I gave some of the links to the social network, some to YouTube. Links to VK open in the browser... It's just that only two people are working on the NSHGO community and we don't have the time and energy (and desire) to upload materials to third-party sites and YouTube. But a lot of the content in this community is really unique, I can vouch for that.

As for the Alexandrov ensemble, your assessments are also ambiguous. It always seemed to me that it is impossible to convey the general spirit of the army without the music of this group. And many legendary performers from this group, I think, would help to reveal the "mysterious Russian soul". In any case, I will be glad if someone, thanks to me, discovered this music for themselves.

I, of course, leave for a while, but I will look at the site. So I will try to respond to all comments and reviews (if any, exeh). Also, I think it would be nice to leave links to many sites where you yourself can find a lot of information on the Soviet army.


NSHGO. A powerful platform with materials about the Soviet Civil Defense and the Soviet Army. There are about 70 films only about the Soviet army, many books and posters. Highly recommend.


"Enduring and legendary". One of the best clubs for the reconstruction of the Soviet army in Russia. I highly recommend visiting.

До скорых встреч, дорогие друзья. Мир вашему дому.

I'm ENJOYING EVERY darn thing you've been posting my friend......it's been bloody interesting seeing the soldiers life, and life in general behind that old "Iron Curtain" as it were........ We just don't always say so!! You've been very industrious about your work and postings......I hate to see it stop!

uktabber said:

I'm ENJOYING EVERY darn thing you've been posting my friend......it's been bloody interesting seeing the soldiers life, and life in general behind that old "Iron Curtain" as it were........ We just don't always say so!! You've been very industrious about your work and postings......I hate to see it stop!

Click to expand...

I concur -- very interesting and your posts are appreciated.

Cheers!
RL

In the fall of 1968, two deserted soldiers staged a terrorist attack on the Railway Station Square in the city of Kursk.

The terrorist act was organized and executed by two soldiers from the military unit of the internal troops stationed in the city of Kursk - Private Viktor Nikolaevich Korshunov and Corporal Yuri Stepanovich Surovtsev. From the characterization of corporal Yuri Surovtsev: “Has increased excitability and impressionability, often cries. Inclined to fantasize. He was treated in the Kursk Regional Psychiatric Hospital with signs of mental infantilism." For good handwriting, Surovtsev was taken to the easiest job in the army - as a clerk at the headquarters, by the time of the attack he had served for 1 year.



From the characteristics of private Viktor Korshunov: “Before serving in the army, he led a lifestyle unworthy of a Soviet student, and was expelled from the institute. Secretive, cruel. In communication with the team, he shows incontinence, alienation. Repeatedly expressed thoughts of suicide." Korshunov's father served as a policeman and helped the Germans, and after the Great Patriotic War he was convicted of high treason. Korshunov served almost 2 years, served in a rifle company, was considered the best rifleman of the unit, was an excellent student of the Soviet army.



In this duet, Korshunov was the leader. As it later turned out, Korshunov received from his girlfriend, who promised to wait for him, a letter in which it was written that she was breaking off all relations with him and getting married. Apparently, after this Korshunov decided to die. However, he decided to take someone else with him. He persuaded the gullible Surovtsev to keep him company.

Korshunov and Surovtsev decided to attack some important institution - the Kursk city party committee, the police department of the Kursk regional executive committee or the city prosecutor's office. The choice fell on the city committee. On September 25, 1968, the soldiers fled from the unit, taking weapons with them - two Kalashnikovs with ammunition and full equipment. However, they did not succeed in seizing the city committee - a police stronghold was located in the same building.

The soldiers, who knew the city well, went towards the railway station. They ran into the entrance of the building overlooking the Railway Station Square. Korshunov and Surovtsev went up to the fourth floor and called the first apartment they came across in the early morning of September 26. There were 8 people in the apartment, including 2 children. When a woman opened the door to the soldiers, they burst into the apartment and shot 5 people through the pillow at once. Then, leaving both children hostage, they sent the woman for vodka. On the way, the woman met a district police officer, but did not tell him anything. After that, the terrorists also shot the children.

At 8 o'clock in the morning on September 27, Korshunov and Surovtsev, seeing a large number of people on the Railway Station Square, opened aimed fire at them with short bursts of two machine guns. Another 5 people became victims of this shooting. The war veterans who found themselves on the square told everyone to take refuge in the station building. At 8:15 am, a police car drove up to the station, in which there were convicts who were supposed to leave for the prison that day. The soldiers opened fire on him, one of the convicts was killed. There would have been more casualties, but the driver managed to drive the car to safety.

The first to call the police were the residents of the apartment next to the one seized by the terrorists. It was not possible to get into the apartment; the soldiers insisted that they wanted to die. Neither the police nor the military authorities, who soon arrived at the door of the apartment, could influence the situation. Feeling that Surovtsev would soon break down, he was persuaded to surrender and, as a senior in rank, to order Korshunov to do the same. When Surovtsev said that his partner did not obey him, the commander of the division in which both terrorists served, ordered him to shoot Korshunov. Surovtsev went into hysterics, as a result of which he killed Korshunov at 10:15 am, releasing the entire machine gun store at him, and after 10 minutes he surrendered. To prevent the crowd gathered in the square from lynching, Surovtsev was dressed in a police uniform and secretly taken out of the building. For moral reasons, this uniform was burned on the same day, since no one would have agreed to wear the uniform that the killer once wore.


As a result of the terrorist attack, 13 people were killed and 11 injured. The attack had a fairly large resonance. The Voice of America radio broadcast a message that the soldiers committed a massacre in Kursk in protest against the hegemony of the CPSU and the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia, but subsequent interrogations of Surovtsev denied this.

On November 2, 1968, a visiting session of the Moscow Military Tribunal sentenced corporal Yuri Stepanovich Surovtsev to capital punishment - death by firing squad. Soon the sentence was carried out.

Unfortunately, situations when girls break off relations with soldiers are not uncommon even now. In Soviet times, a tradition was adopted in this case to leave a boot imprint on the letter and send it back to the girl. Friends (and sometimes even a political officer) tried to help their comrade in every possible way, sometimes even getting vodka. But here, as we can see, someone took this to heart too... Мда. Бывают же идиоты на свете.

Hello everyone. One of these days I will try to continue. I found interesting materials, please wait.

In the photo: Soviet sergeants. It seems the signal troops. The left sergeant has a "Company Duty" armband on his sleeve. Armbands in the Soviet army were issued to soldiers and officers on duty at posts. Most often, there was written either the position of the soldier, or the name of his post. Bandages were made of red fabric, the necessary inscriptions were applied to them with white paint on a stencil. They were made both by soldiers and in factories.

Good day. I'm coming back.

So, the arrival of Marshal Grechko, as I already wrote, led to major changes in the uniform and equipment of the Soviet army. In 1969, a new full dress uniform of an officer's standard was introduced (I threw a photo), new field closed tunics. Fake buttons appeared on the overcoat. However, the Soviet generals clearly understood that the overcoat was already morally outdated. That is why, since 1969, a massive supply of new winter field uniforms to the troops begins. Officially it was called "winter field insulated jacket", but the soldiers gave it a capacious word pea jacket.

In general, at this moment the Soviet Army was at the peak of its power. Well-trained soldiers, the latest technology and skillful tactics, as well as the clichés in Western propaganda, red shoulder straps instilled fear in Westerners.

In the photo: reconstruction of the image of a soldier of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR in a ceremonial uniform

Figure 97. Summer work uniform of soldiers and sergeants

Figure 98. Summer work uniform of soldiers of construction troops

Figure 99. Winter work uniform in a winter insulated jacket. It was about her that I spoke above.

Figure 100. Winter work uniform - quilted jacket (telogreyka)

Received in 1969 a new uniform and officers. As you remember, they, like the soldiers, wore gimnasterkas, but made of wool. To replace the tunic with a standing collar and breeches, the officers received a closed field tunic and breeches.

I propose to look at the good soldiers who knew how to beautifully wear a new uniform. This is what an exemplary Soviet soldier looked like.

The new uniform of 1969 immediately received many features of wearing in a soldier's environment. According to the charter, it was supposed to wear a belt between the 4th and 5th buttons of the tunic, but it was often lowered onto the fifth button. The tunic had a special hook on the collar. However, depending on the thickness of the collar, it might not be fastened. I will tell you about the collar and "podshiva" later. The new uniform was ironed in a special way to form "arrows" on the uniform. The 1969 tunics had soft shoulder straps. With the active use of the form, they were deformed and took on an ugly appearance. According to the charter, it was forbidden to make shoulder straps firm, then the soldiers resorted to cunning. The soldier broke the ruler and inserted it under the shoulder strap from the side. When checking, when the shoulder strap was squeezed, the inserts were invisible. At the same time, the soldier kept a neat appearance.

In 1969, the soldiers also received new hats. Gray, square and with a "crab" cockade, as on caps. It is this hat and this cockade that, I think, have become one of the most obvious stereotypes about the Soviet Union and the Soviet army.

Let's finally talk about the Soviet unloading system. I have already mentioned its appearance in 1950, but I want to dwell in more detail. It did not undergo major changes in the 1960s. So, the unloading system consisted of a belt with a badge and shoulder straps. For example, let's take the unloading of a machine gunner of motorized rifle troops, okay? On the belt (from right to left) there were: a canvas automatic pouch with magazines for the Kalashnikov assault rifle, a small infantry shovel MPL-50 in a case, a standard Soviet aluminum flask in a case, a grenade pouch with two grenades, as well as a bayonet knife from an assault rifle. On the left side there was a gas mask bag, behind on the unloading system - a raincoat-tent. Sometimes a standard "sidor" could be placed on the back, for it there were special attachments on the shoulder straps. In addition to the above, a soldier could carry a combined arms protective kit - OZK. It consisted of a cloak, stockings and gloves. A cloak in a "kerchief" was attached to the shoulders and could be deployed in a matter of seconds, a pouch with stockings and gloves on its side. Sometimes soldiers could receive protective photochromic goggles to protect against the outbreak of a nuclear explosion. We called these glasses "chameleon". The army received glasses of the OF and OPF models.

Photo: Soviet unloading system

To prevent the soldiers from confusing their equipment on alarm, a plaque with the soldier's surname was sewn onto each pouch. Sometimes the title could be written there. For example, "Private I. Feoktistov". However, in some parts this was not practiced. Why it was so - I do not know.

I may have confused you a little. Let's go in order. I will try to describe in as much detail as possible each item of the equipment of a Soviet soldier. Okay? Feel free to ask questions.

With pouches for magazines and grenades, I think everything is clear and so. Simple canvas bags with leather strap fasteners. The pouches for machine gunners were larger so that a 45-round Kalashnikov machine gun store could fit there.