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Author Topic: Help with identifying OGPU/Cheka photos  (Read 1284 times)

Offline Dr Bogo

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Help with identifying OGPU/Cheka photos
« on: June 29, 2019, 09:47:31 AM »
Hi all,

I was scouring the internet a while back for visual references for internal troops in operations against the Basmachi and came across the following two pictures which caught my eye.

The first seems to be from the 1920s period given the preponderance of budenovkas however the uniforms themselves look like somewhat later in the period, but there was no caption on google other than 'НКВД' which suggests 1930s, so I was hoping someone here would be able to potentially shed some light on the provenance of it vis a vis date or unit.

However I also noticed the officer on the left appears to be carrying an early model Thompson SMG if I'm not mistaken which is the first I had seen of it in Soviet hands before Second World War usage - would that then mean the photo is in fact from later or was there a usage of these weapons by internal troops earlier than 1941?

The second picture I presume is probably 1930s (despite the caption) given the uniform but the weapons likewise seem unusual, while both have what I presume are Nagant M1895s in hand, the chap on the right appears to have a Chauchat while the one on the left has what I can only think to be a 1925 Maxim Tokarev MG, does anyone have any information about the usage of either of these in Soviet service?


Offline cuprum

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Re: Help with identifying OGPU/Cheka photos
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2019, 02:59:28 PM »
First photo: 1930s, Pamir (Uzbekistan), 35th Mugrab frontier detachment of the NKVD troops. Soldier with a M1921 submachine gun.
In 1924, for the needs of the USSR Border Guard, through Mexico, an unknown number of these machine gun pistols were purchased in the USA to cover the shortage of light automatic weapons. Manual machine guns in the USSR during this period were not produced, and machine pistols were quite enough for the needs of the border guard.
Budennovka was canceled in the Red Army only in 1940, after the Soviet-Finnish war, as a headdress with which it is inconvenient to use a steel helmet. But during the Second World War, budenovka from warehouses continued to be used until they were exhausted, especially for supplying military units that were far from the front. By 1943, they almost ceased to be used.

The second photo: Made around the same period.
This is really a Maxim-Tokarev machine gun.
The machine gun was made, according to various sources, in an amount from 2.5 to 4 thousand units. He was in service in the Red Army, but was replaced by the manual pudemet Degtyarev DP-27. Delivered in small quantities to Mongolia and China. The bulk of these machine guns was sent to Spain. It was also issued in small quantities from warehouses to the formed units of the Red Army during 1941.



Offline Dr Bogo

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Re: Help with identifying OGPU/Cheka photos
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2019, 02:57:30 PM »
Perfect - thanks so much Cuprum, a wealth of knowledge as always!