Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Back of Beyond => Topic started by: Mark Plant on December 18, 2018, 09:26:20 PM
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I have put a few bits of information about the Ural Cossacks in a sub-section of my site:http://www.pygmywars.com/history/uralcossacks/uralcossacksintro.html (http://www.pygmywars.com/history/uralcossacks/uralcossacksintro.html)
Much of it is new (well, not material I had put up previously) other than the uniform stuff. I have always been intrigued by the attack on Lbishchensk that killed Chapaev and it was nice to find an article with some detail.
I do have one particular question, if anyone can help. And by "anyone" I think probably Cuprum. I took the Uralsk-Guryev material mostly from the Encyclopedia of Civil War and Intervention, cleaning up their map a bit so I could understand what was going on (those maps are great, but boy are they messy). On the map, but not in the text, are several units coming down from Saratov to plug the hole when the Cossacks broke through above Uralsk during the First Phase of the operation. One seems to be ChON, One is clearly a group of units cobbled together (so "composite"). The last of them is labelled "Prod. Otr.".
I'm not good with Russian, but abbreviations like that are hopeless. Is Prod. short for "break-through", "advanced", the sense of "holding out", the sense of "attacking" or is it collected food requisition units thrown into the line?
Cheers,
Mark
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Hi Mark.
This abbreviation means "Продовольственный отряд" - "Food requisition detachment". These were detachments of armed workers who were engaged in requisitioning grain from wealthy peasants.
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Thanks Cuprum. I knew you'd come through.
I'll change the map in a day or two.
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I am glad to help.
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Classic. I will now paint my next unit: Food Detachment 21!!
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They had no numbers. They belonged to trade unions, factories, railways, etc .. They rarely had military uniforms, they were often armed with outdated or foreign weapons (rifles Berdan, Gra, Vetterli) with a small amount of ammunition. This is something like the "Red Guard" or CHON. In the fighting, mainly, participated against the peasant rebels. For their images are well suited guerrillas from Copplestone. But their combat value is questionable, only as a reinforcement to regular military units.
(http://a.radikal.ru/a18/1812/6d/4aa9874414ff.jpg)
Prodotryad factory "Rolma", Rostov, 1918
(http://c.radikal.ru/c17/1812/2d/ca567232f66a.jpg)
Unknown prodotryad. Many have civilian fleet uniforms. Probably a detachment of a river or the sea port. 1918
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Cuprum,
Thanks for clarification. Would they have any sort of designation---such as their factory or farm name?
Regards,
Mike
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Some kind of improvised banner is quite possible. On the first photo there is a banner on which the inscription: "Proletarians of all countries - unite! The trade union of the cartoners (As I understand it - paper manufacturers). Long live the 3rd International!" Next, I can not make out the text.
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Thanks again!