Tcheka

[svinkel]

i want to do this



What is your advice for  minis and for the colours ?

[Lt. Hazel]

Coppelstones Back of Beyond and Brigades Storm in the East soviet "elites" will fit. I like Coppelstone more, they have everything you need (HMG,LMG, Standard bearer). The guys on the pic seem to wear black leather. Use the Foundry Black triad. Hope that helps.

[cuprum]

Such uniform could carry both security officers (Tcheka) , and an armored train command. The leather uniform is not regulated, but was popular enough in security officers, commissars, in armored divisions, at pilots.
The leather regimentals, basically, were black colour, but there was also a natural colour of a skin. Trotsky's bodyguard wore such uniform from a red skin! The jacket was often leather only, and other subjects of clothes were usual khaki. Also in a cavalry widespread trousers of dark blue colour. And still, in Red army during Civil war there was a tradition of rewarding by fabric red "proletarian" trousers.

[Mark Plant]

I would guess that they were a train "landing" company, as suggested by Cuprum. That still makes them elite, and has the added advantage of making them something you would expect at the front line.

Cheka were rear area troops. There are only a couple of references to Cheka fighting at the front, and then small units in an emergency only. Most Cheka military forces were pretty ordinary, being no different from normal Red Army. (The best Red forces were required to fight real armies, not guard rear areas.)

The Cheka uniform was khaki, despite what the Osprey says. Just because the Cheka commissars became famous for wearing black leather doesn't mean all the rank and file wore it.

[former user]

The black leather coats were so much associated with secret police that even in the 80ies someone wearing one was seen as a secret policeman, in the whole eastern block.
I agree with Mark, the depicted unit looks very much like a train unit, if not even Trotzky's guard. (would like to know what is written on the standard) And Cheka were not necessarily military elite, only ideologically firm brainwashed murderers.

[argsilverson]

(would like to know what is written on the standard)

BREMEN?

[former user]

I am not secure enoug with Cyrillic to read it from letters smeared on cloth, sorry

anyway here is a gallery with pictures of Chekists
http://ironfelix.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_6

[cuprum]

Chekists except performance of functions of secret police and suppression of revolts were engaged in struggle against gangsterism, collected in shelters of homeless children, carried out protection of official bodies, realized the guard of the border state..

[svinkel]

Chekists except performance of functions of secret police and suppression of revolts were engaged in struggle against gangsterism, collected in shelters of homeless children, carried out protection of official bodies, realized the guard of the border state..

thanks a lot

[cuprum]

The reconstruction of the commissar:

If want, I can lay out photos of real things of regimentals of a command of a train of Trotsky.

[Hammers]

The reconstruction of the commissar:

If want, I can lay out photos of real things of regimentals of a command of a train of Trotsky.

Oh, please do!

[Mark Plant]

The French text that accompanies those Polish pictures of Cheka troops reads:

1.  Red-Army-Man (soldier) of the Cheka forces. His dress and armament are pre-revolutionary models. Shortages of adequate laced and knee boots led to the authorisation of bast [bark] footwear in the RKKA (Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army) at least until 1920.

2. Voenkom (Military Commissar) of Cheka troops in improvised uniform with the insignia of “commander” of a unit on his chest.

3. Komvzvoda (Platoon Commander) of Cheka troops in the RKKA uniform of mid-1919, with the insignia of “commander”.

BREMEN?

Something to do with "time". It transliterates as Vremeni.

[1ngram]

"only ideologically firm brainwashed murderers."

Do we have to have this nonsensical crap here?  What strange universe does the writer hail from?  This is a wargames site not a home for people with such a tenuous grasp of reality.

[argsilverson]

Something to do with "time". It transliterates as Vremeni.

it makes sense!

[former user]

people with such a tenuous grasp of reality.

I do not wish to slip into a political discussion here...
In answering this I will only hold up a mirror

and return to the wargaming topic by explaining that my statement was intended as a (maybe biased) comment on the "elite" military status of Cheka troops, at least for the RCW period