Russian edged weapons

[Arto O]

Hi everybody,

Please could you send photos or any other material about russian (this means the whole ex soviet union) edged weapons during WWII. To be more exact, not bayonets or fighting knifes, but things like kindjals, cossack sabres ETC.

Thanks in advance

Arto

[Frederick Prinz]

Arto,

Here is a Soviet era Cossack saber with its attached Mosin Nagant bayonet. I’ve seen Russian Imperial era Artillery kindjals, but I don’t recall ever seeing one with a Soviet era manufacturing date.

Regards, FP

[scruffy]

they are around ,.....but are scarce,.....
beware of the newly made fakes currently coming out of china --- some look very convincing , to the untrained eye ,....and come 'aged ' even down to a poor rusty copy of the bayonet
there have also been some very good reproductions with the Nazi eagle and swastika cast in to the pommel, those fantasy pieces have been circulating around the market for at least the past 20 years

[Frederick Prinz]

I’m in agreement with what Scruffy said about being very careful with fake copies of Soviet era swords. The supposed German ones were made in India as I recall, and were IMO of poor quality as compared to original swords. They also never had scabbards. As was mentioned, the bayonets of the Chinese swords are of poor quality with a lot of fake aging. But the Chinese swords seem to be of different quality levels depending on who or when they were made, and I may have a few pictures of some of the Chinese fakes if I can find them. And to someone who had never seen or handled an original, I can see where they might be tricked into believing that they might be legitimate. But with none of them approaching the quality of Soviet era swords, with a singular exception. And that is the very small group of swords that could have been made using Soviet machinery (but with no Russian markings). That were imported into the U.S. along with all of the other surplus when the Chinese cleaned out their stockpiles of arms (ie: SKS’s, Mauser’s, machine guns, etc. etc. and other militaria). FP

[Arto O]

Thanks guys,

At the moment I am quiete busy with work. But please keep coming any information. I wanted to check , but no time. Sven Hassel mention something in one of his books, it was not kindjal, but he mention "siberian doble edged....

Arto

[Arto O]

Hi,
How the time runs! Finally I found what Sven Hassel wrote in his novel. He mentions a double edged siberian heavy knife called "Kandra". I looked in internet, but nothing. Do anybody knows something about this "Kandra"? Ok, the book is is spanish.
Another thing, my father had a russian sabre, what he called a cossack sabre, but this had a handguard. But as far as I know cossack sabres never had handguards. Am I correct?
Thanks in advance for any information.
Arto

[Arto O]

Hi,
Looking again I found this: armasblancas.mforos.com/933171/6457014-cuchillo-kandra-pido-informacion. It seems that the "kandra" would be the same kindjal.
Cheers
Arto

[von thoma]

I always heard to call it as "Shaska".

[Arto O]

Hi von Thoma,
"Shaska" is the cossack sabre,
Arto

[Frederick Prinz]

In 1881 Russian army swords were standardized. There was the cavalry Dragoon Shashka which had a simple knuckle bow with a slightly straighter grip. NCO's got the same without the bayonet attachment rings. And Cossacks of course got the Cossack Shashka. Circa 1905 the horse artillery got a version of the Dragoon style Shashka which was a little smaller. And for dismounted artillery there was the Artillery Kindjal, which was a fairly long curved blade knife that had a double edge and brass fittings.

With the Soviet version of the Cossack Shashka being, for most practical purposes, the same as the Imperial era sword, but with a decorated pommel. FP

[Arto O]

Thanks again Frederik Prinz,
As the slogan of von Thoma: "The right to believe is the right of those who don t know", I thought that "Shashka" was a exclusive name for cossack sabres, but all russian sabres were called shashkas. So far, there were only shashkas and kindjals as edged weapons in Russia, apart of bayonets and fighting knives. Do somebody have photos of russian fighting knives. I suppose they had them like germans, english, americans.
Cheers
Arto

[Richie B]

Russian WW2 01.JPG

Arto

Russian WW2 knife.

Not mine - found on the Internet

Regards

Richie

[Arto O]

Thanks Richie,
It is curious the similarity with german fighting knive. Ok, what one needs is a handle and a blade, and lot of a courage or anger. Or better to say will to survive.
Arto

[Reibert-Austria]

Russian WW2 01.JPG

Arto

Russian WW2 knife.

Not mine - found on the Internet

...

Yes, it´s a soviet NR40 knife, BTW, it´s mine !

[Arto O]

Hi Reibert,
You have a nice piece of history. What means NR40 and BTW? Maybe you have other items which you could show us.
Cheers
Arto