Introduction

Soviet Soldier of NKVD 1935-1945 including photo-etch with the insignia of the NKVD troops 1935-1945 is a new 1/35 figure from Armor35. It is item ARM35152.

Armor35 has another NKVD figure and you can see the review via Click here for additional images for this review, below.

At the bottom of this page ae three photos of the assembled and painted figure. These are courtesy of Armor35 - not my work.

NKVD

NKVD, People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or the Soviet secret police agency, was the Soviet police and secret police from 1934 to 1943, then the police from 1943-46. A forerunner of the KGB, NKVD origin and history is complex and beyond this review. I include some NKVD history at the end of this review.

The Model

This NKVD subject is crisply cast as four (4) gray resin parts: body; head; hand; rifle. Armor35 really scores big by including a photo-etch set of pitlitsi and greatcoat gorget patches rank insignia, and the rifle sling!

Casting is high quality with not flash, seams, air pocks, or sink holes. The parts are impressively sculpted and cast with good undercuts.

The subject is clad in a greatcoat, boots, and wears a peaked cap. His kit is a belt with a single cartridge box, and a Mosin–Nagant M1891/30.

Detail

Sculpting of the uniform, Mosin rifle, facial and hand features all feature crisp detail. The greatcoat lapels have insignia patches molded onto them.

Perhaps the most impressive detail are the P/E insignias. Even these thin P/E parts have detail etched into them.

Instructions

None. One must use the box art for painting guidance. The art does show the four different patches you can use. There is no information about the ranks.

Assembly

Very simple. Cement the neck into the collar. Cement the hand into the cuff. Cement the rifle into the groove molded into the shoulder of the greatcoat.

Cut the P/E free and cement it where it goes.

There is a bit of excess resin inside the collar that must be trimmed away for the neck to fit properly. It took me about 5 minutes to assemble this figure.

Conclusion

Soviet Soldier of NKVD 1935-1945 from Armor35 is a very good model. It features crisp and sharp casting with no flaws. Detail is high. The photo-etch uniform insignia is splendid!

I have no objective criticism of this model and look forward to painting it up with the P/E attached. I think this is another quality figure from Armor35 and believe it should make a good addition to an Eastern Front diorama or vignette. Recommended!

Please remember to mention to Armor35 and retailers that you saw this model here - on Armorama.

NKVD History

Between 1917 and 1954, the USSR’s state security and intelligence agencies were reorganized and renamed a number of times. The first security agency, Vecheka (or Cheka) was formed in December 1917 to investigate counterrevolution and sabotage, but it soon became responsible for imprisoning and executing anyone considered an enemy of the state. In 1922, Cheka was replaced by the GPU. A year later, as the OGPU, the agency helped implement Stalin’s plans to forcibly collectivize agriculture and deport wealthy peasants. The OGPU eventually controlled all security functions within the USSR until it was absorbed into the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) in 1934. Picking up the OGPU’s responsibilities, the NKVD oversaw all aspects of internal and state security. It controlled the police, criminal investigation departments, fire brigades, internal troops, and prison guards.

Throughout the 1930s, public anger had been building in the USSR against Stalin and his policies. In 1936, believing his power and position in jeopardy, Stalin took the first steps to purge the country from “anti-Soviet elements,” targeting mostly people in his own party and the military. In this period, known as the Great Terror, the NKVD, led by Nikolai Yezhov, arrested anyone believed to oppose Stalin: certain ethnic groups, religious leaders, and members of other political parties, as well as people who held offices in the government, army, politics, and other such institutions. The Terror reached its peak in 1937–1938 as the NKVD’s arrests of approximately 1.5 million people resulted in show trials, executions, and sentences in the Gulag, the NKVD’s network of forced labor camps. But fewer than half of the detainees were sent to the Gulag ; the majority were arrested, tortured, quickly tried, and shot. Yezhov’s operation carried out these orders with zeal.

By World War II, the NKVD’s responsibility had grown even greater. It now oversaw convoy troops, soldiers guarding industry and state facilities, railroad and engineering corps, operational forces, and penal colonies. Its agents also apprehended army deserters, enforced discipline in the military, and “recruited” new troops. NKVD agents were posted to army units with orders to identify anti-Communists and counterrevolutionaries; army officers who made mistakes knew they could be charged with sabotage or political dissent. A special group of NKVD soldiers were stationed at the front, behind the Soviet battle lines, and tasked to shoot any Red Army troops who tried to retreat. By March 1944, the NKVD had 540,000 men protecting vital state objectives.

As the functional equivalent of Nazi Germany’s Gestapo and SS, the NKVD also had a vast intelligence network abroad that carried out purges in Poland and the Baltic states, mass deportations to Siberia, and executions of suspected spies, draft dodgers, and deserters.

Under Beria’s direction, the NKVD took the lead in securing captured territories so they could be integrated into the Soviet Union. It manipulated elections to give the appearance of popular support for Communist rule, and agents arrested, interrogated, tortured, deported, or murdered local citizens who opposed a Soviet-style system. An estimated 1.5 million Poles, along with four percent of Estonians and two percent of Latvians and Lithuanians, were transported to the NKVD Gulag.*

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Source

* PBS. Behind Closed Doors: Stalin’s Spies and Secret Police. www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/stalins-spies.html. n.d.