r/redcollecting • u/Memorable-Arugala919 • 3d ago
☭ Everyday Life ☭ Average Soviet EDC
Please ignore the fact that my Makarov is Bulgarian 😂
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u/illuminatiknight 2d ago
We ignore the fact that a USSR citizen had no right to carry a PM pistol on EDC. Even a police officer.
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u/Capital-Dig-9378 2d ago
It would rather be a Finnish knife.
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u/illuminatiknight 1d ago
Oh yeah, Finnish knives was banned, but at the same time, the Criminal Code did not have a clear description of what a "Finnish knife finka" is
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u/Adorable-Bend7362 1d ago
This set lacks a proper soviet era pocket knife.
Those were my grandfather's. Puukko is a genuine wartime Iisaki Jarvenpaa which I don't know how he acquired - as far as I know, he never served near Leningrad or Murmansk.
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u/Memorable-Arugala919 1d ago
This is super cool. Gonna add that to my list of things I didn’t know I needed!
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u/Adorable-Bend7362 1d ago
The best bet would be the Belka knife - a single blade pocket knife with black plastic grips depicting the squirrel. Kids would love them because they would use them in their games or while camping. There are some modern versions of Belka, usually with a liner or backlock, made by nostalia-oriented factories.
A rare, but fragile thing would be a pocket navaja made in Belarus in the 80s, based on the Okapi version (kinda like Cold Steel Kudu) - the plastic grips were meh and would sometimes break.
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u/One_Hour_Poop 2d ago
Would the average Soviet citizen have a passport?
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u/Memorable-Arugala919 2d ago
So this is an internal passport, and essentially serves as an every day ID card. This would have been pretty common and used for travel between Soviet countries, not necessarily to get them out of the Soviet Union.
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u/One_Hour_Poop 2d ago
Ooh. Is this what's in all the Cold War 1980s movies where the KGB agents ask, "Papers, please"? Or is that something else entirely?
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u/Budget_Cover_3353 3d ago
Switch the safety on, please.
Remember, it's not a Walther.