Latest edit: Added Mars Border Guards
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The Soviet NKVD was the organization within the Soviet Union responsible for protecting the state and its political ideology from internal threats. It was a mix of an intelligence agency and secret police. They were also in charge of guarding the borders as well as the prison camps. Its origins go back to the Revolution of 1917. In the years preceding WW2, they conducted a series of ruthless campaigns and purges against the Soviet people. Some of them politically motivated, but sometimes also ethnically-driven. And sometimes simply quota-driven against a certain region or occupational group, such as the clergy or army officers, as was the case during the great purge of 1937. Many others were arrested and sent to prison camps or gulags where they languished or were executed. Most of these arrests and trials were performed with minimum evidence, often just the word of someone who declared someone else an 'enemy of the people', and confessions were obtained through brutal methods. They were also responsible for the execution of 22,000 captured Polish officers in what became known as the Katyn massacre when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and split Poland at the start of the war. The actual NKVD was formed shortly after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. Their role expanded to ensure that the Soviet Army fought as expected and in order to 'increase morale', NKVD units often shot at Soviet troops attempting to retreat. If you have not watched the movie Enemy at the Gates, this is well illustrated in this film, when the NKVD men unleash a storm of machine gun fire at some retreating Soviet conscripts who have no chance of succeeding in a frontal attack at Stalingrad. The NKVD formed multiple divisions during the war, and while most were used for the stated purposes, a few of them were also used as frontline troops as was the case in Stalingrad and Crimea. As the tides of war changed, the NKVD was either involved in sabotage activities behind German lines, or was busy clearing the liberated territories from collaborators and Nazi sympathizers. By the end of the war, the NKVD ranks numbered over 1.5 million men. The Soviet Union created a similar organization, which actually splintered off the NKVD, to guard against foreign spies and bad influences within the Red Army. That organization was called SMERSH. It is so similar in nature that one could easily confuse them. Anyhow, the NKVD was definitely a controversial organization. Perhaps it is due to this, or to its limited combat role, that NKVD troops had not been represented in the Plastic Toy Soldier hobby until recently, when Hanomak introduced its set. Let's take a look.
Hanomak Soviet NKVD - Border Guards
At first glance these figures could be thought of as regular Soviet Infantry. Upon further inspection, I there are a few clues that confirm the name of the set. The first one is that they are all wearing a cap with a visor. I don't know if this is because all member of the NKVD force were officers, but it seems that when I see pictures of them, they are all wearing such cap. Then you have the guy with the dog, and also the machine gunner. If you watched enemy at the gates, those machine gunners are hard to forget. And then there are also the two guys standing around, likely detaining or interrogating someone. Two of the poses do seem to represent the political officers who were attached to front line units, to influence and monitor them ideologically. These officers would also fight alongside them and one can only imagine that either to demonstrate the strength of their political convictions or due to them, they would have led by example and tried to inspire their men, as the man with the flag is doing. In terms of the sculpting, no complaints. Nicely detailed, well proportioned, good poses. Similar rubbery material as the other sets, but in this case you only have to glue the shield to the machine gun.
Ratnik 1941 Soviet Border Guards
This is a good set to complement the Hanomak NKVD Soviet Guards. The sculpting is average -a couple of the poses feel a bit stiff, like the man throwing the grenade or the man to his right- but the diversity of poses compensates for that. For example, you get a radio man with it which is something handy in any unit and several of the poses are useful in fighting scenes. As was the case with Hanomak, you also get a guard dog, which seems quite appropriate for this unit. The one pose I don't care much for is the officer walking with the gun in his hand. He seems to be of limited use in the type of scenes I like to setup. Lastly, this set also comes with a border post. I guess to help setup the scene at the border. Given how shortly the war was fought at the border where these posts might have been, I would have preferred if they had given us an extra pose instead. But all in all, a decent set to add to the collection.
Mars Soviet Border Guards
Normally you don't think of the Soviet border guards as the most exciting topic, but this set makes it look quite intense, and other than the guy who is observing the action with his dog, all the other guys are engaged in the fighting. But I know the dog is a key element of the Soviet guards, so it had to be fit in somehow with its handler. My favorite poses are probably the guy who is running and the officer. The officer was a bit tricky to get to stand straight, but nothing that the good old hot/cold water treatment couldn't fix. The other figure that is interesting is the crawling guy wearing the cammo suit. That guy is going to play double duty with my unit of Soviet scouts. This set certainly exceeded my expectations!
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