redarmylivinghistory

Another thing salvaged from the original forum - useful to beginners!

"The Fourth Floor." is the prison level of "The Big Yellow Building." AKA the Lubyanka.

A "Zek" is a chelovyek or person unfortunate enough to be incarcerated on "The Fourth Floor." A prisoner or GULAG inmate basically.

"Shtrafbat" is a punishment battalion where Soviet soldiers who had committed crimes were sent. They were given the most dangerous tasks and often sent on missions which were more or less suicidal. However, one quirk of being in Shtrafbat was that any wound suffered on the battlefield, no matter how slight, was regarded as sufficent redemption of the individuals crimes. They would then be reenstated to their former position. There is a popular Russian TV series about a Shtrafbat although it can be very historically inaccurate.

"Politruk" is a political officer. They could be identified by the star badge on their sleeves up to late in 1941. Their role was to oversee the military units and ensure that commanders followed Party directives. They could override a commanders decision, and even remove one from their command. Apart from that, they disemminated propaganda and maintained the morale of the soldiers. They lost the power to do intefere with military decisions in October 1942. At Battalion level they were known as Kommissars.

"Gym" is short for gymnastiorka - a tunic. These are either M35's which are the earlier model with a fall collar, or the later M43's which have "Pogoni (see below)" on them, and a stand up collar with two buttons.

"Sharries" are short for sharovari breeches.

"Galiffes" are like sharries, but blue. Cavalry troops, officers and NCO's wear them, although only officers ones are piped.

"Ushanka" is the famous furry hat - Military ones are made from wool weaved into what dubbed by the Soviet soldiers as "Fish-Fur" since noone could initially work out what creature the fur for them came from!

"Budyonovkas" are pre war/early war woolen winter hats which have a stalk on the top. They were named after Semion Budyonny.

"Pilotka" is a forage cap. Officers ones can be piped.

"Furashka" is a peaked cap - worn by officers and senior NCO's. NKVD Internal Troops and Border Guards wear them regardless of what rank they are.

"Mundir" is an officers or enlisted mans parade tunic.

"Kitel" is an officers walking out/service tunic.

"French" is an early/pre war walking out tunic - it was named after the British general.

"Turzurka" is an early/pre war walking out tunic - you wear it with a collar and tie. I've only ever seen Armoured and VVS ones.

"Plash-Palatka" More simply refered to as a 'plash' are ponchos which are devestatingly useful things - they can be buttoned up with a second plash to make a tent, or they can be used as a groundsheet or utilised as a raincoat strangely enough.

"Shinel" A shinel is a greatcoat - it is also the title for a short story by Gogol. It can double up as a blanket when sleeping in your plash tent.

"Pogoni" are shoulder boards for the M43 gym.

"Petlytsi" are collar tabs for the M35 Gym.

"Kirzavoy" is the rumply leatherette tarpaulin stuff that is used in the production of holsters, ammo pouches and boots.

"Sapogi" are high boots. They can either be all leather or be leather around the feet with kirzavoy uppers.

"Botki" are low boots worn with putties.

"Telog" or Telogrika coat is a padded jacket which can be worn under a shinel or just as it is over a gym. Like the gyms themselves, there is both a M35 and later M43 pattern of these.

"Vatnei Sharovari" are padded trousers to be worn with the telogrika.

"Valyenki" are special snow boots made from pressed felt. It really has to be seriously cold and snowing to warrant wearing these.

"Portyanki" are foot cloths - essentialy you wrap your feet up in these instead of wearing socks.

"Shubas" Short for polushubok, these are huge sheepskin coats - they, like valyenki, are suitable for sub-Arctic conditions.

"Meshok" is a rucksack - it ties up with a strange slipknot, which if not tied corectly, will become undone and deposit all the contents of it onto the ground to the mirth of anyone watching.

"Flyaga" The Russian word for the humble waterbottle.

A "Papasha" is a PPSh-41 sub machine gun.

"Patron" A bullet - a nine gram ration of lead specially designed to deal with fash or traitors. Patroni is the plural form.

"Klineet" is a stoppage - which is to say that your purely defensive weapon system has jammed!

"Chai'nik" is an ordinary kettle

"Samovar" is a special huge Russian kettle which is like an urn.

"Banya" is a Russian steam bath - like a sauna.

"Stakan" is a glass

"Stopa" I'm fairly sure is a shot glass for vodka - (could Bair confirm this?)

"Podstakanik" or literally "Under the glass thing" is the metal holder and handle which a tea glass sits in.

"Papirosi" are Russian cigarettes, lethally strong, with tobacco at one end, and a cardboard tube at the other which you squash in two places to make it into a holder "Belomorkanal" or "White Sea Canal" brand is the one we mainly see, although there are others.

"Mahorka" is loose tobacco issued to Soviet troops, extremely harsh and rough. It was often rolled in paper torn from a copy of Krasni Zvezda since the newspaper ink was said by many to improve the flavour.

"Chashka" is a cup, mug, beaker.

"Kvass" - Russian drink made from bread and honey, mainly liked by the younger members of the 2nd Guards.

"Hl'yeb" is bread

"Maslo" is butter

"Myod" is honey

"Chai" is tea

"Sakar" is sugar

"Lozhka" is a spoon - the most important weapon system (purely defensive - see below) in the Soviet arsenal.

"No'zh" is a knife

"Veelka" is a fork

"Yaitsa" are eggs - also the colloquial name for NKVD - GUGB sleeve patches. They're also a colloquial name for a gentlemans 'family jewels' as we would say here!

"Sirota" (plural Sirotuy) or 'orphans' is the colloquial name for a pre 43 Mladshi Serzhant's rank triangles.

"Litso" or 'face' was a Serzhant

"Zabor" or 'fence' was a Starei Serzhant

"Stakhanovite" What a shock worker is called. The name comes from a worker called Aleksi Stakhanov, who August 31, 1935, was reported to have mined a record 102 tons of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes (14 times his quota).

Major gongdom soon followed this example of excellent political perspective and the workers who emulated his efforts became known as Stakhanovites.

Boxer the Horse from the novel Animal Farm represented these shock workers.

(From Stefan) MOP: Member Of the Public

Fash: Abb. Fascist, the enemy or more appropriately in our case, fellow re-enactors who represent the Axis forces

Colourful hat: Refers to the blue furazshkas worn by NKVD troops, used to refer to the kind of trouble one can get in for counter-revolutionary activity.

(From Nick C) "Tufta"- which means pretending to work - fiddle the figures - fiddle the quotas - and everyone did it; from the lowest worker to the regional bosses. It went on in the GULAG, (where it could mean the difference between life or death) free factories, and industries and agriculture.

(From Andy K)
"Poor political perspective" - a term I gleaned from a Soviet report on the failiure of the Libyans to employ Soviet made anti-aircraft systems in response to the American bombing of Tripoli. It was the explanation they gave as to why the systems didn't work - the Libyans being lacking in class conciousness and a thorough understanding of Marxist-Leninism! Obviously a fault no Soviet soldier would suffer from!!!

"Purely defensive" - the nature of the Soviet Army in the Cold War, as opposed to the rampant militarist aggressor that was NATO. All Soviet Cold War plans were based on defence rather than attack. This defence would of course include a massive pre-emptive counter-offensive... which incidently is the same idea they were operating under pre 1941....

Thanks for that good stuff
Litso - I remember that from clockwork orange!

These are from Ivan's war:
Zdravotdel - the department of health - wounded
Zemotdel - the department of earth - dead

Any chance we could have a list of the drill commands for us new lads?

A couple more... but sadly I do not know the Russian words for these terms (shame on me!)

"Lemon" - the soldiers nickname for the F1 frag grenade

"Tongue" - a fascist snatched from enemy positions by the razvyedchiki and made to divuldge intel (and usually killed afterwards)

I guess which brings me onto:

"Razvyedchik" - a Red Army scout

"Krasnya Zvezda" - "Red Star", the newspaper of the Red Army, distributed to the Front for the Comrades to read. Also the name of the 2nd Guards newsletter, better known as "the KZ". Still exists today in Russia and still is the Army's newspaper.

Limonka = Lemon

Yazik = Tongue

Podsnezhnik(i) = Snowdrop(s). Axis soldiers - whose bodies appeared on the ground after the Spring thaw.