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Soviet troops charging near Leningrad, Russia, 1 Jan 1943; note PPD submachine gun

Caption     Soviet troops charging near Leningrad, Russia, 1 Jan 1943; note PPD submachine gun ww2dbase
Photographer   
Source    ww2dbaseRussian International News Agency via Wikimedia Commons
Link to Source    Link
Identification Code   93172
More on...   
Siege of Leningrad   Main article  Photos  
PPD   Main article  Photos  
Photo Size 600 x 393 pixels
Photos on Same Day 1 Jan 1943
Added By C. Peter Chen
Licensing  Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
27 Feb 2012 09:58:09 AM

"UNDER THE FLAG OF LENIN-FORWARD FOR THE MOTHERLAND, AND FOR OUR VICTORY!"

Combat photo taken at the front, or a posed
propaganda shot. Checkout the Stalin Slogan Banner with his Portrait w/CCCP.

Ivan has been issued the 1940 pattern type ushanka heavy sheepskin coat, and heavy winter gloves, with the 1940 steel pattern helmet.
He's been issued the Degtyarov PPD-34/38 or PPD-40 submachine gun caliber 7.63mm the weapon used a 71 round drum magazine or it could accept 25 round stick magazines, with a rate of fire of 800 rpm.

The other troops look like they are carrying the Mosin-Nagant Bolt-Action Rifle Model 1891 in 7.62x54R caliber that used a fixed
five round box magazine.
Small numbers of PPD submachine guns, were produced for the NKVD border guards,so let's assume this troops are NKVD.
During the Great Patriotic War it was found that the PPD wasn't made for mass production, and was replaced with PPSh-41 series weapon, from a distance, both weapons look similar.
2. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
26 Mar 2012 08:21:54 PM

SOVIET SECRET ARMY:

The NKVD was a large and powerful military force. It was more than a espionage unit within the Communist system, it had its own Infantry, Armor, Motorized, Special Forces, Railway, Transportation, Medical, Supply and Military Police units.

THE PRAETORIAN GUARD: GULAG ENFORCERS

The NKVD made sure Soviet troops would fight advance and die for the Communist State.
Special units of NKVD troops were stationed at the front, and behind Soviet lines, and were ordered to shoot any Red army troops who tried to retreat, found draft dodgers and deserters.
The KNVD later named the KGB grew into the
the largest intelligence service in the world. Enforced its power along with the Communist Party and the Military, until the collapes of the USSR in 1991.
The KGB, is no more, the Russians just shuffeled the letters around and now you get FSB its the same dance, but to a different tune.

The NKVD ran and guarded the Gulag system to many it would be a living hell those who went into the Gulags were never seen alive again.

During WWII it had been estimated that over 300,000 Red Army troops were were killed by the NKVD, troops that mutinied along with over 1,000,000 died, German,Polish and other Axis POWs and civilians, we may never really know how many died..
During WWII the NKVD was larger and more powerful a military force, than the German Waffen-SS.

YOU CAN BURY THE DEAD, BUT CAN'T HIDE THEM FOREVER:

Over Sixty years after WWII, bodies are still being discovered, that were murdered by NKVD troop during WWII, as late as 2006.
Communism: Is a evil system and it still amazes me, that people still fall for it...
3. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
27 Mar 2012 04:07:39 PM

BY ANY OTHER NAME:

Call it CHEKA, GPU, OGPU, NKVD or SMERCH they were the enforcers of the Communist system. SMERCH (Death to Spies) was a real counter-intelligence unit, most noted for its assignment to find Adolf Hitler capture him if possible or recover his body.
This unit did find Hitler's body, conducted an investigation and identified the remains along with those of Eva Braun.
Location of bodies known only by SMERCH were in East Berlin when in 1970 the bodies were exhumed and cremated the ashes dumped into the Elbe river.

RUTHLESS AS THE NKVD:

SMERCH like the NKVD, setup checkpoints and operated behind Soviet lines, they were ruthless shooting Red army troops retreating from the Germans. Defectors, deserters and criminals were shot or if lucky sent to the Gulag.
SMERCH oversaw the mass deportation of Ethic groups in the USSR. Millions died in the Gulag labor camps. After WWII, SMERCH was absorbed into what would become the KGB.

BOND, JAMES BOND AGENT 007:

Even in Ian Fleming's spy novels SMERCH was one of Bond's first archenemy, but was later replaced with SPECTOR: This was an acronym
SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
This was only a fictional global terrorist organization, used in the Bond novels and films.
SPECTOR, I've always liked this acronym it sounds so sinister and evil. Even the late actor Gert Frobe, who played Auric Goldfinger
planned along with SPECTOR, to destabilies
the Gold of the USA and the Western world's economy...Its been a great day, going to logoff and watch Goldfinger, this has always been one of my favorite Bond films...

Did you know:
That Ian Fleming/007 Novels and films was a British Naval Intelligence Officer during WWII..

I thank the editor/ww2db for allowing me to leave my comments
4. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
30 Mar 2012 03:47:27 PM

MARCH 1970, MAGDEBURG EAST GERMANY

A team of KGB Agents, exhumed the bodies of
Adolf Hitler, His Wife Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, his Wife and children from the location known only by the KGB, Smerch's successor.


THE FINAL ACT TO A WAGNERIAN OPERA:

*********** OPERATION ARCHIVES: ***********

Five wooden boxes containing the remains of ten or eleven bodies, the bodies were taken to a secret location.

GOTTERDAMMERUNG: TWILIGHT OF THE GOD'S

Gasoline was poured on the boxes and for the last time like an ending to a Wagnerian opera set alight.
Once the remains were burned, the ashes were collected and put into a sack the team drove to an undisclosed location. Standing on the bank of the river Elbe, the agents opened the sack the wind caught the ashes, and scattered them across the river.

Some will say its hard to believe any version, the speculations and controversies will continue for decades to come...

Gotterdammerung: The dictionary now defines
this word, as a turbulent ending of a regime or institution.


Did you know Smerch buried and exhumed Hitler's remains nine times the agents were sworn to secrecy. After WWII Smerch was disbanded and replaced with the KGB
5. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
30 Mar 2012 07:36:48 PM

CAST OF CHARACTERS IN THE FINAL ACT: WHAT OTHER BODIES WERE BURNED WITH HITLER IN 1970

Bodies of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun their dogs
along with Joseph Goebbels his wife Magda, who later committed suicide.
The six Goebbels children were put to sleep with morphine, then poisoned with cyanide.

General Hans Krebs committed suicide in the Fuhrerbunker. Bodies were kept by Smerch and contiued to remain secret by the KGB until they were disposed of in 1970.

FORTUNATE SON:

Did you know: Magda had a son by a previous marriage, Harold was born in 1921 and survived the war. He served as a Lieutenant in the Luftwaffe, he was injured and captured by Allied forces in Italy in 1944 and released in 1947.


I thank the editor/ww2db for allowing me to these present historical facts...
6. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
6 May 2012 06:41:25 PM

COMRADE WERE RIGHT BEHIND YOU: THE NKVD

TO THE AVERAGE IVAN, WHAT WAS WORSE THE GERMANS IN FRONT OF YOU, OR THE NKVD BEHIND YOU.

"WE FORCED THEM (RED ARMY TROOPS) TO FIGHT
TO THE DEATH. IF THEY RESISTED OR RAN AWAY WE ELIMINATED THEM. WE SHOT THEM, THAT'S ALL.
IT WAS HARD, IT WAS BAD. IT HAD TO BE DONE.
I UNDERSTAND BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO".

-VLADIMIR OGRYZKO, 1ST. NKVD DIVISION.-
7. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
11 Feb 2013 02:27:32 PM

SUGGESTED READING:

Red Army in Combat: 1941-1945 Eastern Front From Primary Sources.

Book cover shows above file photograph in color. Caption states Soviet troops charging near Leningrad, Russia. Book is absorbing overview of the organization and tacics of the Red Army.

Archive Media Publishing Ltd. 2012
By Bob Carruthers
ISBN: 1781580537
8. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
7 Mar 2013 07:19:37 AM

Before and during WWII, Smerch answered to no one except Stalin. Little information was available about this organization until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

DEFENCE COMMISSARIAT:

Smerch wasn't under the control of the Red army but was a secret service of the armed forces and other security organizations its director was a powerful figure that reported and answered to Stalin alone.
Viktor Abakumov smerch's director was responsible for its activities, arrests of political leaders, foreign personnel and soviet citizens during the war, it spent much of its time not only fighting
the Germans, but terrifying the people of the Soviet Union.

THE FUTURE: THE IRON CURTAIN

At the end of WWII the USSR was in control of Eastern Europe, Stalin's Red army and his secret police forced its political system (Communism) on
those countries under his domination.
Millions were forced by the communist regimes setup from Moscow took control of daily life and became a devastating dilemma for those people, under its control.

LIVING IN FEAR:

Millions faced political cruelty, fear, pananoia,
suffering, suppression of human rights and the dignity of man. Communism! how people are still so naive. It still amazes me how people still fall for such an evil system...

SUGGESTED READING:

SMERCH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII.

Published by Biteback (2002)
By Vadim Birstein
ISBN-10 1849541086

THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MINE ALONE, AND DO NOT REFLECT THE EDITOR/WW2DB IN ANY WAY...


9. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
25 Jul 2013 11:33:29 AM

THE GULAGS:

What does the Acronym for the word GULAG mean: Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei or known as
Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps.

This was a Soviet system of forced labor camps, that were started in 1919 operated under Cheka and reached significant numbers in the 1930s.

CHEKA:

Soviet Secret Police: This system having virtually unrestrained power over life & death in the USSR...

WHOS WHO IN THE GULAG:

Prisoners were murderers, thieves and other types of criminals, political, religious dissents, artists, intellectuals, academics, professors, scientist, professionals even military officers and anyone else who was seen as a threat to the Soviet State...
Camps were throughout the USSR, the most infamous being in Siberia. Gulags served as a source of forced labor for Stalin's many Five-Year Plans. If the weather and working conditions didn't kill you somebody else would for that scrap of food, or the clothes on your back.

Prisoners received little food and clothing many worked long hours, overworked, suffered from injuries, exhaustion and disease, abused by camp guards they were lowered to the lowest a human being could become this system killed millions over the years.
Captured German and other axis soldiers were added into the Gulags many of these POWs were never were heard from again, and very few ever returned to their homelands.

Did you know that over 30,000,000 million people passed into the Gulag system in the past 60 years
many never to be seen or heard from again...

SUGGESTED READING:

GULAG: A HISTORY

By Anne Applebaum
Published by Doubleday (2003)
ISBN-10 0767900561

ONCE AGAIN I THANK THE EDITOR/WW2DB FOR ALLOWING ME TO LEAVE MY COMMENTS.
10. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
21 Feb 2014 02:18:30 PM

AND WHO SHALL GUARD THE GUARDS:

Stalin's fear was felt everywhere even the most faithful watched and looked over their shoulders.
Even commissars and those who took part in the Great Purge of the 1930s were later executed for crimes against the people.
The USSR was a Communist Totalitarian State and needed a large military along with a security and secret police force to control its population and use force to do it.

OUT OF THE LOOP: WATCH WHAT YOU SAY & DO

Even the commander of the NKVD Nikolai Yezhov was put against the wall and shot by order of Stalin.
I guess old Uncle Joe, was getting wary of old Nikolai's power and made an example of him.

ALPHABET SOUP OF TERROR:

CHEKA Formed under Lenin, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, GUGB, SMERCH and other intelligence agencies formed under Stalin. The NKGB later became the MGB
and in turn later became the KGB.

NOT AN ARMY OF ONE:

During the Stalin purges of 1930s 6,500,000 people
were murdered, imprisoned and tortured it could be more we'll never really know the total number.
The Red Army paid a price 400 hundred of its 600 generals, other ranks as Colonels, Lt. Colonels
Corps Commanders, Division Commanders and others that were in the way, just disappeared...

STALIN'S PARANOIA:

Those that went to the Gulags after the Moscow Show Trials died from disease, exposure, beatings
and over-work. Others died by firing squads after their trials still others were never heard from again. The Communist even gassed some in special airtight vans.

TRUTH OR CONSQUENCES:

The Moscow Show Trials were based on forced confessions mostly fictitious crimes and hundreds of thousands were accused of political crimes,
conspiracies or based on the lies of a false witness.
The Communist Party even expelled 400,000 of its
card carrying and loyal party members along with
this, they faced arrest, imprisonment and even execution, during this period, its been estimated that about 1,000 a day were shot while others were arrested and sent to the Gulags. Do you know
about 1/4 of the worlds population still live under communism, as an educated person its just amazing to me, that some people still fall for such a cruel system and want others to live under it as well...

I thank the editor/ww2db for allowing me to leave my comments. My comments do not reflect the views of the editor/ww2db in anyway....
11. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
10 Oct 2016 12:35:47 PM

FATE OF GERMAN POW's:

In 1950 the Soviets reported that they had returned German POW's, except for a number of Germans that were convicted of war crimes.
During the Cold War, there were claims that 1,000,000
POW's were still held in secret in the USSR, 1,200,000 were reported as MIA's, and more likely died as a POW.
In the post-collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a joint Russian-German commission to study and investigate the fate of these POW's...

NKVD: SECRET POLICE

The Soviets set up special NKVD camps located in occupied parts of Germany.
Between 122,000 to 150,000 Germans were held, with at least 43,000 people who died, from a lack of medical care, poor food and disease.
The Soviets held these people because of their alleged ties and belief, they
worked with or supported the Nazi Party or were anti-communist.

FORCED LABOR:

Before WWII even ended the Soviets used POW's and also shipped German civilians to the USSR, to work as forced labor rebuilding what was destroyed during the war.
Its been estimated that over 1,000,000 people some sources say more, that were deported against their will to the USSR.

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