Before I start talking about this legendary knife, I would like to immediately note an important nuance – there is no reliable documented information about the Finnish NKVD Knife. Facts remained, but unfortunately, this information is not available to the average layman. For this reason, references to this Knife Block Set in essays and historical facts must rely on a logical sequence of events.
Occurrence History
As mentioned above, the history of the appearance of the Finnish NKVD can only be guessed. According to the most popular version, the Holmberg hunting knife, a Swedish hunting Knife of the Norwegian type, is the prototype of this knife.
As you can see from the photo, these knives look like his two twin brothers. The same changes that exist regarding external and geometric properties are very minor. In my opinion, an ignorant person could easily confuse these two different instances.
USSR
In general, in the USSR there is an interesting trend that the main features and shapes in creating knives were borrowed from their Scandinavian neighbors. An example is the HA40 knife and its modifications. Its prototype is the Finnish national knife Puukko, the tragic experience of the 1939 Winter War. And this is not the only example: in almost the entire model range of PK MOOR (the production plant of the Moscow Society of Hunters and Fishermen), characteristics of Scandinavian knives are traced. Soviet Hunting knives. Perhaps the reason for this lies in similar climatic conditions, which is not surprising.
To fully disclose the Finnish NKVD, let’s first briefly consider her brother. At the beginning of the 17th century, King Charles IX of Sweden faced difficulties in managing his blacksmiths to meet his defense orders. This was due to the lack of centralized production (forges were scattered all over the country). The work itself was difficult to control. Therefore, in the early 17th century, by order of Charles IX, the city of Eskilstuna was founded on the opposite coast of Stockholm, bringing the best forgings from all over Sweden. So in 1876, he founded a knife company, Pontus his Holmberg.
The city’s emblem is a hand holding a hammer and anvil as a symbol of blacksmith glory.
And here he has his Pantus Holberg forge, built in 1650 and preserved to this day, but already in museum form.
Finnish NKVD. Start
In 1930, on the territory of the Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, new laws on the distribution of weapons were introduced. From then on, its supervisory body was the NKVD (People’s Committee for Internal Affairs). An interesting excerpt from the new law – Article 182
It is prohibited to manufacture, store, sell and carry daggers, Finnish knives, and similar cutlery without the permission of the NKVD in the prescribed manner.
And about five years later, according to a new, unknown order, the Trud factory in the village of Vacha in the Nizhny Novgorod region began producing Norwegian-type knives, issued as a clothing allowance for NKVD employees.
Yes, it’s clothing satisfaction. This knife was never used by his NKVD officers but was issued only when an employee reached a certain rank or position.
For some inexplicable reason, this cutlery model was not mentioned in the documents as his NKVD Fink, but as a Norwegian-type knife.
Why the Finnish NKVD?
Everything is very simple. The Winter War with the Finns and their national knife and the creation of their national knife HA 40 based on its adoption gave it such a household name already after the war. This was facilitated by his 1953 amnesty, which released 1,349,263 people, of whom about 4,000,000 were serving time for serious crimes. Between ordinary respectable people and various organized crime groups, NA 40 left after the front line, began to walk, caught puukko, put homemade products in the trenches, got somewhere the NKVD Finns, and, of course, All this variety was simply called Finco. Because it was the Finnish national knife puukko and the prototype of the first knife adopted by the Soviet army.
Norwegian-type knives have never been used by any unit, so it is impossible to precisely trace their use in armed conflicts. known from unofficial sources to have participated in armed conflicts in, Afghanistan and Chechnya. There is unconfirmed information about the use of the Finnish NKVD in geological surveys in the 80s.
All information about the Finnish NKVD turned out to be unconfirmed, only assumptions and guesses. Maybe there were no Norwegian-type knives for the needs of the NKVD. Is this just a myth? However, not everything is as gloomy as it seems. This article and this book by Volkov V.P. have uncompromising views that indirectly confirm all of the above. NKVD school textbooks. Edition of the Department of School Courses of the Personnel Department of the NKVD of the USSR. Moscow 1940
Here is a short excerpt from a section of the book – a basic example of working with a short Finnish or Norwegian knife
1. General Concept
In hand-to-hand combat situations, the ability to work with short knives plays an important role. For this purpose, basic techniques for using Finnish or Norwegian knives have been developed. The rules and techniques are simple and don’t require much time to master. It is enough to study them carefully and train them technically with stuffed animals. So, as they say, it’s enough just to get the technique of impact. You are already well-armed. Further life experience demonstrates the system of handling knives. Before embarking on this life experience, it is important to know the basic rules and techniques for working with short knives.
2. General Terms
- The most common Finnish (or Norwegian) knife in the world is a stabbing and cutting hand-to-hand weapon.
- Work with short knives is mainly carried out in close and medium-range hand-to-hand combat. Ranged knife attacks are less effective. High proficiency with knives from a distance, throwing short knives at targets plays a major role.
- It is not recommended to attack immediately without psychological preparation. The blow must be camouflaged and executed unexpectedly quickly.
- Never put forward an armed hand when there is a struggle. It is recommended to remove it behind your back (on the armpit of your jacket, in your pocket, etc.), guide the attack with your free hand, seize the moment, and suddenly stab it with your knife. This is done to prevent an armed hand from being captured by the enemy. 5. Knife attacks must be done covertly, quickly, and unexpectedly. A bare hand means a blow to the head with a knife thrust into the abdomen with lightning speed.
As you can see from the book excerpts, knife fighting techniques are very simple and functional and do not require long mastery. And it’s not the Filipino school of Extreme Contra Tempo Knife Fighting.
Naked TTX
When this knife falls into the hands of someone who has never been familiar with the fine Finnish NKVD replicas for the first time, he experiences genuine surprise. Norwegian-type knives are so small, elegant, and light that they feel like children’s knives in large men’s hands. And why? Yes, early knives with similar features were used for the purposes described in the book, so all these modern gimmicks are impact teeth, oddly shaped blades, etc. Most people weren’t interested. This knife was worn in urban areas when performing special tasks. And for such purposes a small, discreet, and nimble knife is suitable.
Performance Characteristics
240 mm is the total length of the knife.
Blade length – 125mm
Handle length – 115mm
Blade width – 20mm
Bat Thickness – 4.4mm
Escapement – slightly convex to zero
Butt – a wedge that tapers to the tip
Handle – barrel-shaped in cross-section
But the look changed from party to party. A handle made of horn or bone and a spacer made of leather, plastic, or brass are glued and fixed to the pin, with a final shank rivet on the back of the handle via a washer. Or an all-plastic version of the handle, probably after military production.
The blade itself is always made of U7 carbon steel and is additionally chrome plated. And this fact is also a testament to the high cost and high quality by standards of this knife. After all, chrome coating was only used for status, awards, and gift copies of Edge weapons.
Sheath,
As a rule, the sheath is two types of leather, sewn in one row and additionally secured with rivets. But there are also more complicated manufacturing options – leather-covered wood with chrome-plated hardware.
Modern Replica
But here everything is already sad. There are few replicas worthy of modern times, and prices for such ones start at 15,000 rubles. His 99% of manufacturers produce a product called Finca NKVD, which is slightly similar to the original. Such works are not replicas. A more precise designation is for very distant reasons. Nevertheless, if the person is not an esthetician and does not seek the best approximation of the form, let alone the material, then such a “base” will work well.
Law
As for the law on cutlery on the territory of the Russian Federation, this is fine. The law is very loyal and you can buy a variety of knives that have been removed from the cutlery category for completely illogical reasons, the NKVD Finca is no exception, they are sold, in principle, for free. These knives have their butt thickness reduced to 2.5 mm and are removed from the melee weapon category. But if you’re a firearm owner and have his ROC in force, you can easily buy the “cold” version of this knife with a butt thickness of over 2.5 mm. This is close to the original version.
