Gentlemen Comrades

Not to be confused with “Comrade Detective”, a miniseries which takes place in Bucharest in 1984, back when Ceaucescu was still running things.  That deserves a brief mention on its own merits.  All the actors are Romanian and speak Romanian (with English subtitles), but in addition to the subtitles, they are overdubbed in English by A-List actors such as Channing Tatum, who seem to heartily enjoy the whole thing.  It hit a soft spot for me, having been to Bucuresti in 2006 and having a failed romance with a buxom and provocative but unfaithful Romanian woman, Gia.  Maybe that affair deserves a blog entry – maybe not.  Anyhow.

This one is in Russian with English subtitles and takes place in early 1918.  It seems Bolsheviks took over and immediately fired all former Tsarist police officers, and/or Okhrana, Tsar’s secret police.  By way,  Okhrana, in 1904 (!!!!) was investigating whether someone would fly a biplane loaded with TNT into Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.  Decades before 9/11, and only a year after Wright Brothers flew, someone in law enforcement was already checking this out.  Amazing.

Anyhow.  Firing all former cops didn’t magically make crime disappear in USSR, and new Bolshevik cops, perhaps politically reliable, had zero experience chasing down ordinary criminals, so Reds reluctantly realized that maybe – just maybe – it might be a good idea to swallow their pride and ask a former Tsarist police detective, one they didn’t summarily execute or send to Siberia, to help out.   Fortunately for them, they found a very competent and patient man to do so: Varaksin.   They team him up with a new Bolshevik officer – still wearing his striped shirt from the Navy’s Baltic Fleet – Sokolov (catchphrase: “friggin’ soot!”) – and together they solve crimes in new U S S R.  Quite interesting.

I have several guns – not an Arsenal, of course – and if one of those guns figures prominently in a movie or TV show I can’t help but pull it out while I watch and enjoy.   In Season 4 of “Man in the High Castle”, rebels are equipped with Russian submachine guns and AK47s, latter of which I own, so naturally my all-black AK47 wound up in my arms as I saw Juliana and her comrades attack Nazi portal in Pennsylvania.  

Here, most prominent weapon is Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifle – usually with bayonet attached.  (One character, Melnikov, accuses Bolsheviks of waving Mausers around, to which Sokolov replies that he prefers Mosin – although only weapon I see him brandishing on a regular basis is his revolver.)  I have 91/30 rifle, from its markings produced at state arsenal in 1932, full length with bolt sticking straight out (like original German Mauser Gewehr 98 of WWI) – carbine and sniper models have bolt turned down (like Mauser 98K of WWII).  Although I have bayonet, I prefer not to attach it to avoid accidents. 

Up to now there are 16 episodes.  No word yet on whether there will be subsequent seasons, as they haven’t even reached July 1918 when Tsar and his entire family were murdered in Sverdlovsk amidst the Civil War.  Latter only petered out in 1922 when Bolsheviks finally managed to defeat each of competing forces in turn (see my reprint of my Russian Civil War blog).   Intriguing that Bolshevik officers recognize Varaksin’s competence but also reliability, especially since Cheka is here in black leather jackets (English subtitles prematurely referring to them as KGB).