Interesting look into Soviet era firearms

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armoredman

armoredman

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Found a movie on hulu.com, 9th Company, a Russian made film about 1988 Afghanistan, Soviet invasion thereof. Not too much propaganda, in fact, they made some Soviet doctrines seem just as stupid as they were. However, the whole thing was filmed in Russia, with lots of genuine Soviet equipment used, AK, DshK, T-72, MI-24 Hind D, MI-8 Hip, etc, except one scene involving a "sniper rifle" appeared to be the Iraqui extended AK clone instead of a genuine Dragunov, not sure. Didn't get to finish the movie, connection fizzled, but if you can stand the subtitles, it's definately interesting, a look into the Soviet Viet Nam, complete with some gear we just normally don't get to see much of out here. I am going to try to get it back up.
 
I watched that the other week. It was pretty good. The subtitles weren't that bad, especially during the action sequences.

If I remember correctly the netflix reviews claimed that it was supposed to be based on real events, but that a lot of it was made up. Either way, it was worth watching.
 
IF its the one I am thinking of it was a SVD Dragunov or a clone...It looked real enough and seeing as all the other gear looked genuine I am thinking its a true blue Drag. I dunno if its tight enough to be hitting Kopeks with it. lol


I DID like that movie. Caught it on netflix and then read a bit about it.

The whole platoon (i guess that was the unit size...) wasn't wiped out...I think there were like 10 KIA but they wiped out 500 or so Muj troops.

The real scary part was the friendly fire issue...but I don't want to give away too much detail as it IS a good flick.

D
 
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I'm not familiar enough with Soviet/former Soviet states' hardware to tell what's authentic or not, but it was a really good movie.
But the film did something interesting: even though they were the "bad guys" in the 80s as they brutally occupied Afghanistan, I did feel sympathetic toward the characters, and wanted them to fight off the waves of Muj successfully.
There's another Russian film about that war called "Afghan Breakdown" that's supposed to be quite good, too but is really hard to get (I have yet to see it).

And of course, there's The Beast, the 1988 Kevin Reynolds film with Jason Patric, one of the Baldwins and a really lean George Dzundza. Perhaps not especially realistic, but some great lines, beautiful desert photography and a haunting score.
 
I'm betting it was a Tabuk Sniper rifle. (just from your description) It is basically just a scoped RPK which has a 24" barrel instead of the ~16.5 of a normal AK. The only other real differences are the bulged trunnion, thicker receiver and dust cover.
 
I saw 9th Company... it was okay if not a little hokey...

Check out "The Beast"... about a lost tank crew in Afghanistan...
 
Yep, "The Beast" was a fairly enjoyable flick. Not often we see a movie from our opponent's point of view.
I'll have to watch "9th Company" - I am on Hulu too - gave up broadcast TV when they ruined it with forcing digital on us.
 
I have a copy of the Beast somewhere, great flick, was told it was filmed in Israel with captured Russian gear.
I did enjoy 9th Company, well made movie, a lot like many of our action hero flicks, but well done. I read some of Soviet army life, and the brutal beatings were quite commonplace, from what I remember.
 
There's a 3 1/2 hour long Finnish film called Talvisota, or "The Winter War" that captures a great amount of detail on WWII era Soviet weapons. The film is drawn from personal accounts and you see details like Finns scrounging the bolts from Soviet Mosins, because their own better fitted Mosins began to lock up when the temps got too low. It's a fantastic film if you can find it. Great details on the weapons.

I've actually got quite a large collection of modern Russian and older Soviet war films.
 
I really enjoyed "The 9th Company." When I was younger, I used to be really into all the Russian equipment. I have a friend who was the same way, and we watched it together and had a good time. It all looked authentic to me. I thought the sniper rifle looked like a SVD.

It also carries a good message about the idiocy of an imperialist/hyper-interventionist foreign policy, and about the brutality of war.
 
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