In the initial period of its activity, the Soviet government attached great importance to the education of the future generation. Therefore, special attention was paid to the toy as one of the educational tools. Of course, technological capabilities were more often lacking than sufficient during this period, but since 1930 even the magazine "Soviet Toy" has begun to be published. Naturally, dolls and soldiers on the theme of the Civil War have been produced since the twenties.
A few metal soldiers of the 30s have come down to us: they were horsemen in Budenovkas, which could be attributed to both the soldiers of the 30s and the soldiers of the Civil War, as well as figures of the Cossacks: with or without a banner. All of these figurines lived in the 40s, but their manufacturers are almost unknown, with the exception of the Fine Arts Factory of the Park of Culture and Leisure. Gorky.
As we wrote in an article on "VO" about Russian heroes, these figures were based on a Nuremberg miniature, of course, in form, but not in content, mass production did not make it possible to work out the details, as required by the "Nuremberg".
Mass production begins in the 50s of the twentieth century.
The Red Army is the strongest of all
The metal products plant (ZMI-1) produced metal horsemen: Cossacks and red cavalrymen, which later, in the 60s and 80s, would be produced in plastic. Later on the basis of this plant will be created the association "Progress".
Here are toy soldiers for kids, these were also produced in gray rubber in a budenovka and a hat:
One of the first sets of the Progress association, along with the Russian Warriors set, was the Chapaevtsy plastic set in red. Its cost was 80 kopecks, the number of riders was eight. These were toys made on the basis of the matrices of metal soldiers of the 50s ZMI-1. Therefore, the figures were smeared, if the hats were here and there, then the budenovka more resembled hats.
In 1969, it was decided to start the production of the same figures at the Odessa metal haberdashery factory, they were sold both as a set and separately for 12 kopecks. in the stalls "Soyuzpechat", for example, I bought mine there.
At first, they were produced only in red, and then in other colors, which made it possible to use in the game not only "red" - red, but also their opponents - blue or green.
Later, the same set of "Chapaevtsev" began to be produced in red at the Moscow Toy Factory "Krugozor". As we wrote in the previous article, in the USSR, soldiers were produced in gigantic, millions of copies.
Another very popular set "Chapaevtsy" was produced at the Progress plant in red and duplicated in Odessa at a metal haberdashery factory in different colors.
This set included a cart with "Anka the Machine Gunner".
The author of this set was the famous sculptor Zoya Vasilievna Ryleeva (1919-2013), the creator of sculptures at VDNKh and monuments to Soviet soldiers in Russia and abroad.
The cart from this set was also sold separately.
And here is another very popular set, which every boy probably had, "Budenny's Cavalry" or "Budennovtsy", red horsemen, among them there was a standard bearer. Produced in Odessa.
But in Kharkov, they produced similar soldiers, but in different poses and from fragile, pink plastic. Their coasters often broke.
Also in the same place, at the factory of plastic products, the MMP of the Ukrainian SSR produced carts with three, not two horses.
These are the cars produced in the USSR:
They differed in originality, so to speak, speaking of poorly worked out in an artistic sense products, figurines of the red cavalry, produced at the plant named after. 50th anniversary of the USSR in the city of Kotovsk, Tambov region.
Let us repeat that it is precisely this lack of expression and the smaller editions in comparison with the production in Moscow and Odessa that makes them very popular among collectors.
When we wrote about the "Russian heroes", we noted that within the framework of the accepted views on the image during this period, the soldiers were distinguished by some extraordinary, sometimes unnatural expression. The figures give the impression that they are all racing at a crazy speed. All the images are of a heroic and epic character, and the poses of the riders are like those of monuments to heroes, even the tachanka is depicted as in the painting of the famous battle artist M. Gerasimov: it rushes at great speed and is harnessed by magnificent horses. Although the carts were just a delivery vehicle, this is by the way.
It is more important that with a general discussion of realism, moreover, it was during the period of the so-called. socialist realism, from an artistic point of view, the new soldiers are not far from their counterparts of the 50-60s, perhaps only the forms were more clearly defined. But of course, we are not talking about any realism, especially in comparison with the soldiers produced in the United States, and in Europe, where the desire for realism was unconditional: weapons and appearance corresponded to current historical ideas. If we talk about the Civil War in the United States, then the soldiers were worked out in detail here.
Of course, there were good artists, there were hack-workers who churned out even faceless monuments to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, but in general, no one was particularly keen on detailing and realism, these moments were hidden behind artistic expression.
The set, made by the famous author of Soviet soldiers and toys, sculptor BD Savelyev, looks the same. (Boris Dmitrievich Savelyev passed away this year.)
In the 70s, he made many sets of soldiers for the Astratsov factory: cavalry in 1812, warriors of the Middle Ages and riders from Budyonny. Actually, the set was made from 6 riders and one carriage, they were located on a plastic stand and had packaging.
"Horse Army" - from TsAM (alloy of zinc, aluminum and magnesium). Unlike the warriors of the Middle Ages, she was less fragile.
We have already written that Astratsovo is a Russian center for the production of tin toys, which existed for about 100 years.
The same riders, created by the sculptor Savelyev, were produced from gray plastic at the Toy LPO in Leningrad.
When it comes to the Civil War, soldiers-horsemen are usually remembered, although foot soldiers were also released, they were significantly inferior to the first in number and popularity.
The first such metal set was produced by Progress: it cost 1 ruble. 30 kopecks and consisted of 10 soldiers, was called "Soldiers of the Revolution".
Two more metal sets were produced at the Leningrad carburetor and armature plant named after V. I. Kuibysheva V. V., in colorful gift wrapping: "Sailors of October" and "Revolutionary sailors". The set cost 1 rub. 60 kopecks The author of these figurines was the sculptor L. V. Razumovsky.
In the early 90s, the direction of military history miniature (VIM) began to develop, where the production of metal figurines, including those dedicated to the Civil War, began in artisanal conditions (many of them soon reached the highest quality). Of course, the “white” topic aroused the most interest, since it had been under a certain ban for a long time.
But the soldiers, and even more so on the topic of the Civil War, became immediately irrelevant. And there is definitely no malice here. The tendency for children to refuse to play toy soldiers began in the West in the mid-70s. years, the notorious anti-war propaganda of toys did not seem to play a strong role. The key here were the new heroes of cinema and television and games, the withdrawal into "virtual" reality. Toy soldiers are forever leaving children's games in the field of adult games, becoming objects of large-scale reconstruction and collectibles.
The Ura company, created in 2004, tried to reverse the trend, but alas, its soldier did not become a mass product. This company, whose goal is not just the production of metal soldiers, but also the development of patriotic education, for the first time in our country has created many soldiers in different areas of Russian history.
This is the first company to make "whites".
Also "Hurray" made soldiers on the topic of counter-revolution: the Basmachi and the Red Army soldiers fighting with them. In the images of some, well-known characters from the Soviet "Eastern" are guessed.
But the firm "Engineer Basevich" from St. Petersburg began its activities in the 21st century. with the creation of several sets of plastic, and this, one might say, was a real breakthrough.
Warriors of 54-mm size were released on the following themes: set # 1 "Red Army", set # 1 "Red Army", sequel, set # 2 "For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland", set # 3 "Counter-revolution".
Especially interesting is the last set, which contains such colorful characters as Makhno or Abdulla from the cult film "White Sun of the Desert" directed by V. Motyl.
And in 2019, this company released the Red Riders. The riders are made very high quality, perhaps there are questions about the sculpting of horses, but for the first time in our history, more precisely, the history of "soldier building", there was a release of intelligible and high-quality figures on the Civil War.
"Civil war" outside the borders of Russia
And were there soldiers on the theme of the Russian Civil War in other countries?
The most iconic set on this topic was produced by the famous Italian company "Atlantic" in the 70s - early 80s.
Atlantic produced a huge number of sets on different themes: modern armies, Indians and cowboys (the iconic Buffalo Bill set), wonderful sets for antiquity, the company did not have only figures on the Middle Ages. They even released a Trojan horse, albeit on a 1:72 scale.
There were four sets for revolutions and "revolutions" of the twentieth century: Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, and the Russian revolution.
Among the figurines, the Italians also made Lenin and Stalin.
Of course, in the world of collectors there will always be an aesthetic debate about the Atlantic sculptures. Fans of "Elastolin" will always look down on this company, but "Atlantic" left its bright mark in the history of the soldiers.
Another company is still releasing two sets on the theme of the Civil War in Russia - "Armies in plastic", this is a company from New York, USA.
She makes, along with the "favorite" American sets about the American Revolution, sets on the theme of colonial wars, including the United States, Napoleon's wars, the Crimean War and even the Russo-Japanese War.
And also two sets dedicated to the civil war in our country, it just makes whites, however, these same "whites" appear in the sets dedicated to the Russian-Japanese war, and the horsemen, also in the Crimean one.
Somewhere in 2012-2013. in the PRC, the production of Budyonny's Cavalry from Odessa was restored, but they looked too scary. It seems that this set has not found its buyer.
This, however, limits the production of soldiers in other countries, on the topic we are considering.
I always lamented that in the USSR only "ours" were produced, and there were few opponents, on all soldier topics, but here the American company, "Armies in plastic", has been producing 54-mm volume infantry and horsemen for almost fifteen years. whose opponents did not exist … before the appearance of the "Engineer Basevich" warriors.
Afterword
Undoubtedly, the work of the "Engineer Basevich" company is a real breakthrough in the field of creating soldiers for the civil war and revolution, it seems to us that the sets that were produced in the USSR are of great historical and cultural significance, undoubtedly, they are of great interest as a collectible.
Let's leave aside the artistic part, but it is absolutely impossible to “fight” with them or to reconstruct the events of that period.
While in the United States, the topic of the Civil War is perhaps the number one topic. A huge number of companies produced and continues to produce toy soldiers for this event, moreover, our Russian companies, which began to enter the American market, are also creating sets for the American Civil War. Here I would like to note that this civil war was the bloodiest war in the nineteenth century, the victims of which, according to quick estimates, were at least 900 thousand people killed and wounded.
One could argue that our civil war is not over, it has just passed into the "cold" stage.
Nevertheless, the movement of collectors of soldiers, collectors of soldiers of the Civil War in the United States embraces a huge number of participants and societies: they do not divide soldiers into "northerners" and "southerners", but are interested in military history, study it, which testifies to the maturity of society.
Perhaps, our new interest in soldiers will also contribute to the creation of such societies and movements where the level of studying military operations during the Civil War in Russia will rise to a different level, and “playing on the table” will give an opportunity to almost really get involved in those events.
