Soviet Army NR-40 combat knife
The NR-40 was a Soviet combat knife introduced in 1940 and used throughout WWII. The NR-40 has a 152mm blade with a clip point, a large choil, a black wooden handle, and an S-shaped guard, The guard is "inverted" (unlike most S-shaped guards, it curves toward the edge) because standard Soviet Army grips called for holding the knife with the edge towards yourself (most useful if you are, for example, trying to sneak up on a sentry from behind).
History[]
Tank crew members of the "black knife" division. Note all-black NR-40s.
In the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish puukko knives started becoming popular with criminals in major cities of the Russian empire. Local knife-makers then began modifying the Finnish woodsman's tool to make it more useful for fighting; for example, making the blade longer, changing from a flat back to a clip point, and adding a large guard. The resulting weapon, still called a "Finnish knife" or "finka" in Russian, looked rather different from a typical puukko. "Finnish knives" were ubiquitous in the criminal underworld of Russia and the Soviet Union throughout the first half of the 20th century. Because of the criminal association, the "Finnish knife" was banned in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, much like the switchblade which would later be banned in the West.
The Winter War revealed a number of deficiencies in Soviet weaponry; among other issues, the Soviet infantry lacked a good combat knife. As a result, in 1940, the Soviet Army adopted the NR-40-essentially, a mass-produced version of the Russian gangster's "finka".
"Black knife" division[]
The NR-40 was mostly produced at the ZiK factory in Zlatoust, Urals. Once the Ural Volunteer Tank Corps was formed in 1943, all its soldiers and officers were supplied with a special issue of the NR-40 (known as the "black knife"). The unofficial divisional anthem mentioned the nickname as well.
Modern variants of the NR-40[]
The NR-40 is no longer used by the army, but modern remakes and almost exact replicas of the NR-40 are produced in Zlatoust to this day. A knife of exactly the same proportions would be legally a weapon, thus prohibiting free sale. To circumvent that, producers either use a thinner blade or remove the guard.