So I was unable to post a from the collection last month due to real world stuff so this month I’ll make up for it by posting 2 from the collections. The FED camera company started in 1934 in Soviet Ukraine and its sole purpose was to build cameras for the NKVD. The cameras the company built prior to ww2 were copies of popular German Leica brand cameras. The company itself in those days was in all fact a child Labour camp. The cameras were built using forced labor from children who were interned there due to having their parents executed by the Nkvd. The company produced cameras for the nkvd right up until the factory was overrun and destroyed by German forces in 1941 and they did not resume production until 1946 after which they were no longer copying leicas and as I recall that’s when the cameras just started being made for the civilian market as opposed to the nkvd
This example I own and am sharing is an nkvd version made in 1941, likely late spring/early summer based on the serial number
