Soviet Rabbit-Ear Binoculars

[Chuck In Oregon]

A few years ago I was walking on the street near Tbilisi's Dry Bridge flea market and a lady says "Would you like to buy some binoculars?" I'm a sucker for unusual things and I have several pairs of Soviet field glasses, so I said sure, where are they? She said "Come back in an hour and I'll have them for you." Well, I did and she did and I bought them, but they sure weren't what I had been expecting. Her story was that when the Soviet naval base in Poti closed down, or rather when the Soviet navy ceased to exist, her father just walked out the gate with them.

These rabbit-ear binoculars -- I don't know what else to call them -- are either hard point or tripod-mounted. I've seen similar glasses in photos of trenches and on ships' bridges. I don't know one from the other and this isn't something I ever encountered myself in the military. They were made in 1945 and re-inspected (probably in a naval warehouse) in 1965 and they appear never to have been issued or used in any way. I suppose that had something to do with inventory being made according to plan instead of according to need, leading to stockpiles of some things and shortages of others.

Anyway, it's a slow day so I thought I'd share these with you.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

... And two more photos

[Chuck In Oregon]

... And the last two photos. I guess this is the right forum for something Soviet other than an award. If not, if someone will tell me where it should go, I'll try to move it.

Chuck

[Wild Card]

Very interesting, Chuck. How would you rate the optics?