Soviet M36 Liner Opinions

[Mike]

Just bought this M36 today ..never owned one so I've been trying to compare it to posted examples. The Red Star if faint but there. The sweatband is Brown Leather , not black as most have ...and the Corrugated band is missing ..the rivets are there but they do look re-hammered. The chin strap doesn't match with some posted examples either

Is it common to find these with that corrugated band removed ? I'm hoping it's still in it's orig WW2 config

Open for opinions on this one ..whatcha think ?

[Mike]

#2

[Mike]

#3

[Mike]

Brown Sweatband ...posted WW2 examples I've seen are Black , could it be early or post war ?

[Mike]

Front Star

[Mike]

Fabric used inside (under) the Liner

[Mike]

another shot of that cotton fabric

[Mike]

All the posted examples I've seen use only a cloth webbing for the chinstrap ...have any of you seen this Leather & Cloth style strap used ?

[Nack]

All the posted examples I've seen use only a cloth webbing for the chinstrap ...have any of you seen this Leather & Cloth style strap used ?

That is a VERY nice helmet.

Looks all original WW2. There were several types of chinstraps used, and I have the same one on my Ssh39. The sock liner looks good, as does that cotton fabric lurking on the inside. They went to the 3-pad liner in 1940, so if the original suspension was the cloth/leather system, it was replaced before the end of the war.

Edited November 27, 2006 by Nack

[Belaruski]

I also had a M36 with this type of chinstrap. Some early M40's even have them.

The corrugated bands were sometimes removed as they're pretty flimsy. It looks a good helmet, but I've never seen that kind of cotton material before!

[Kornilov]

I also had a M36 with this type of chinstrap. Some early M40's even have them.

The corrugated bands were sometimes removed as they're pretty flimsy. It looks a good helmet, but I've never seen that kind of cotton material before!

NICE PIECE!

[Belaruski]

Here's a pretty poor picture of my Ssch36. With the corrugated band.

[hunyadi]

OK - here is the stupid question - these are rare I assume? As I have never seen many on the market...or am I looking in the wrong places. Sorry if its

[Belaruski]

They're pretty rare. Made between 1936-1941. The shells turn up reasonably often, but complete original examples are rare. The liner system is pretty shoddy so use, and time take their toll!

Edited December 18, 2006 by Belaruski

[Mike]

I agree, not easy to find unless you put a lot of cash into the search ...I was a little shocked when that one came my way via a High School Play Costume Dept here in NY. How they ended up with it is beyond me. They said the rest of the Military items were sold off years ago.

[Sergey]

Just bought this M36 today ..never owned one so I've been trying to compare it to posted examples. The Red Star if faint but there. The sweatband is Brown Leather , not black as most have ...and the Corrugated band is missing ..the rivets are there but they do look re-hammered. The chin strap doesn't match with some posted examples either

Is it common to find these with that corrugated band removed ? I'm hoping it's still in it's orig WW2 config

Open for opinions on this one ..whatcha think ?

Yes rivets are in other place .Star similar present .Probably it is drawn later However very real .The belt usually happens from a material .And still today in Russia to find such helmet difficultly

[Sergey]

These helmets are found in a place of fight .Winter war 1939

And consequently it is possible to consider as the standard

[Sergey]

And two kinds of stars. A star with a sickle and ground. And a star without a sickle and ground.

[Sergey]

[Frontovik Mike]

This Ssh-36 helmet appears all original... of sorts. This liner type is a replacement liner system that appears to have been added to Ssh-36 and early Ssh-39 helmets due to the original "factory" liners being removed or damaged. The high rivets on your Ssh-36 shell that this system is mounted from were added to the shell so that this same "replacement liner" could be added to either Ssh-36 or 39. A factory original Ssh-36 uses only they low rivet positions.

Like the one posted here, these liners are typically made up of unpainted steel liner bands with interior cloth components looking like they came from cut up bedsheets, civilian clothing. While they look superficially like the cloth factory liners, these replacement liners are rather unique.

Mike Baskette

[Bryan]

Hi Mike, welcome to the GMIC forum. I'm happy to see you here.

I'll bump another helmet thread for you.

[Mike]

Thanks for that ..glad to be here.

Another Collector told me that these 36's ( the one I have) were refurbished in Leningrad during the siege ..he could tell because of the "designer" fabric used in the liner and the liner being replaced ..he said that rebuilding them was standard practice because of shortages.

I don't have any books on Soviet Helmets so I could look into that story a little deeper ...have any of you heard of this being done during the siege ? If that's true , and this is a "Leningrad " Helmet..I'd think this would be a much harder Style to find than a regular M36.

[Frontovik Mike]

Leningrad refurbs has been tossed around, but such is hard to substantiate. It is certainly plausible... As far as rarity goes, what might seem likely is probably not the case. These relined helmets are fairly common on the market. I'd say 40-50% of the ones I come across are of this variety. I know that one large cache of these did come from sources in the Baltic in 2001-2002 (which also adds to the Leningrad theory), so for a while they were everywhere. Same for the Ssh-39s of this type as well.

This type Ssh-36 should have been of no surprise to someone keeping up with available reference. The first place I ever saw this type helmet was in Shalito's first reference work "Red Army Uniforms of WW2 in Colour Photographs". The small format, Europa Militaria book published by Windrow and Greene. The Ssh-36 shown in the book, best on pages 11 & 25, is clearly one of this type and that book was written in 1992. You can see the replacement chinstrap and the high rivets.

Mike B.

[Mike]

Leningrad refurbs has been tossed around, but such is hard to substantiate. It is certainly plausible... As far as rarity goes, what might seem likely is probably not the case. These relined helmets are fairly common on the market. I'd say 40-50% of the ones I come across are of this variety. I know that one large cache of these did come from sources in the Baltic in 2001-2002 (which also adds to the Leningrad theory), so for a while they were everywhere. Same for the Ssh-39s of this type as well.

Mike B.

Thanks Mike ..That cache had to be what started the Leningrad Theory. I'm not sure why they are guessing about them since , I would have thought that by now some ref would have surfaced showing if they were really refurbishing Helmets during the siege. They still had Factories producing Machineguns and many other items so ..it does make sense.

These are still great Helmets even if they can't claim the extra added History ...would be nice to find out someday though.