Update on new projects - February 2024

Updated: Feb 27

As you can all see in the Shop part of our website, there are quite a few books that are marked as "Out of stock". This is not entirely correct - they never been in stock, as they are not yet published. But the interest around them is significant! So, in this article I will shed a bit of light on what progress is achieved on every one of our upcoming manuscripts and when they can be expected in printer. The projects are listed in the order of readiness, but it is possible that there will be changes in what is published first.

Uniforms and history of the Soviet Airborne in Afghanistan

Right now we have one physical book in stock and two digital ones - Men's Business and pdf version of Uniforms and History.

In parallel to my own projects, I am currently working on a more in-depth series of books for Helion Publishing. The idea is to create an eight-pieces volume on all major branches of the Soviet Forces during the Afghan War. The books will be very different in format to the rest of my work - more text heavy and include documental pictures mixed with the modern ones.

Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War

This is the book that currently has a live campaign on Kickstarter. It was fully funded in the first day, and so it is confirmed - the book is going into printing! For now the timeline states that after the campaign ends and the funds are released we will put the manuscript into production.

It usually takes between two to four month to complete the whole process, meaning that it is very likely that books will arrive to the fulfillment center by the end of summer 2024 and this is when they will be available on this website.

Soviet weapons of the Atomic Age

This is the second book in the series which will cover the whole range of the Soviet infantry weapons from 1917 to 1991. While many from our audience are more interested in uniforms rather than in small arms it is essential to know that the two are going side by side. While we were working on the Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War, our team has made many photos for the Soviet weapons of the Atomic Age - since most of them are present in our collection. Because of this, the book is now mostly complete in terms of photography.

The texts are, however, a different story. While the weapons designed in 1960s and 1970s have been extensively used in the conflicts started by the Soviet Union, the stuff produced in 1950s was never used in any major confrontation. And since our first book in the series is focused on the practical use of the arsenal, we are searching for the way to continue the pattern. It is most likely that the Soviet weapons of the Atomic Age will focus on the development of the weapons, their use in the peacetime Soviet Army and its practical use in the conflicts worldwide.

The plan is to finish this book by the end of 2024 and create a crowdfunding campaign in November 2024.

Red Alert: Structure of Soviet Infantry Regiment

The book that is likely to become the second manuscript in our uniforms series will expand your knowledge on the basic peacetime Soviet land forces regiment of the second part of the Cold War. The book will cover, in detail, the structure of a typical infantry and tank regiment, covering the information on battle order, support units, their equipment, uniforms and organizational structure.

While the book will be similar in photographic style to the Uniforms and History of the Soviet Airborne in Afghanistan, it will provide a lot more detailed information. While uniform discipline in Afghanistan was subpar and it is easier to show how soldiers looked rather than to describe it in writing, the peacetime Soviet Army was the opposite.

Unlike the Soviet Weapons of the Atomic Age, this book is mainly written but not photographed. We are hoping to complete the majority of photos required by the end of the summer of this year and to complete the whole manuscript by the end of 2024.

Uniforms and Equipment of the First Chechen War

This is another topic that our team was very involved in in terms of reenactment. Over the years we have accumulated both the knowledge and the militaria required to complete a project as complicated as this.

There are a few challenges, however. While we do have enough uniforms, equipment and weapons in our collection to reenact the Army regiments, which participated in the First Chechen War, we are lacking the more unique stuff which was used by the police and internal troops. And the idea is to present all major forces, including the Chechen Rebels. So, we do not think that this book will be finished until mid 2025. Knowing how much this book is anticipated by the community, we will, however, try our best to speed up the process.

Ukrainian Armed Forces in the UN Missions

This is a project which I had in mind for quite some time as during the COVID times I made a lot of progress in collecting almost all pieces of uniform and equipment used by the Ukrainian peacekeepers. At the time it was just a passion collecting for me, but after learning more about the topic I realized that the information is scattered and is very likely to be lost in the next decade or two if not preserved correctly.

So, the project will, again, be in the similar photo style to Uniforms and history of the Soviet Airborne in Afghanistan. However, the informational side will be more focused on the actual UN missions themselves, as well as the role of the Ukrainian peacekeepers. We will, of course, include detailed information on the equipment used - as it was usually unique for every mission.

While this book is partially written and photographed, the main risk is the lack of potential customers. The topic is as narrow as it gets and it is only economically viable to print at least 1000 books, knowing that at least 500 of them will be solved in the first year. So, for this book we will either release an e-book or will push it back in the queue hoping to get more interest before the launch. Estimated printing time - mid 2026.

PV KGB Soviet Border Guards

The topic of the Soviet Border Guards is quite narrow, but nevertheless - very engaging. The Soviet frontier troops were quite different from the rest of the armed Forces. Their organization, doctrine, everyday life and even equipment were not the same.

There are couple of experts working on the book structure right now. It will be different in style from everything else that we do - let's say a combination of full body pictures with the separate pieces of the equipment photographed under different angles. This book will also include some memorabilia related to the border guards service.

It is hard to estimate when this book will be released. We do hope to finish and print it by early 2026.

Soviet Soldier of the Atomic age

Another passion project of mine with very few fans. The Soviet Army is a very understudied subject when we talk about the post-war period of 1950s and 1960s. Many documents were never published, the amount of documental photographs is limited and so the information has to be collected piece by piece.

And this is exactly what we are doing in our free time. The style of this book will be some sort of combination of everything else we did - touching a little on organizational structure, weapons used but mainly focusing on weapons and equipment. It is a fascinating topic but we definitely need more followers on it - and this is what we are planning to work on to release the book in 2026.

Uniforms and Equipment of the Afghan Army

This is the book which will not be done by me. It will be written by Dmitry Ivanchenko and he will be taking photographs mostly based on his own collection of the incredibly rare items of the Afghan Army. My part will be marketing and potentially the layout design. And, well, cover design - which you can see here.

Uniform and equipment of the Afghan Army

It is a complicated book to make. The amount of information available on the topic is almost non-existent and we have to base our research on very unreliable sources. However, in our philosophy, it is better to do at least something on the topic rather than to let it fade away into history. This way more work can be done in future based on our research.

Regarding any dates, it is very hard to predict anything at this point. But, for the sake of this article, let's say we will manage to complete it by the end of 2026.

Which of these books you would be most interested in?

Soviet Weapons of the Atomic Age
Uniforms and equipment of the Afghan Army
Soviet Soldier of the Atomic age
PV KGB Soviet Border Guards

VDV - Soviet Airborne in the times of peace, 1969-1991

The last three titles mentioned in this blogpost do not even have covers yet. But, surprisingly, some of them might be much closer to printing than many of the books above.

While our first book on Soviet airborne is focusing exclusively on the Afghanistan adventures, this one will actually be about the VDV as it was intended to be by the book. We will talk about all the parachuting equipment, tactics and specialized pieces of uniform. The history and structure of the forces will also be there.

This book is not that hard for us to make as we have the knowledge and the equipment in our collections. We estimate the completion of the manuscript by the end of 2024, though it is not sure in what order the books will go into crowdfunding.

Carl Zeiss Binoculars

This is a project which is quite unusual for us, as it focuses on one particular piece of equipment and is generally out of the era of our expertise. However, the friend of ours owns and exceptional collection which is already very well photographed and retouched.

We are working on some technical details about the book, but it is safe to assume, that it can go live even by the end of current year of 2024.

Modern Russian weapons captured during the Russian-Ukrainian War

Since early 2022, Russia wages a full scale war against Ukraine. We managed to get our hands on some of the modern weapons used by the invading army - such pieces as AK-12 (both variants), VAL and VSS, Pecheneg and others. If we manage to to others, more rare small arms and grenade launchers, we will complete this as a project.

Again, it is very hard to predict any dates for it.