Collecting Third Reich Belt Buckles: A Russian Perspective

This book was originally published in Russia, under the title 'Buckles of Fascist Germany' in the year 2000, and has now been translated into English for the first time. Although the 'Berlin Wall' has been demolished for over ten years, there is still a clear divide between East and West, this is also true in the field of collecting Third Reich antiquities. Ulyanov is one of the first Russian writers specialising in the Third Reich era, and brings, in this publication, an interesting perspective to collecting Third Reich belt buckles. There are over 200 photographs of original and reproduction belt buckles, all sourced from within the Russian States included in this volume. Many of the photographs show magnified images of the buckles, enabling the reader to identify pertinant details relating to authenticity, and differences between reproductions and fakes.In regard to reproductions and fakes, extreme detail of the 'new generation' East Bloc fakes will come as a surprise to many collectors. The detail of every illustrated buckle, including the history of how and where it was obtained has been faithfully logged down in this book. Interestingly, many of the buckles were illegally 'excavated' from battle fields and grave sites. One chapter discusses the history of the so called 'black-diggers'; people who dig up and illegally remove artefacts from the aforementioned battle fields and grave sites. For the advanced collector, information and photographs of a hitherto unknown variation of the 'RMBO' prototype high leaders buckle will be of welcome interest.

Vladimir B Ulyanov
Softcover 130 pages on fine art paper, over 200 photographs 2002