Vintage Soviet Russian Chess Set circa 1950s

Here's some pics of a vintage circa 1950s Soviet set. Kings measure 3 1/8" in height. Pawn height 1 5/8".  My set looks similar to Cgrau, UpcountryRain and Ronbo's sets but appears be an older version. 

VERY Cool Mike. Makes me want my set to get here even faster . I think my king is the same height. The knights and Rooks are what sold me on this style. 

I love this style. The knights are unique. Your pawns are special, even for this design. Here are examples of the pawns in my set...

I also really like the red pieces. No date in the box?

Wow, goodknightmike, what a set! It definitely seems older. Is that a recent acquisition? When did you get it?

Thanks Chuck, yep no date on box

My pleasure UpcountryRain,  I got this set on Ebay around 3 years ago

Wow! Exquisite condition. That is how I am trying to find many of the 60's-80's Soviet era sets now. Congrats 

1957, Info?

A thing of beauty. 

Leave it to the Russians to make something like that.

I have a boring Staunton set compared to this.

I am interested in finding out more about the Soviet set shown in Episode 7 season 2 of the poorly acted rather odd European cop show Crossing Lines. If anyone knows who's it is or who provided the sets for this show I would like to know.

The set is shown very briefly only. This is the best I could do for screenshots:

Hi Frank,

Yes M downloaded a couple of pics but for some reason I cannot see your pictures here.

Could you please send it/them to me on my email. alandewey@rocketmail.com as an attachment.

Here is the set! Technical expertise courtesy of my wife...

Thank you to Frank for his help also.

I am particularly interested in these Soviet sets because I read a true story once where the author (who had been exiled to Siberia)  claimed that whilst he was interned the prisoners had to make 500 knight's heads a day, He eventually escaped and made his way I assume to freedom having some interesting encounters along the way. It may be Alexandre Solzhenitsyn or Maxim Gorky maybe. I am going to have to read them again if no one comes to my rescue ...

The point is that these heads would no doubt be pretty crude and a lot of the vintage Soviet sets we see are good candidates for these knights heads.

Not the one above which looks about as good as the Soviet sets ever get.

 
It's not a Soviet chess set. It's a Czechoslovak (and now Czech) set (I bought one exactly like that about ten years ago). It was designed in the early 1920s, post Czechoslovak independence - as a means of distinguishing Czechoslovak culture as distinct and liberated from the demised Hapsburg empire - and used in the Prague Olympiad in 1930 (see pics of Alexander Alekhine, Milan Vidmar, and Yefim Bogolyubow below). Generally, these pieces are unweighted and made from an incredibly light type of wood, but still stable thanks to their broad bases. New sets tend to have a knight with a plastic head (which differs in colour for the white pieces) mounted on a wooden base - which detracts greatly from the beauty of this set. The one in the television series looks to be of an older 'vintage' with a proper wooden knight (like my set had), but not exactly the same as the original interwar model. These newer sets have a rook, bishop and pawns which are more squat and a knight which sits more 'haunched', so to speak, on its base and has very pointy ears, but there's no mistaking the original they've been developed from.

https://zanchess.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/stahlberg-alekhine-praag-olm-1931.png?w=150&h=150 150w, https://zanchess.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/stahlberg-alekhine-praag-olm-1931.png?w=298&h=300 298w" alt="Stahlberg--Alekhine, Praag olm (1931)" width="568" height="572" />

The Hungarians later developed a set with certain similitaries to the Czechoslovak one in the 1950s and 60s (see pics of Gideon Ståhlberg and Lajos Portisch below).

 Thank you Ola,

That is very helpful. I like the very bottom set, the oversized pawn balls look very similar to the one on the TV.