Where can I get Soviet style chess pieces like these

Def check out Etsy and search for "vintage chess sets".  Just about every one of the search results will be Soviet-Era!  Reasonable prices too!

This is absolutely true and an excellent point!

Hi all, so here is the set I finally bought. I had to choose between the one that features in the pic that started this thread (which was exactly what I was looking for visually, but had plastic black knights) and an older one, with wooden knights, which was in perfect condition in the sense that all pieces were fully intact (no chips or dents). The only problem with the latter set is that it seemed to have swum in the Varnishko River and now after so many years the lustre has turned to mud. 

Here is the set I bought (supplier image)

Picture of pieces on my homemade chess table:

The supplier at my request (because I knew I would not tolerate all that varnish) added a few broken pieces from that era so I could experiment on. I tried stripping a piece from varnish and it worked, so I did all the white pieces. Here are the rooks (supplier pic):

and here the rooks stripped once (left) and twice (right). I have subsequently rubbed them down well with fine Scotch Brite (and with fine sandpaper in selected areas where necessary. I need to decide now how to finish them.

I will take an image of the finished pieces soon (smoothed down, I mean, before I start the finishing), so you can all see what Soviet sets looked like off the lathe so to speak (although the wood does betray its age still which is why I do not have such a bad conscience removing the old finish)

The other thing I want to eventually do, is show you the other three Russian sets I have acquired since (two purchased and one received from a friend) - I just could not resist: they are all totally different, and I have quite a bit to say, share and ask about them, esp. since one has been reproduced by ChessBazaar (which I happen to have ) so I can compare them properly.

Here's the rook, read for finishing. 

This is queen (finial temp removed) - you can see the beautiful beechwood now (it has exact texture of my Man Ray set

And here are the other pieces as well. The knights are made from a different wood - much softer, they have a pine feel in the hand.

I'm still undecided on the finish. At first I was inclined to just oil them because the grain is so nice. Then I thought I should stain them a lovely colour. Then there is the option of restoring them to the original look (but with just one layer of spray!) i.e. glossy varnish. Opinions are welcome! :-)

Great job. Fascinating work. I'd be inclined to stain the white pieces in a color approaching the original, and spray the black pieces with hi-gloss automotive paint as Alan Dewey recommends. Then free advice is worth what you pay for it. LOL.

It seems that the original colour was the natural wood colour with only varnish (no stain). The orangy colour that you see is the varnish changing colour overtime. Production was simple: turn, sand and soak in varnish. Black pieces were not "ebonized" (am busy stripping them too). Black coloured varnish. That's how they did it. (at least that is how it seems to me). I used a paint stripper - within 10 minutes the pieces were wrinkled like a prune. No difference between white pieces and black pieces - in both cases it was thick coat/s sitting on the surface of the piece.

Here are the black pieces (which were really THICK with varnish). Pieces in front are with two applications of paint stripper (and the ones behind, one).

One of the reasons I would like to stain the pieces is to hide the colour difference of the knight - it is distinctly yellower that the other pieces (and its base). I have a cheap (non-Russian) set to experiment on ... I just don't see why it wouldn't work to add pigment (either powder or from artists oil paints) to a clear varnish or liquid oil-based wax and paint it on - very much like glazing technique in oil painting. That way I can control the exact colour and I can get the knight to match the other pieces quite easily (either before I colour all the pieces or apply clear varnish to them, depending). 

For better or for worse, this is how the set has turned out. I sort of allowed the wood to betray its age and the treatment it has undergone over the years. I still have to darken the black pieces more and do a buff polish

To restore it as close as possible to the original it was clear to me that I just had to gloss varnish or shellack the pieces once I had stripped off varnish. But I wanted the knights to have the same colour as the other pieces. So there were two ways to do that: stain the pieces or paint the knights to match exact colour first. I opted for the former because it seemed the simpler and safer way. If I did it again I would probably try the other way. 

But I am not disappointed. The pieces are nicer than the photos indicate. I just made them look twenty to thirty years older LOL

They look great!

Thank you BonTheCat, I don't think everyone will agree with you, esp when compared to original:

Fantastic job!!

cgrau thanks! (hope you are not just being nice) - I feared you would object to me not staying true to the original

Hehe, I like the way look both now and originally.

Am finished restoring the set, and now there's another Russian set which I bought which I am interested to know if anyone knows much about it. 

I bought Chess Bazaar's version of it a year ago : https://www.chessbazaar.com/reproduced-vintage-soviet-series-chess-set-in-sheesham-box-wood-3-5-king.html

Here are my own images of it:

While looking for the chess set of this thread, I discovered an "original" which I subsequently bought:

I have since then managed to find only two more designs like this (Etsy):

Does anyone know anything about this design? I mean the mere fact CB made a reproduction must mean that it is an established design. Or so I assume. 

I have only these 4 samples to draw from - 1 CB and the 3 "originals". I must say I liked the CB when I bought it - I have a taste for simple, modern, non-Staunton sets, and I liked the weight and feel of the pieces. 

But when I started looking at real Russian sets then I can only wonder what CB's source was. The most unique aspect of the real sets is that all the pieces have the same size base - pawns included. The variable is the height of the base. Which means that each piece takes the same amount of space on the chess board. CB inverted this - made those hefty bases on all the pieces constant (has anyone seen a real soviet set that has this feature?) and adjusted the base diameter. 

The overall feature of the original design, is the "lowness" of the pieces, and the clean elegant curves. 

Any more information about this design would be most welcome (especially if someone here has an image or two of their own set like this to show).

Hi. I thought that I’d share final state of this set that I have now finished. It has changed since last posting.