Information taken from the book "Cortices of the USSR"

It would be fair to open the history of the Soviet cortex proper with this particular model, which was the first one developed in the Soviet Union and later served as a prototype for the creation of other cortices for other branches of the armed forces.

Despite the fact that the cortices were in service with the Red Army and the RKKF earlier, in fact, they were pre-revolutionary models with the only difference in symbolism. This same cortex, although it combines the basic canons of previous types, is nevertheless the first independent Soviet cortex.

Red Army – Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

RKKF – USSR Navy.

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The prerequisite for the emergence of the sample in question was partly the fact that in 1939 the Soviet Navy was allocated to a separate branch of the armed forces, with its own People's Commissariat, which was headed by the outstanding Soviet naval commander Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov. Under the leadership of this talented and charismatic man, the old gradations of the Russian fleet, which had receded into the background after the revolution and the civil war, began to revive.

First of all, this affected the appearance of naval officers – the samples of uniforms adopted in 1939 practically repeated the pre-revolutionary naval uniform, which was strikingly different from the early years of the existence of the RKKF. The epaulettes introduced in 1943 only emphasized this similarity. Military ranks returned to the army and navy, and later the officer corps was revived.

As an integral attribute of the uniform of a naval officer, he finally returned to service and cortex.

To create a new, Soviet model of the cortex, an artistic and evaluation commission was created, which considered a number of possible options and focused on the sample proposed by Lieutenant Colonel of the Marine Corps G. Ternovsky.

This version went down in history as a naval commander's cortice of the 1940 model.

Unlike the samples adopted before the revolution, which could vary the parameters and motives of artistic design, the new model became uniform for Soviet sailors Since the state monopolized the production of weapons – including cold – the practice of private orders disappeared from the everyday life of naval commanders. Cortices were produced centrally at the former Zlatoust Armoury Factory, renamed by that time into the Zlatoust Instrumental Combine. And they were issued to the commanders of the flag, naval aviation, coastal defense and engineers of the ship service. Production of cortices of the approved sample began in 1941.

Externally, the naval cortex of the 1940 model largely repeats the forms of Russian pre-revolutionary cortices – almost the same outlines of the blade and ephesus, wooden sheaths covered with black leather, a gilded metal device.

This is not surprising, if we take into account certain traditions of the Russian maritime cortex, it would be pointless to change them in the direction of any radically new options, or to borrow from foreign samples. A significant difference was the strictly regulated standards and the availability of technical conditions for production – therefore, if the Russian cortices of the XIX century could differ from each other in the length and cross-section of the blade, materials of manufacture, decoration, or other criteria, Soviet cortices did not imply any liberties in performance.

The 1940 cortic has a straight double-bladed blade of rhombic cross-section, 215 mm long and 17 mm wide.

The blade consists of a warhead, a heel and a threaded shank on which the ephesus is worn. The total length of the cortex is 310 mm, the length in the sheath is 325 mm.

Ephesus is represented by a barrel-shaped handle, hexagonal in cross-section, with two bushings, a pommel and a crosshairs. The crosshair is 8-shaped, with the ends curved in different directions. Between the crosshairs of the ephesus and the fifth blade is placed a leather flast that protects the mouth of the scabbard. The upper sleeve of the handle bears the image of the state emblem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 1940 – with eleven ribbons symbolizing the Union republics. On earlier cortices, the image was applied by engraving, on the later ones – with a stamp.

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The pommel, screwed onto the shank of the blade, has a convex image of a five-pointed star.

The handle is plastic, dark yellow. The scabbard is wooden, covered with black leather. The metal device of the scabbard consists of an estuary, a clip and a tip. All metal parts of the scabbard and ephesus are covered with gilding. The decoration of the mouth of the scabbard consists of an image of a sailboat on the outside and an anchor twisted by a rope on the inside. The pattern was applied to the surface of the mouth of the scabbard by etching. On the heel of the blade on the outside was the stamp of the manufacturer.

Cortices of the 1940 model, issued until 1944, do not have the manufacturer's stamp. In 1944, the stamp "ZiK" – Zlatoust Tool Combine was put, after 1944 and until the end of production, the stamp "IMZ" of the Tool and Mechanical Plant (several united workshops of the same ZiK) was put. On the other side of the heel of the blade was the number assigned to the cortic.

This cortex was worn by the entire command staff of the Navy, both in formation and off-line, with ceremonial and everyday uniforms – similar to how cortices were worn in the Russian Imperial Navy.

The cortic of the 1940 model was produced until 1946 inclusive, and in the same year it was replaced by a cortic of another sample, which was essentially the same cortex, with minor differences in design and execution. In addition, it was this cortex that served as a prototype for the cortices of other branches of the armed forces, which have survived to this day and are still worn by officers to this day by special instruction during parades.