Following the emergency of the German invasion of 1941, the People’s Militia was once again formed in an attempt to assist the Red Army in defending the Motherland. Russia had called upon such a force several times previously, but in 1941 millions volunteered, and large numbers served, often attached to Red Army units. These men and women often simply wore their own clothing, and sometimes lacked weapons, so unsurprisingly they suffered massively at the hands of the professional German Army, being a desperation measure that achieved little but added to the agony of the Soviet Union in that year.

This game piece from Zvezda brings us four poses of men and women that offer a flavour of this large but desperate element of the Soviet defence. The poses largely speak for themselves, with a woman holding a submachine gun, a bare-headed man apparently about to throw some sort of improvised explosive device, and two men armed with a rifle and bayonet. There is nothing wrong with any of them, but there is not much action here, and the repeat pose of the marching man is particularly difficult to place in any sort of a battle scene. At the time of writing no one has yet made a proper set of these people, but these poses offer little to gamers and modellers in our view, although as a game piece they are fine, for which as usual they can be grouped together on a single base as shown here.

All wear everyday civilian costume, which is fine, as are the ordinary weapons they have been given, so the accuracy is faultless, as is the sculpting, which is of the usual very high Zvezda standard. There is some assembly required, but this is easily done as the set is beautifully engineered, with no flash, so the only thing we would say is be careful of the beautifully slender but vulnerable rifles, which can easily bend during the build.

Fine as a game piece, but a bit dull as a set of action figures, this set is certainly better than nothing, and with no other sets this has no competition, so is one of those subjects that may never appear in any larger form than this. The woman is the same size as the men, so would be considered very tall for her sex, but these are very nice figures for an important but often forgotten aspect of the fighting in 1941.