Vintage FED NKVD Rangefinder 35mm Camera with 3.5 50mm Lens Russian Leica

Vintage FED NKVD Rangefinder 35mm Camera with 3.5 50mm Lens - known as the Russian Leica. Untested, looks to be free of damage and after a good cleaning should be quite fine. Comes with the original leather case that has wear but is decent solid condition. Please see my 10 photos. The camera pictured (serial number 139717) has the FED NKVD CCCP logo engraved on the top plate, which would indicate it is a FED type(1d) with a manufacture date of 1939-41. However, the serial number is low enough to be a FED type(1c) made from 1935-39 (the 1c usually had a "YCCP" engraved, instead of the "CCCP"). These facts would seem to indicate this camera was produced during that transition, which would be a date of about 1939. Production of the "FED" version of these Leica copies was begun in 1934. The similar Zorki rangefinders were first produced in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow, at a factory named for the location, beginning in 1948. The factory, locally known as KMZ, the "Krasnogorsk Mekanicheski Zavod" (Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory) has produced many Soviet cameras in addition to the Zorki, including the Zenit 35mm, the Zenit 80, the Horizont, the FT-2 and the Mir. The KMZ still produces cameras today. The name "FED" comes from the initials of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police. 1934-55 was the earliest successful Leica II(D) copy, and the only one achieving any measure of success before WWII. FED NKVD CCCP & YCCP Rangefinder.