Molnija Watch Factory is based in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Chelyabinsk is well-known as an industrial center of Southern Urals (Ural Mountains divide Russia roughly in half: from North to South). "Molnija" [moh-l-nee-yah] is the Russian word for "lightning".
This watch, called "KGB" has two covers: mail emblem of Special Departments in the Armed Forces is on the bottom and the image of Russian Flag is on the top.
Special departments were responsible for security clearances of military personnel and for ensuring that security regulations and procedures were strictly observed in all branches of the armed forces. Thus they had control over (or at least immediate access to) military personnel files and information relating to the political reliability of members of the armed forces. The leadership claimed that their armed forces were continually threatened by ideological sabotage, i.e., attempts by Western governments to subvert individuals through bourgeois propaganda aimed at weakening their political convictions. Hence a key element of special department activities was political surveillance on both a formal and an informal level.
Officially, special departments were empowered to investigate armed forces personnel for the same crimes that were under KGB purview for ordinary citizens. In addition, the KGB had the authority to investigate military crimes defined in Article 259 of the Russian Republic's Code of Criminal Procedure--disclosure of a military secret or loss of a document containing a military secret. In investigating cases under their purview, special department employees were supposed to follow set rules of criminal procedure, but they did not always do so. In 1989, however, they no longer had the right to conduct trials, as they did during Stalin's time. Once an investigation was completed, the case was tried by special military tribunals under the Main Military Procuracy.
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Pressing to the head opens the top cover, displaying the dial. These pocket watches are world-famous for their classic design and reliable movement.
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