LOL 3 page crusade? I wish I read Russian.
BTW I would like to take this opportunity to elaborate more as to some of the confusion over the spade. The reason Taranov probably asserted it was a "German shovel" is because it looks very much like an Austrian one.
The Russians essentially copied much of the design, but as I said earlier, you can tell it is Russian by several distinct features. The riveting on the back plate is very heavy, and most German spades have very tiny rivets, or spot welding.
The reinforcing band on the upper part of the haft is also considerably larger than on the Austrian example, and you will notice that the steel goes much farther down the haft overall on the Russian one, almost all the way to the end. The German and Austrian spades terminate the steel much earlier above the end, and are less robust overall.
The fact was that the Russians fielded a variety of spades, with both leather and canvas covers. They used WWI and even earlier stock in WWII, and just after the war, they even made an exact copy of the German folding spade, adding to the confusion.
