Leningrad rewind and unload

I have been shooting pictures with a Leningrad and it is a pleasant experience until I try to rewind and unload the film. I need an instruction book in English or some expert guidance to do this.
pushkin

Hi Pushkin,
i try to help you here :

1: on the bottom side , unscrew the little button on the center of the big one (in the same axle of motor) .To unscrew , push on it whith your finger.

2: on the top of the camera take the big memory disk button in your fingers and lift it up .then turn it clockwise to rewind the film in cassette.
i hope you understand my bad english [:o)]
Alain

Exactly correct instructions, with two small notes:
1) Uncrew the bottom button fully, not only the small movement with pus-in-and-turn. This un-engages the film forward winding system, same as "R" in normal cameras.
2) The "rewind knob" has to be lifted because when shooting it is loose, unconnected to film cassette spool. Lifting makes it engage, as it must be loose during shooting so the spring motor does not have too much tension.

Smena rules

Thank you Berry and Juhani, the little button unscrews nicely but the big "memory wheel" does not lift up. Unless I take a screwdriver to prise it up I see no way to move it. I shall take the whole mess into my darkroom a rip the film out for processing. A pity because I wanted to use the camera at a function but if I cannot change film in the field it is useless.
Thanks again.......Peter

The "big wheel" is heavy to lift also in my camera, I suppose this is because of the gears that it engages?

Smena rules

I Removed the camera back in the darkroom, with great difficulty, put film back into cassette. In the light I practiced removing and replacing the back on this Leningrad. I have used cameras all my life, and and have over 500 diferent cameras in my collection, but this KMZ Leningrad is the darndest ergonomic nightmare in the whole collection.I challenged five expert professional photographers to put film in the thing and it took 15 minutes before they gave up, even when they had the film hooked up you can't put the back on! This is a handsome camera with excellent features ahead of its time, but KMZ lacked the technology to make it useable. A great pity.

Peter,

I know exactly how you feel, I was just having this conversation recently with John (uccmmcpo) telling him that this is the only camera where you feel that it's controlling you and you don't control it.. [:)].. that's why it's sitting pretty now on my shelf...

Vlad.

Funny, after getting used to Lgrad it is no problems. But the bottomloaders are a pain in the a**...

Smena rules