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This Russian ascender consists of a pivoting lever and two posts mounted between two side plates. One side plate is stationary, while the other pivots on the lever axle so that it may be opened to admit the rope. The lever is spring-loaded so that the tag side closes against a knurled post (seen on the lower left). The remaining post does not appear to be actively involved in the functioning of the ascender.
To rig this ascender, bring the standing rope down to the right (as shown) of the lever, then pas it under the lever and over the knurled post. Close the swinging side gate, and insert a carabiner through the holes. When load is applied to the carabiner, the rope exerts a counter-clockwise torque on the lever, and the left side of the lever squeezes the rope against the knurled post.
This is an interesting design, but the implementation has one serious problem: the right end of the lever is sharp instead of rounded. I tend to refer to this ascender as the "rope cuter" for this reason, but a few minutes with a file solves the problem.
This ascender can be used on ropes up to about 13 mm diameter, but for ropes over 8 mm the bend in the side plates causes the rope to drag when the ascender is raised. Since the ascender rotates when loaded, there is a fair amount of lost motion in each cycle.
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Except for the two extra small holes in the the front plate, Version B is identical to Version A. The front plate holes line up with the back plate holes, so I suspect that the front plate on Version B was made from a back plate
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©2007, Gary D. Storrick