@lcamtuflcamtuf
That "battery charger" circuit is so close to actually working: It's got a sane current limiter, and the rectifier should work (although there's no smoothing)
Just remove R4 and R1 and it might actually charge something... and pick a transformer to produce 0.7 V + the maximum battery voltage, ammeter that can measure the desired current, and find a suitable replacement for the old soviet semiconductors.
So still completely useless to a beginner. The circuit cannot work as drawn, and there isn't enough information to find the right parts.