The Mosin-Nagant is a bolt action, five round, military rifle that was used by the armed forces of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union and various Eastern bloc nations. Also known as the Three-Line Rifle, it was the first to use the 7.62 x 54 mm R cartridge. It was in service in various forms from 1891 until the 1960s, when it was finally replaced in its final function as a sniper rifle by the Dragunov SVD (Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova – Dragunov’s Sniper Rifle).
History
Because of experiences during the Russo-Turkish War in which Russian troops armed with mostly Berdan single shot rifles engaged Turks with Winchester repeating rifles the Russian Main Artillery Administration undertook the task of producing a magazine-fed, multiround weapon in 1882. After failing to adequately modify the Berdan to meet the requirements a “Special Commission for the testing of Magazine[-fed] Rifles” was formed to test various new designs (such as the Mauser, Lee-Metford, and Lebel). A young captain named Sergei Ivanovich Mosin submitted his 3-line calibre (an archaic Russian measure, 3 linii equals 0.3 inches or 7.62 mm) rifle in 1889 alongside Léon Nagant’s (a Belgian) 3.5-line design. When trials concluded in 1891 all units to test the rifles indicated a preference for Nagant’s design and the Commission voted 14 to 10 to approve it. However more influential officers pushed for the domestic design resulting in a compromise: Mosin’s rifle was used with a Nagant-designed feed mechanism. Thus the 3-line rifle, Model 1891 (its official designation at the time) came into being.
Production began in 1892 at the ordnance factories of Tula Arsenal, Izhevsk Arsenal, and Sestroryetsk Arsenal. Due to the limited capacities of these facilities an order of 500,000 weapons was placed with the French arms company, Manufacture Nationale d’Armes de Châtellerault. By the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 approximately 3,800,000 rifles had been delivered to the army.
Between adoption in 1891 and 1910 several variants (see Variations produced in the Soviet Union) and modifications to existing rifles were made, including changed sights, the inclusion of a reinforcing bolt through the finger groove (due to the adoption of a 147 grain pointed (spitzer) round), the elimination of the steel finger rest behind the trigger guard, new barrel bands, and the installation of slot type sling mounts to replace the more traditional swivels. At this time a handguard was also added.
With Russia’s entrance into World War I production was restricted to the M1891 dragoon and infantry models for the sake of simplicity. Due to the desperate shortage of arms and the shortcomings of a still developing domestic industry the Russian government ordered 1.5 million M1891 infantry rifles from Remington Arms and another 1.8 million from New England Westinghouse in the United States. Massive numbers of Mosin-Nagants were captured by German and Austro-Hungarian forces and saw service with both militaries’ rear-echelon forces and the German Navy. Many of these Austrian weapons were sold to Finland in the 1920s.
During the Russian Civil War both the infantry and dragoon versions were in production, though in dramatically reduced numbers. Following the victory of the Red Army a committee was established in 1924 to modernize the rifle that had by then been in service for over three decades. This led to the development of the Model 1891/30 Rifle based on the design of the original Dragoon version. Changes include: the reintroduction of flat rear sights and restamping of sights in metres, instead of the antiquated arshinii on tsarist weapons; a cylindrical receiver replaced the octagonal (or “hex” as some call it) one around 1936-37; the blade front sight was changed to a hooded post around 1932-33; and the barrel was shortened 5 mm. Also, a new bayonet with a spring loaded catch was designed for it. This rifle was designed to be fired with the bayonet extended, which increases accuracy due to harmonic vibrations created when a round is fired. By 1945 approximately 17,475,000 M1891/30 rifles had been produced.
The Mosin-Nagant was adapted as a sniper rifle in 1932 and was issued to Soviet snipers during World War II (WW II). It served quite prominently in the Battle of Stalingrad which made heroes of men like Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev. They were very much respected then and now for being very rugged, reliable, accurate, and easy to maintain. Sniper-modified models are highly sought after and valued by collectors, especially in the West.
In the years after World War II, the Soviet Union ceased production of all Mosin-Nagants and withdrew them from service in favour of the SKS series carbines and eventually the AK series rifles. Despite this, the Mosin-Nagant saw continued service throughout the Eastern bloc and the rest of the world for many decades to come (see Foreign Mosin-Nagants). Mosin-Nagant rifles and carbines saw service on many fronts of the Cold War, from Vietnam and Korea to Afghanistan and along the iron curtain of Europe. They were used not only as reserve infantry weapons, but as front-line infantry weapons as well.
Recently a large quantity of Mosin-Nagants have found their way into the American market as antiques and collectables and also as a dependable, reasonably accurate, and cheap plinking and hunting rifle. Due to the gargantuan surplus created by the Soviet industry during World War II, these rifles can be acquired today for as little as $80 for a standard model. Sniper models are many, many times more expensive, when they can be found.
