"BAD KING" AND GOOD RIFLE
Not so long ago, on the pages of VO, material appeared on the 1891 model rifle created in Russia. It seems to be a "next" piece of information, no more and no less. All the same, only in a more concise form, we can read in the encyclopedia "Firearms" authors Yu. V. Shokoreva, S. V. Plotnikova, and Dragunova E. M. (Avanta +, 2007) on pages 107-108 and also from many other authors. “Many other authors,” especially those of the Soviet era, can be omitted in this case, since the emphasis has been deliberately shifted in their works.
For example, this is very typical for the work of such authors as N. I. Gnatovsky and P. A. Shorin "History of the Development of Domestic Small Arms" (Moscow: 1959). Moreover, it is interesting that in it the authors, in order to raise the authority of their work, even refer to materials from the Central State Military Historical Archive (TsGVIA) and provide links to specific documents: TsGVIA. Fund 516, Op. 3, D. No. 121, sheets 424, 485, etc. Well, in the past it was fashionable in our country to publish books in which the authors by any means tried to prove the priorities of Russia in literally everything, just to provide a scientific basis for the installation that "the new historical community of people - the Soviet people" - seems to be the most progressive social phenomenon in the world. Well, and the fact that the rifle of Captain Mosin was not named after him, these authors explained that the "bad" Tsar Alexander III, as well as his Minister of War Vannovsky, simply "were in awe of the West." It seems that there are links, albeit not to everything, in the book, who will check them in the archive, but if they do, then … who at that time would dare to assert that the tsar is right, but his critics are wrong?
Nor did the authors of the articles in the Avanta + edition concretize this topic, well, but from the article in VO, one thing seems to be obvious too - “the tsar was bad,” in the sense that he was not a patriot. And, probably, in relation to some other kings, one could probably agree with a similar statement, but one cannot agree with him in relation to Alexander III. Because with him everything was completely different. Under him, Russian battleships launched into the water were named after Russian saints, a progressive "man's uniform" was adopted in the army, the traditions of the Russian people were promoted everywhere, in a word, in what, and in "admiration for the West" to blame this particular tsar and his minister of war just stupid. Hence, they had reason to do so. And if we turn not to a part of the documents devoted to the story of Captain Mosin's rifle in Russia, but to study their entire volume, then … it will not be difficult to find out that the tsar had every reason to leave the rifle unnamed. Besides, you should pay attention … just to the words. Since the game in them, sometimes it is capable of completely perverting the meaning of what is happening or what happened once. So, let's see how the story of the "Captain Mosin rifle" began?
IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS A COMMISSION …
And it began with the organization of a commission, which received the following name: "Commission for testing multiple-shot rifles", and created in Russia at the GAU (Main Artillery Directorate) in 1883. She was engaged in the fact that, having obtained certain samples of rapid-firing multi-charge rifles abroad, she tested them, deciding which ones to adopt them into service with the Russian imperial army. Recall that until this time, domestic samples were not in its armament. At different times, these were the systems of Karle, Krnka, Berdan, and the question of which is better was decided on a competitive basis. Our Russian designers also brought their developments here. And just the gun of Captain S. I. Mosin, who had a store in the butt, was noted by the commission as "worthy of full attention," although further business with him did not work out. That is, he himself, on his own initiative, developed this rifle and thereby attracted the attention of this commission.
MONEY FOR YOURSELF AND MONEY FOR THE COUNTRY
In Soviet times, we liked to write that when the French company Rictet offered him 600 thousand francs for the right to use the magazine he had invented on the French rifle of the Gras system, he refused "as a true patriot of Russia." But the Russian-French rapprochement at that time was already evident, and it must be admitted that Captain Mosin did not act too smart, because if he really wanted to show himself as a patriot-unmercenary, he should have taken the money … and transferred it to the needs of the cadets, hospitals or disabled people. That is, he deprived them not of himself, but of his country, in fact, he robbed at once for 600 thousand francs, received for nothing, since his store still turned out to be unsuccessful! But he didn't take them! Apparently he was afraid of temptation. Indeed, at that time, officers received such salaries that they were allowed to marry only after receiving the rank of captain. Otherwise, they simply would have nothing to support their spouse. Well, about randomly married warrant officers in the Russian army, they sang ditties at that time, they had such a hopeless life!
NO GUN WITHOUT BARREL!
And so in 1889, the commission decided not to be smart, but to take Lebel's French rifle as a model, but not its magazine, but first of all its barrel, and, reducing its caliber to 7.62 mm (i.e., to 3 lines) instead of 8 mm. At the same time, the Commission also changed its name and became known as the "Commission for the Development of a Model of a Small-Bore Rifle". So the first step towards the "three-line" was made without the direct participation of Captain Mosin. Well, hardly anyone would argue that the barrel is not the basis of any firearm! And in this case, both he and, accordingly, his ballistics were taken from Lebel's rifle. The names of other rifles, Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield, speak about how important this is: the magazine and bolt of the Lee system, and the rifling of the barrel of Metford and Enfield!
PRICE OF NEW WEAPONS
Well, then it was like this, and all the documents confirm this, that Leon Nagant delivered the first sample of his rifle to Russia on October 11, 1889. After that, in December of the same year, now Captain Mosin RECEIVED an assignment from the Committee, which was formulated as follows: “Guided by the Nagant gun, design a shotgun of a batch system (ie, powered by cartridges from a“pack”- clip - author's note) for 5 rounds, but use the bolt of your own system in this gun. That is, everything is simple and clear - the commission liked the shutter, didn't it? And then, during the spring and summer of 1890, both Nagant and Mosin worked on their rifles: Mosin at the Tula arms factory, and Nagan at their factory in Liege. Then it was time to order rifles for testing, and then it turned out that both rifles and clips of the Nagant design are more expensive than Mosin's, although not very much. But since the army of the Russian Empire was just very large, and it needed a lot of rifles, even a penny difference ended up turning into millions of rubles. Moreover, the amount required for rearmament was calculated back in 1889, reported to the tsar, and he was horrified by her. But it was necessary not only to produce all these new rifles and cartridges for them, it was necessary to establish their production, equip factories with equipment, and purchase materials. Therefore, any economy here was only welcomed by the king! It should be noted that literally every little thing matters in a weapon. So, for example, the mass of the Austrian pack for cartridges was 17.5 grams, but the plate clip for a three-line rifle was only 6.5 grams. This means that for every hundred rounds of ammunition in batch loading, there is a surplus of 220 grams. For a thousand - this is already more than two kilograms of metal, which must be smelted, processed and diluted by position! And each such pack or clip costs money!
CONTRACT IS A CONTRACT
The most interesting thing is that a special contract was signed with Nagan, which stipulated that even if the rifle he made was not accepted for service, even in this case, he would still be paid 200,000 rubles. For what? Again the tsar's admiration for the West? But no, only the observance of all norms of international copyright law, after all, the Mosin rifle was allowed to be made, GUIDED BY THE NAGAN GUN, that is, in fact, it was very simple and without any trick, and even more than that - they officially encroached on its author's rights! Nagan understood all this very well, so a week after the contract was signed, he sent a letter to GAU, in which he complained about non-compliance with his copyrights on eight points at once. "I have reason to believe that a gun similar to mine was not in Russia either in March of this year, or when I presented it last year," he wrote.
And the Commission immediately raised all the minutes of its meetings and considered that Nagan had the rights of the inventor to almost all of the details listed. True, as far as Mosin is concerned, he did not agree with these conclusions, but the Commission insisted on its own. And, of course, everyone understood that it was a matter of multi-million dollar orders for the army, and then who from whom, what … "borrowed" and how this is the tenth thing. The main requirement was to equip the army with the best quality product and at the same time at the lowest price, so that the end justified any means, including "borrowing".
WHAT THEY WRITE, AND HOW IT WAS IN BUSINESS …
It was possible to find out "who is better and who is worse" only on comparative tests. They took place in March 1891 and showed that … the Nagan rifles were made more carefully, and therefore gave less misfires. But in the conclusion of the GAU Armory Department, it was noted that "they … represent a more complex mechanism to manufacture." It was with this conclusion on April 9, 1891 that the fate of the Mosin rifle was decided, because the main criterion for the quality of Russian mass infantry weapons, with all other data, has always been the simplicity and cheapness of its manufacture. But the Commission then still called the new rifle "the Mosin system with a Nagant clip", which emphasized that it had not one author, but two.
WHAT DO INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE SAY?
So, both the Commission and Minister of War Vannovsky knew and understood that Mosin was not the only creator of the rifle. That is why, in the rescript to the Highest name, he wrote about it as follows: “In … the new sample contains parts proposed by Colonel Rogovtsev, the Commission of Lieutenant General Chagin, Captain Mosin and the gunsmith Nagan, so it is advisable to give the developed sample the name“Russian 3-line rifle model 1891 " But then what about the barrel taken from Lebel's rifle? After all, sooner or later, but they would have found out about it anyway, so the word “Russian” alone pulled the words “French” and “Belgian” into its name, which would have led to a complete absurdity! So it was in no way possible to write to Gnatovsky and Shorin that "Vannovsky took all measures to depersonalize the Mosin rifle." On the contrary, he took all measures to exclude any judicial and legal incidents associated with its name and that could prevent the speedy rearmament of the army!
But really, in international practice, it was impossible to find precedents with the name of weapons, when several authors were its creators at once? Yes, there were, but in our case it was impossible to apply them. The rifle would then have too many creators! One could give it the name "commission gun", but then what about the Nagant? Indeed, ONLY Captain Mosin and others like him worked directly for the Commission, and Nagan was just a “free shooter”. One could try to give it the name "Mosin-Nagant rifle", but for Alexander III, an ardent Russophile who called the warships of the Russian fleet by the names of Orthodox saints, this was completely unacceptable, since it directly indicated that … we cannot live without the West! Of course, if this happened in the USSR, the rifle would have been given the name of only Mosin, and that’s the end of it, as, for example, it was done in the history of the Tu-4 bomber. But in the then tsarist Russia, the concept of an officer's honor was simply not allowed.
AWARDS & MONEY
Well, then the distribution of money and awards began. Nagan, as agreed with him, was given 200,000 rubles in awards. But … they were given not for "beautiful eyes", but for transferring to the Russian side the full ownership of not only all the patents for his rifle that he had at that time, but also those (well, just a real Asian trick, isn't it ?!) that he could get five years ahead, which in itself is the best recognition of the value of his contribution to its development. In addition, he handed over to Russia all (!) His technological drawings, as well as patterns and equipment, information on tolerances, grades and cost of steels required for its production, barrel hardening technology, i.e. fully provide the entire technological basis for the development of new weapons, and also give a guarantee that it will arrive, if the need arises, to Russia together with its master to establish its fabrication! And all this for 200,000? Yes, we just… ripped off this Nagan as sticky, because otherwise we WOULD HAVE TO DO ALL OF THE ABOVE! And it is unlikely that Captain Mosin would have helped here at least in something …
Well, and Mosin was given a very solid bonus of 30,000 rubles at that time, but they did not give more money, since the Commission considered that he was working on the creation of his gun at state-owned factories and at state expense, and even being completely released from service and receiving at the same time, a salary, which for those years was by no means a typical affair. Then he was awarded the Great Mikhailovsky Prize, which was awarded once every five years, from the captains was promoted directly to colonel, and then he was also awarded the Order of St. Anna, and was appointed head of the Sestroretsk arms factory. As a result, he became a major general - i.e. in just ten years he made his way from captain to general, and in the eyes of the people of that era, his career could only be envied.
But despite this, for the rest of his life, Mosin grumbled that … “Nagant was given 200 thousand rubles … and I was only 30 thousand for the project and construction of the entire gun, which was not even given the name of its inventor … and that Nagan was rewarded more than me. He wrote letters to the Minister of War, humiliated himself before those in power. That is, for some reason he forgot that he was working on an official assignment on other people's samples, having an order to improve them. And yes, indeed, he coped with the task very well, created, perhaps not the best in the world, but a very reliable weapon, as well as the Lebel rifle, which is more convenient for bayonet attacks than for marksmanship. But again, this was the requirement of the military doctrine of the Russian imperial army. It's just that where various social doctrines interfere and a struggle is waged for their triumph, the truth of history always fades into the background!
P. S. And now, as a postscript, the author's personal experience. The fact is that a very distinguished person, doctor of sciences, professor, author of many inventions works at my university. It just so happened that in his youth he went to a plant where Kalashnikov assault rifles were made and learned that a very high percentage of rejects is given by pressing only one part onto the barrel, and the defect can only be established by shooting. That is, it was not the part itself that went into marriage, but the finished machine! And so he came up with a device that solved this problem. His work was appreciated, given … a prize, and not a very large one, and … EVERYTHING! He started talking about getting paid for it all the time, at least a little bit, but he was immediately told that in this case you would not get anything at all and “go, Moor, you have done your job!” In theory, he now (with a fair assessment of his contribution) should have owned our entire university and a couple of factories to boot, but what is not, that is not. Compared to this scientist, Major General Mosin, "offended by tsarism", can only be envied!
