On September 6, 1824, Hiram Berdan was born. If the name of Khairam Berdan is not known to everyone, then the word "Berdanka" has become a very strong part of the Russian lexicon. Hiram Berdan, an American military man and inventor, was born in Phelps, New York. In the 1840s, he received an engineering education, as it later turned out, not in vain. Hiram Berdan was very fond of sports shooting and in the 1850s even had a reputation as America's best shooter, which in turn made him pay attention to the weapons industry. In Russia, he became famous thanks to the Berdan rifle, which is popularly referred to as "Berdanka".
Hiram Berdan is a Colonel in the American Service who became widely known as the inventor of various devices for handguns. Of all his inventions, the most famous and popular are the Berdan rifle, which was later improved by the Russian officers sent to America, Colonel Gorlov and Captain Gunius. This rifle had a folding bolt with a forward trigger. The rifle was adopted by the Russian army in 1868 as a "rifle". For its time, it was distinguished by excellent ballistics and was used to arm rifle units, which mainly operated in loose formation separately from the line infantry and tried not to engage in close combat. Berdan also invented metal cartridges, which were also adopted by the Russian army under the designation of Berdan cartridges.
Berdan managed to show his inventive talents back in the days of the "Gold Rush", when he invented the press necessary for crushing gold-bearing quartz and received 200 thousand dollars for this invention, a very decent amount at that time. Having secured his financial well-being, he got married and settled in New York in his own mansion. In 1861, with the outbreak of a civil war between the north and south in the United States, Hiram Berdan approached President Lincoln with a proposal to create, at no government expense, a unit that would consist of the country's best riflemen.
On June 14, he received permission to create a special sniper unit, headed it and received the rank of colonel. Hiram Berdan soon became famous. Shooters' recruiting announcements were posted almost all over the country. Berdan tried to equip his shooters with the most modern guns at that time. For example, Sharpe's breech-loading rifle was used. These guns used tapered bullets and paper sleeves.
The sniper unit under the leadership of Berdan undoubtedly inflicted very large losses on the enemy, much more than any other unit of the northerners. The newspapers of that time wrote about this. But the colonel was by no means a brave man in the army. It was said that as soon as he heard the whistle of bullets, he instantly tried to leave the battlefield. It even got to the point that he appeared before the tribunal for behavior unworthy of the rank of officer. After his resignation, Berdan focused entirely on the development of small arms and their improvement. Despite the obvious successes achieved in this area, he did not receive contracts from the American army.
In 1867, Khairam Berdan was introduced to two Russian engineers in the service of the Russian Imperial Army - Colonel Gorlov and Captain Gunius. They arrived in the United States to find the most modern rifles for the Russian army. Russian engineers opted for the Berdan rifle. After that, the Russian government made a large order for 30 thousand rifles and 7.5 million cartridges for them, the rifles were to be assembled at the Colt plant. The Berdan rifle was adopted by the Russian army in 1868. The decree on its acceptance into service was signed by Emperor Alexander II.
In 1869 Berdan personally came to the Russian Empire. Having visited St. Petersburg, he presented to the military his new rifle "Berdan Type No. 2". Arriving in St. Petersburg, the American inventor proposed to adapt a longitudinally sliding bolt action to a 4, 2 linear rifle (10, 67 mm). The metal cartridge used made it possible to use all the advantages of such a bolt, which sent the cartridge into the chamber, and also threw out the spent cartridge case, speeding up the process of reloading the weapon. This model soon became the most used in all small arms. It was this 10, 67-mm rifle of the Berdan type 2 system that later became the famous "Berdanka", which lasted 20 years in service with the Russian army until 1891, when it was replaced by the no less legendary "three-line" caliber 7, 62-mm design Mosin.
It is curious that the Russian military department liked the successful design of the second version of the rifle so much that Russia decided not to buy out some of the first type rifles in America, but immediately switch to the production of the second. The rifles of the Berdan system that were not bought by Russia were sold in the USA, where they were called the "Russian rifle". This was largely due to the fact that the first type of Berdan rifle was modified with the help of Russian military engineers Gorlov and Gunius.
Later, on the basis of the Berdan rifle with a sliding bolt, a whole series of various small arms was created. So for the armament of the infantry units, an infantry version with a bayonet was created, for the cavalry units - a lightweight rifle, the "dragoon version", which differed in a slight change in the bolt design. A short and fairly comfortable carbine was developed for the gunners and support personnel. The rifle of the Berdan system was supplied with a safety platoon and had a special fuse against a shot in the unlocked position of the bolt. For its age, the rifle was one of the foremost examples of small arms.
Unsurprisingly, the rifle was destined for a long life. Even after replacing it in the troops with the famous Mosin "three-line" old rifles in large numbers began to be converted into hunting rifles. Some of them have served in this capacity for decades, and some still serve in this capacity. In addition, most of the Russian military schools have retained such rifles for training. The Berdan rifle and ammunition for it were also stored in huge quantities in army warehouses and in fortresses, serving as a mobilization reserve.
The destruction of decommissioned Berdan guns was a costly affair, so it was much more profitable for the Russian treasury to convert rifles into civilian weapons than to dispose of them. At the same time, their number clearly exceeded the volume of the country's domestic arms market, therefore, by the beginning of 1914, there were still a huge number of them in army warehouses. Rifles were again useful to the military after the Russian army lost a large number of small arms on the battlefields of the outbreak of the First World War. The inability to quickly deploy the production of Mosin rifles forced the GAU to recall its old stocks. Initially, they wanted to use them in the rear to ensure the protection of communications, but in the end, the rifles made it to the front.
After a trip to Russia, Hiram Berdan stayed in Europe for a long time, having lived there until 1886, but then returned to his homeland. He died on March 31, 1893 in Washington at the age of 68.
