“For the fact that you asked for this and did not ask for yourself a long life, did not ask for riches for yourself, did not ask for the souls of your enemies, but asked for reason for yourself to be able to judge, - behold, I will do according to your word: behold, I give you a wise and reasonable heart […]; and what you did not ask, I give you both riches and glory”(I Kings 3 11-13)
Well, now is the time to turn to such important components of any business as money and people. And money is sometimes more important. There are no them, and … there are no people. Because nothing good arises from naked enthusiasm. People need to drink and eat.
And here the success of the Russian rifle is undeniable. Indeed, due to the greater complexity in manufacturing, having adopted the Nagant rifle, Russia, which was already lagging behind Europe in the field of modern weapons, would have lagged even more behind. It would take only three or even four months to establish mass production, while the factories were already ready for the release of the domestic three-line. And money, of course. Any little thing matters here. A pack of cartridges for a Mannlicher rifle weighed 17, 5 g, while a plate clip from a three-line rifle - only 6, 5 g. That is, for every hundred cartridges when loading a pack, you need an extra 220 g of steel. For a thousand pieces, this is already 2.5 kg of high-quality steel, which had to be smelted, processed, and the packs themselves delivered to the position.
Everything is relative. So in this photo we see a soldier of the Russian army in the trenches of the First World War, armed with an American Winchester rifle Model 1895. And it is quite obvious that … no comparison is this weapon with a rifle arr. 1891 does not go. "Mannlicher" was too sensitive to pollution, which is why the Austrians themselves at the end of the war abandoned it in favor of the Mauser rifle. Lebel and Berthier were clearly inferior to her. The Arisaka rifle had no particular advantages. There remain three rifles, approximately equal in their performance, and only surpassing each other in one thing: "Lee-Enfield", "Mauser" and … Captain Mosin's rifle.
And it turns out that if you calculate, and even in the most modest way, if Russia used the Nagan system, it would require from two to … four million gold rubles in purely additional costs. And this is only for the very first million rifles produced at the factories. Then these costs would have decreased, but they would still be higher than with the manufacture of the Mosin rifle. Contemporaries noted that the Russian Minister of War Vannovsky was able to carry out rearmament with maximum economic efficiency and the lowest cost. The amount required for the rearmament of one soldier of the Russian imperial army averaged about 12 rubles, and this was the lowest cost indicator in comparison with all other armies of Western Europe.
But at the same time, as already noted in the previous materials, the Nagan was also of great benefit. Huge, one might say, as well as the savings achieved. After all, for just 200,000 rubles, he transferred to Russia all his patents, including future (!), Data on hardening, materials, technology, measuring instrument. Yes, for this alone, much more could be required, so it was here that our military showed themselves from the best side.
And again, you should be aware that the rifle was made by a lot of people, a lot! For example, when the Armory Department, after testing the rifle in the presence of Tsar Alexander III, considered it necessary to quickly eliminate a number of discovered shortcomings, not only Captain Mosin was instructed to do this, but also Colonel Kabakov, as well as Lieutenant General Davydov and Staff Captain Zalyubovsky. That is, the rifle arr. The year 1891 was the result of the work of many people and, in fact, of collective creativity. This is where the reasons for her "anonymity" lie in many respects, and not at all in the "depersonalization of the rifle of a talented Russian nugget" by the tsarist government and bad "contempt for everything Russian", which in relation to Alexander III was not at all a reproach.
And here is another very interesting document available in the funds of the St. Petersburg Museum of Artillery and Signal Corps. We had to work on it, let's say, even more than on the others that were given in the previous parts, but it perfectly conveys the very spirit of that era:
“About the time of presentation of rifles by Captain Mossin.
Captain Mossin began his work on designing the burst system gun in the city of Oranienbaum, in December 1889, when he was instructed, guided by the Nagant system gun available at that time in the Commission, to design a burst system gun, 5 rounds and use the bolt, im, Captain Mossin of the proposed sample.
At the same time, Captain Zakharov was instructed to design a gun on the same basis, but with a bolt, on the combat larva of which, the supporting protrusions would be located in a vertical plane, at the time of the shot. In the workshop of the shooting range of the Shooting School, Captain Mossin designed and executed the first sample of the gun with a trapezoidal magazine casing, with a folding door and a lifting mechanism attached to it, as was done in the Nagant gun. In the middle days of February 1890, Captain Mossin, in the first connector, presented his sample of a burst gun, in the form of a model, with screwed and soldered parts. The caliber of the gun was 3-line.
The bolt in the gun was with a bar, disassembled without the help of a screwdriver and without screws.
The bundle is arcuate with a spring and a hole cut in the bottom of the bundle. The pack in this form was proposed by Captain Zakharov. In appearance, the outline, the location of the parts, Captain Mossin's gun store turned out to be similar to the Nagant system store. The store will be attached to the trigger guard. The door or cover of the store opens on a hinge, with it the magazine mechanism comes out together. The feeder or lever is lifted by a single spring located on the store door.
The magazine mechanism is not assembled at the same time when the door is opened, on a hinge. The lever has a thin, screwed spring on top of it, which serves as a platform and closes the magazine.
A spring cutoff is located on the side of the receiver, with the aim of removing the exit of the second cartridge and serving at the same time as a reflector.
On February 19, 1890, Captain Mossin was asked to make many changes and improvements in the presented copy of the gun, which was then taken to the Tool Department of the cartridge factory. On March 11th, this corrected gun went back for testing.
On May 23rd, 1890, the first guns of Captain Mossin, numbered 1 and 2, were delivered to the Commission.
In these guns, the bolt was also the sample proposed by Captain Mossin. The feeder and the springs to it are of the previous model. The shop door was locked with locks of two samples. On August 8, 1890, guns with numbers 5 and 6 were delivered to the Commission from Tula.
In terms of the store, these guns were similar to those previously presented. Packs of the sample proposed by Captain Zakharov. In the rifles, spring locks were used, extending to the trigger knee.
On September 19, 1890, guns were received from Tula with numbers: 18 - 20 - 23 - 33 - and 41.
All guns in general are similar with gun number 4.
On September 24, another rifle with the number 95-m was delivered, two springs were used in it, in the suppressor (Nagan refused them). Changed the outline and increased the thickness of the platform. The rest, as in the previous guns.
Correct: Headquarters Captain…. The signature is illegible. (F.4. Op.39-6. D.171. Ll. 10 - 11)
Now let's take another look at some of the circumstances. Archival materials show absolutely exactly: who, where, when and what borrowed for his sample, that is, it was known in detail from the very beginning. At the same time, the Weapons Department found that the 1891 model rifle contained certain borrowings from inventions made by Nagant and ideas belonging to him. So, he owned: the idea to place the cartridge feeder on the magazine lid and also open it down; a way to fill it with cartridges using your fingers, with the clip inserted into the inserted box; the magazine itself for cartridges. Moreover, Nagan stated that he had invented it a full six months earlier than Mauser. If all this is combined into one mechanism, then we get … a magazine with a mechanism for filling it with cartridges. And now let us remember that the presence of a "personalized" store has already given reason for the British to call their rifles by a double name - "Lee-Metford" and "Lee-Enfield". But as already noted here, since Nagan himself did not insist on including his name in the name of the rifle, then … our military decided not to include other names, and the king, knowing all the ins and outs of this delicate matter, completely agreed with this opinion.
Interestingly, Captain Mosin in May 1891 also applied for privileges for his inventions that were included in the design of the rifle and represented his author's developments. And the Weapons Department confirmed that it really has the undivided right to the following inventions, such as: the bar of the locking mechanism, the design of the safety cocking, and the general layout of all parts of the bolt, as well as the idea and the very design of such an important part as a cut-off reflector, so, how it was executed in the final approved model of the rifle. It was officially confirmed that Mosin, as much as five and a half months earlier than suggested by Nagan, proposed a cut-off that would affect the two top cartridges in the store, excluding the "double" feed. But on the Belgian rifle, the cutoff affected only one upper cartridge. Then Nagan used Mosin's idea already on his rifles and installed a cut-off on the left side of the magazine box. At the same time, the reflector itself continued to remain in the form of a separate part, which in this case only complicated the design. He also owned the design of the latch at the magazine cover, and the method of attaching the feeder to the magazine cover, which made it possible to separate the cover and the feeder together, as well as the installation of a swivel on the hinged axis of the magazine cover.
This is how the American hard drive had to be charged. Agree that it was very, very inconvenient!
The Weapons Department also noted that Captain Mosin had changed the magazine box in such a way that its production was much simpler and much cheaper. The rest of the new three-line rifle no longer belonged to the work of only Captain Mosin, but represented the development of the Commission and a number of other persons, even if in many cases, made with the participation of Captain Mosin again.
On the basis of all of the above, the Armory Department requested the Highest permission from Captain Mosin to take the privilege of all the parts and devices invented by him in the 1891 model rifle. That is, in our modern language, to obtain patents for all this and to have the rights of the patent holder. By the highest permission of June 30, 1891, he was allowed to do this, but … For some reason, Mosin did not receive this privilege. That is, at first I wanted to, and then for some reason abandoned this idea of my own. And this is one of the unsolved mysteries associated with the "history of the rifle." Of course, you can write that he was a disinterested person, extremely modest and all that stuff, but after all, he had the Highest permission on his hands (if he was civilian, by the way, he would not need it!), That is, the approval of the emperor himself, but nevertheless, he did not receive it. How this privilege affected his modesty and unselfishness, and how it would harm them is incomprehensible. After all, the rifle entered service this way, and Nagan has already sold all of its patents to Russia!
But when the question arose about awarding other persons related to the new rifle, the following persons were noted in the report of the GAU to the Military Council, listing their contributions:
1. Colonel Rogovtsev, a former member of the Rearmament Commission, and from September 1885 to June 1889, actively worked on small-caliber weapons. He developed from a "blank slate" a small-caliber 3, 15-line cartridge-barrel system based on black powder, which helped to start testing it even before receiving data on new small-bore rifles, and cartridges already on smokeless powder obtained from frontier. Colonel Rogovtsev also designed high-pressure valves, which were so successful that they were then used during the testing of rifles with Rodman's devices (i.e., with devices that measured the pressure in the barrel at the time of the shot).
The tests carried out by Colonel Rogovtsev significantly reduced the backlog in Russia in rearmament from other foreign armies, saved time and showed the futility of black powder in small caliber rifle cartridges; the need to use casings on bullets, casings with a solid bottom and a more durable primer to prevent gas breakthrough. Rogovtsev's experiments made it possible to find out that in order to ensure a firm locking of the barrel with the bolt, two lugs should be installed on a separate combat larva; make a "short" step in the barrel under the rifling for bullets in a hard shell, as well as take measures to eliminate the drift of bullets to the left when firing with a bayonet, with its right-hand location on the rifle barrel. It was further indicated that the work of Lieutenant General Chagin was very important for the development of a three-line rifle and, let's say, had it not been for it, the aforementioned sample might never have appeared.
2. Colonel Petrov and Captain Sevostyanov, being members of the Commission, also took an active part in the creation of both the three-line barrel and the cartridge for it. Their barrel became the standard for almost all subsequent work in the field of small arms chambered for three-line caliber. Since the cartridge in the chamber was fixed with an emphasis on the rim, such a system was "universal" in relation to the quality of the cartridges used, and, most importantly, the production technology of the cartridges themselves was greatly simplified. And for a weapon this is an important indicator - the ability to operate it using cartridges fired with a wide range of indicators, which is typical for wartime, when ammunition has to be made on old worn out machines.
3. Captain Zakharov, who was also a member of the Commission, was the author of the bolt with vertically spaced lugs. And he also developed one of the options for the pouch. The arched clips for the Mosin rifle, which made it possible to immediately begin work on testing Russian rifles, since the Nagant clips were of poor quality and did not fit at all due to the fact that there was no jumper on the receiver on it - also the result of his design work, about which the document above says so directly. The first three-line rifles were still produced under his direct supervision.
4. Lieutenant General Davydov and Colonel Kabakov, as members of the Commission, made the most recent changes to the design of the three-line rifle, which accelerated its adoption into service.
5. Colonel von der Hoven, a member of the Commission who knew many languages, received information from abroad for eight years, which became the basis for experiments with smokeless powder in Russia and new bullets.
6. Captain Pogoretsky was responsible for preparing and conducting experiments, and also developed a blank cartridge for a new rifle.
7. Captain Yurlov, a member of the Commission, was engaged in the development (1896) of a three-line carbine mod. 1907, and also verified the sights of competitive rifles for test firing in 1890-1891.
8. Major General Ridiger, a member of the Commission, based on his great combat experience, developed the performance characteristics of the future magazine rifle, and supervised the military tests of the presented samples.
9. Head Captain Kholodovsky performed ballistics calculations and prepared tabular data for rifle firing mod. 1891
10. Lieutenant General Chagin, head of the Rearmament Commission, whose activities are of great importance for the coordination of all work related to the development of a new rifle.
Civilians who participated in the work of the Commission were also nominated for the award. They were the civilian gunsmith Adolf Gessner, who for more than 35 years contributed with his labor and knowledge to the improvement of Russian weapons,”and the civilian shooter Pavlov, from the retired non-commissioned officers L.-G. Preobrazhensky regiment with 20 years of experience, taught shooting test participants.
A rifle more comfortable for the rider than for the infantryman.
However, any "theory" is always tested by practice. Note, therefore, that the new rifle in the troops at that time did not cause much enthusiasm. Compared to Berdan's rifle, it had a harder trigger and a strong recoil, and a habit is a great thing. All this led to a decrease in the effectiveness of shooting not only among the soldiers, but also among the officers. And this caused a massive transfer of shooters from the first category to the second and even to the third, received with the Berdan rifle, i.e. to the lowest, with corresponding salary losses.
However, the very first use of the new rifle in the Andijan battle on May 17, 1898 showed its high combat effectiveness. Then more than 2,000 horse and foot religious fanatics attacked a small Andijan garrison in order to destroy all Russian influence in the Fergana Valley. The attackers took all measures to achieve success. It was decided to attack at the "hour of the bull", when it is most difficult for sentries to fight sleep. It was assumed that they would not have ammunition, so they would not be able to raise the garrison to its feet by shooting. And, of course, to raise morale, they prepared a green banner of jihad, sprinkled with the blood of a bourgeois Bychkov, who turned up at his arm, and the distribution of consecrated sticks capable of protecting from bullets - everything was, including calls to cut everyone without mercy.
However, in reality, everything turned out not at all as planned. The sentries, as it turned out, were awake, immediately opened fire on the attackers, they immediately announced the alarm in the garrison, so that very soon they were repulsed and fled, suffering heavy losses. It is interesting that, judging by the recollections of the participants in this battle, many of the soldiers, out of excitement, simply forgot that they had to shoot with a rifle, and acted with bayonets and rifle butts. It was recorded that from blows to Asian heads, the butts broke, as did the boxes, and the bayonets remained in the horses. The first thing that occurred to the high authorities upon receiving this information was that the rifle needed to be improved. And as a result, over the next two years, 10 options for new bayonet mounts were prepared.
But when the damaged rifles were finally delivered to the Officer Rifle School, and they were examined there, it turned out that all the damage was quite acceptable for the above circumstances, and the proposal to modify the rifle was withdrawn.
The uprising of the "boxers" in China, where Russian troops also used new rifles, confirmed their high combat characteristics. Moreover, S. I. Mosin managed to find out that the rifle he designed proved to be, if not the best, then certainly not inferior to the rifles of other foreign countries.
Died S. I. Mosin on January 29, 1902 from croupous pneumonia in the rank of major general in the prime of his creative powers and at the peak of his military career, forever remaining in the history of domestic small arms.
P. S. Well, what is the conclusion from all this? The conclusion is simple and complex at the same time: life is a complex "thing" and it cannot be reduced to simplified cliches of Soviet historiography, which unambiguously interpreted - "the tsar is bad if he gave Nagan more than Mosin", and "Mosin is good if he is offended by the tsar." Such conclusions were accessible to the most mediocre mind, but artificially simplified the reality that took place. In fact, as we have seen, everything was much more complicated, and far from as unambiguous as it was customary to write about it then. Although all the documents were preserved. It was possible to take them, study them, but … it was absolutely impossible to publish them before 1991, therefore the researchers of that time limited themselves to only separate excerpts from them, and adjusted their conclusions to the point of view of the relevant party bodies. Fortunately, now, in principle, anyone can get access to all these documents (and even order their photocopies and photocopies at quite reasonable prices directly in the archive itself!) And get an exhaustive picture of those long-standing events. Well, what about the name? But in no way! It all depends on the point of view from which this weapon will be viewed. For foreigners it was, is and will be the Mosin-Nagant rifle, and why not? For us … this is the "Mosin rifle", because there is simply no point in recalling all its authors now. Well, if we talk about narrow specialists of modern times … then, most likely, the point of view of Emperor Alexander III will seem to them the most justified.
P. S. S. The author and the administration of the site express their gratitude to the staff of the St. Petersburg Archive of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps for their assistance and presentation of the ordered materials. Personal thanks to Nikolai Mikhailov, a citizen of St. Petersburg, who filmed all the archival materials used in this work.
