In one of my articles published on the VO website, I talked about the Remington rifle, and the material was prepared based on the publication "Remington Rolling Block Military Rifles of the World" (George Layman. Woonsocket, RIUSA: Andrew Mowbray Incorporated Publishers, 2010 - 240pp). The author of the book is a unique person in his own way: he served in the US Army for 21 years as a translator from Japanese, but also speaks Korean, German, Hungarian, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese. He is the author of over 1,100 weapons-related articles and has appeared in several historical films of the Discovery Channel as a "talking head". Well, the Remington rifle is one of the areas of his hobby. He collects and studies them. Of course, the work of such an author deserves attention. At the same time, the previous publication caused a number of doubts among some VO readers. And someone even demanded from me scans of the quoted pages. However, their impatience and excitement is understandable. Not all articles on VO contain links to primary sources. Many therefore think, probably, that the authors are too free to dispose of the material they have, so that reading the text in the original allows you to remove these questions that have arisen, to learn a lot, and to make sure that and how Western historians write about Russia. Not cheap and often illiterate journalists, and not politicians, but historians, people with good education, who value their reputation. Therefore, I asked my colleague at the university from the department of foreign languages, senior teacher Shurupova Irina Vladimirovna, to translate the text that interested readers of the VO, as close as possible to the original source. So, open page 105 of the above edition and start reading:
The bolt action of the Remington rifle. Private collection.
Russia.
From the very beginning, the Remington company viewed Russia as an important and promising customer for the bolt action rifle. The company spared no time and effort trying to draw Russia's attention to its products, but to no avail. In a letter to General Dyer dated May 23, 1871, Sam Norris refers to his brother John, who was present at all the official tests. But it did not help. Probably no one, including the Norris brothers, knew that Russia had decided to adopt a new rifle that they could produce on their own. In 1861, Russia adopted the Berdan-I bolt-action rifle, which was largely the result of the joint work of Colonel Alexander Gorlov and Captain Karl Gunnius with Colt from the United States. The Russians were so determined not to depend on foreign suppliers that in 1871 they abandoned the Berdan-I rifle in favor of the Berdan-II single-shot bolt-action rifle, not because it was better, but because it was easier to manufacture. … As we saw from the experience of Austrian manufacturers and we will see in the future from others, the bolt-action rifle was difficult to manufacture, and Russia, with its limited industrial capabilities, understood well the problem of creating a new industry, purchasing machine tools, training workers and switching to new weapons, and that's it. it is at the same time.
Book cover by George Lauman. Hardcover without shipping costs $ 40 today.
The second opportunity to open the Russian market appeared during the Russo-Turkish War (April 1877-March 1878). At this time, the Remington company was virtually bankrupt, although it did its best to hide it. Samu-el Norris and Watson Squier arrived in St. Petersburg. Prior to this, Squier received a telegram from Colonel Gorlov, in which he urged him to leave for St. Petersburg that same evening. Remington & Sons was so broke that Squier had to pay out of his own pocket for the trip.
Advertising of the Remington M1896 rifle, chambered for different calibers.
Gorlov had a good attitude towards the Remington system and did not like Berdan-II. He apparently sent a memo to the Minister of War, General Milyutin, with a request to carefully consider Remington. Milyutin showed no interest and wrote a rather caustic note, which said that Russia is not a Papal state or Egypt, and that it is very important for Russia to develop its own production of modern weapons.
Neither Norris nor Squier were privy to this correspondence and continued their attempts to interest the Russians with a bolt-action rifle, and if that did not work out, with a Remington-Keene magazine rifle. They also realized that there could be no question of making new butterfly valves in Russian Berdan rifles in.42 caliber fast enough to hope for an order, so Squier tried to sell them a Spanish model. He wrote to General Barantov: “Although this weapon has a.433 caliber, and the Russian Berdan rifle has a.42 caliber, it has been repeatedly established in America that the sheathed cartridge for the Russian Berdan quite successfully fires from the Spanish Remington rifle, with good results in terms of accuracy and range. (Quoted from Weapons for the Tsar by Joseph Bradley, Northern Illinois Univer City Press.)
Stamp of the M1867 model.
On October 28, 1877, Squier received a brief note from the chief of the artillery department stating that the Russian government did not intend at the present time to resort to foreign orders for weapons or cartridges.
In fact, the Remington company sold bolt-action rifles to Russia, but 35 years later, when they had long been considered obsolete. The Russian contract for rifles is almost unknown. Several authors, namely Phil Sharp and R. O. Ackley mentioned that Russian 7.62 cartridges were used in bolt-action rifles during the First World War. But they did not have any specific information. Although a number of them may have been used, the order dates from the period immediately after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
Remington advertisement from 1871 and accompanying assortment of bayonets.
I first learned of this tsarist order in the spring of 1966 at my father's hobby shop. It was in Wallingford, Connecticut. One of my father's buyers was an 86-year-old elderly gentleman who used to work at the Remington plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut and retired in 1947. Before that he worked at the Ilion plant in New York, but where- then after the First World War he was transferred to Connecticut. He had a clear memory, and he remembered well what happened 50 years ago, when tsarist Russia actually ordered "several thousand bolt-action rifles." And … he had proof. I should have offered him $ 100 for him before I joined the army in 1969. I now think I did a disservice to Remington and myself by not making a serious effort to get this document. But at least I was able to read it several times.
This important piece of evidence was a 16-page newsletter for Remington employees, which was most likely displayed on a bulletin board in the meeting room. At the top of the pages there were a lot of pins holes, the corners of the pages were folded and the date was December 1914. It listed the company's foreign deliveries of firearms and their numbers from 1900 to 1914, and expressed gratitude to employees for their work over the past 14 years. It also mentioned the recent war in Europe. Two pages were devoted entirely to "a new era for an old favorite, the new Remington small bore rifle." A list was given of about 15 countries that purchased a new Remington with a butterfly valve with smokeless powder for cartridges from 1900 to 1914. The number was also indicated, some indicated the model and caliber. There were also references to the near future, that is, the First World War. On one of the pages it was marked in bold “Former European Customer may receive his order again in significant quantities”. This, of course, meant the French Republic. Among these 15 countries was Russia. I distinctly remember that in the column under the Russian order it was written "two thousand nine hundred and eighty one, model 1897, a special small-bore 7.62-mm rifle for tsarist Russia after the war with Japan." This document also mentioned some countries in South and Central America that made purchases of the M1897 rifle. This newsletter should be considered one of the most valuable parts of the Remington Post the company produced for its employees during the late Remington Butterfly period. All persistent attempts to locate her whereabouts have so far failed.
Diagram of the device and functioning of the Remington shutter.
Before finding the rifle shown here, I only saw two of these mysterious Russian bolt action rifles. The first I discovered in Vietnam in 1971 at a dump of weapons seized from the enemy. I was able to examine it and take some notes, but photographs were out of the question, even if I had a camera. She had a typical Vietcong sewn from fabric homemade rifle belt. The markings on the back of the receiver had been erased, but about 3 inches in front of the cracked and repaired trigger shackle, the "CAL.7.62R" could be clearly seen. There was something written in Russian Cyrillic on the sealing gasket of the receiver and on both sides of the case. I distinctly remember that in several places there was serial number 428. I felt as if I had found the Holy Grail. In addition to the caliber, I also noted the 2TA barrel and that there was nothing for the ramrod.
The Russo-Japanese War began in February 1904 with a surprise Japanese attack on Port Arthur in the Russian Far East. All hostilities took place in China, Manchuria and Korea. The conflict was based on Russian and Japanese territorial claims and trade privileges, and it is generally accepted that Japan won a landslide victory.
(To be continued)
