The favorite weapon of the Chekists and commissars loyally served the White Guards, criminals, and famous polar explorers.
Constructors
The legendary weapon of the Chekists and "commissars in dusty helmets", the automatic self-loading pistol of the German company "Mauser", was invented a quarter of a century before the revolution, in 1893 by the designers by the Federle brothers. It was supplied with a wooden walnut holster, which could also be used as a butt. "Mauser" possessed a powerful cartridge, a movable sight and in the presence of a holster-butt was used even as a light carbine for firing at a distance of up to a kilometer. However, at the maximum distance, the dispersion of bullets was 4-5 meters in width and height. But for a hundred meters, "Mauser" beat exactly in a 30-centimeter circle.
The magazine was designed for 6, 10 or 20 rounds. The muzzle velocity of the bullet was very high, reaching 430-450 m / s.
Modifications
The pistol was patented in 1896 (model C-96), and a year later its mass production began. "Mauser" quickly gained popularity all over the world (especially among hunters and travelers) and withstood more than two dozen modifications (including for different cartridges, the most famous was the 1912 model). One of the later modifications made it possible to fire in bursts at a speed of 850 rounds per minute. By the beginning of the First World War, several tens of thousands of pistols had been fired. And they received their baptism of fire during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.
Paradoxically, the popular pistol was not officially adopted by any country in the world. Despite the fact that its production continued until 1939, and about a million copies were produced.
Nevertheless, in Russia, the Mauser was included in the recommended weapon, which officers were allowed to buy instead of the Nagant revolver of the 1895 model. But if "Nagan" could be bought for 26 rubles, then "Mauser" cost from 38 rubles. and above, and did not receive distribution. On the eve of the First World War, they began to equip pilots, and from 1916 - the personnel of automobile and motorcycle units. It was from them that the legendary weapon went to the commissars and security officers.
Owners
In the Civil War, 7, 63-mm pistols of the 1912 model were mainly used. Award "Mauser" with the Order of the Red Banner on the handle, called "Honorary revolutionary weapon" (the highest award of Soviet Russia), were received by the Soviet commander-in-chief Sergei Kamenev and the commander of the First Horse Semyon Budyonny. In 1943 Leonid Brezhnev received the Mauser award.
"The first red officer" Klim Voroshilov named even his horse in honor of his beloved pistol. Hero of the Soviet Union, legendary border guard sergeant Nikita Karatsupa, who personally killed 129 saboteurs and detained 338 border violators, was also armed with a Mauser. The famous polar explorer Ivan Papanin set off for the ice wintering not with anything, but with a reliable "Mauser".
The Mauser was widely used by opponents of Soviet power, and even by criminals. The famous commander of the Drozdovites, the white general Anton Turkul, fought with the Mauser. Among other things, the "Mauser" was used by the raider Yakov Koshelkov, who in 1919 attacked Lenin himself. In Armenia, opponents of Soviet power in the early 1920s were even called "Mauserists", and in Turkestan, "Mauser" became popular among the Basmachi.
Winston Churchill was also a connoisseur of this pistol.
Filmography
After the defeat in the First World War under the Versailles Peace Treaty, Germany had no right to produce pistols with barrels longer than 100 mm. The legendary "Mauser" also had to be redone. Observing the new requirements, Germany supplied for the needs of the Red Army a large batch of shortened "Mauser", which in the West was called "Bolo-Mauser" (Bolshevik Mauser). In the USSR, "Mauser" were used during the Winter War of 1939-1940 by ski scout teams, and during the Great Patriotic War they gained popularity among the partisans. At the Podolsk Cartridge Plant, they even set up the production of copies of cartridges for the "Mauser".
Because of its unusual appearance, "Mauser" became an indispensable participant in Soviet films about the revolution and the Civil War. And with the light hand of the filmmakers, almost all the heroes were armed with the "Mauser". He was present in "White Sun of the Desert", and in "The Elusive Avengers", and in the movie "Officers".
In fact, it was a very rare and prestigious weapon, rather used as a reward.
THE POET'S LOOK
Left march
Turn around on the march!
Verbal is not a place for slander.
Hush, speakers!
Your
word, Comrade Mauser.
Vladimir Mayakovsky
ONLY NUMBERS
Magazine - 6, 10 or 20 rounds
Caliber - 7, 63x25 - 9x25 mm
The firing range is up to 1000 m.
Weight without cartridges - 1250 g
Length - 312 mm
Barrel length - 140 mm (in shortened models - 98 mm)
QUESTION FROM 1918
What weapon was used to kill Nicholas II?
One of the regicides, Pyotr Ermakov, later claimed that in July 1918 it was he from the Mauser who shot the former Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, heir and one of his daughters. In 1927, Ermakov handed over the Mauser to the museum in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). However, the right to be considered the liquidator of Nicholas II was challenged by Yakov Yurovsky, who in 1927 also handed over his weapons to the Moscow Museum of the Revolution. Yurovsky said that he used two pistols at once - the Colt and the shortened Mauser. Modern researchers believe that only one "Mauser" was used during the shooting (a total of three bullets of this system were found), which Yurovsky had, and Ermakov fired from an ordinary "Nagant".
