One Rifle for Centuries
3-линейная винтовка Мосина образца 1891 года
Commonly known as the Mosin-Nagant in the West, Mosin's rifle was Russia's step into the age of modern firearms. Despite a myriad of flaws, the Russian Empire and its successor states would keep it in service with only minimal changes right up to the 21st century.
History
While incorporating most of the new developments of the era in terms of small arms, the M91 left a lot to be desired. In part due to inherent design flaws, in others due to outdated doctrinal thinking within the Russian army. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most recognisable firearms in history.
Despite an only beginning phase of industrialisation, the Russian Empire, shortly before the start of the revolutionary time in small arms development the 1880s would prove to be, was arguably equipping its troops with one of the best rifles of the time - the Berdan II, developed by US inventor Hiram Berdan.
The Russo-Turkish War however (1877-1878), and here the Siege of Pleven in modern day Bulgaria in particular, showed the need for new development. While Ottoman sources traced the obscene casualties suffered by the Russian coalition troops back to outdated tactics, European observers of the time took note of the Ottoman use of single-shot rifles to engage at long distance, while repeaters (Winchester Model 1866 in this case) were used to repel attacks closing in on their positions, kickstarting the adoption of repeating rifles across the continent.
Initial trials focused on adapting the existing Berdan II rifles to become repeaters through the addition of a magazine system.
Wisely however, the Russian commission split the task of updating its forces into two main components:
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Adopting a new magazine system for use on the existing rifles
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Adopting a new rifle entirely
This allowed for inventors to focus on either one of those tasks, or both simultaneously.
Various designs were brought in and tested over the following years, however in 1889 the Russian Ministry of War managed to acquire a sample Lebel Mle. 1886 from France. While Poudre B was still a state secret, the rifle alone cut down on a lot of development time for the Russian commission as barrel and sights were by and large copied from the Lebel, allowing for the inventors still in the race to focus on the action itself, as well as an accompanying magazine system.
The same year, three rifles were submitted - two in a three line calibre, one in 3.5 line*.
With trials being concluded in 1891, two of the rifles were left standing. The 3.5 line design presented by Belgian inventor Léon Nagant, and a native design by Сергей Иванович Мосин (Sergei Ivanovich Mosin) with a smaller three-line bore.
Ultimately, the simpler design and disassembly procedure introduced by Mosin won over the more refined, but complicated one by Nagant, who still won a sizeable sum for the use of his patented magazine, which the Russians had to pay for due to their initial production being contracted in France, where Nagant had patented his design.
While his magazine (albeit modified by Mosin as well) gave rise to the double name Mosin-Nagant in the West, the rifle was officially adopted as the 3-линейная винтовка Мосина образца 1891 года (3-Line Rifle, Mosin, Model of 1891).
Production thus began in 1892 at the three Russian arsenals Тула, Иже́вск and Сестрорецк (Tula, Izhevsk and Sestroetsk), with an addition 500,000 being ordered from Châtellerault in France.
Although changes were minimal by comparison to other rifle lineages, the Mosin went through a few limited changes before its first real trial by fire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
These changes included:
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Getting rid of the finger spur early rifles had until 1893
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Addition of an upper handguard and subsequent changes to the barrel bands
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Changes to cleaning rod length and attachment within the stock
After the devastating defeat against the Empire of Japan in September of 1905, the rifle underwent the most influential modifications starting in 1908.
The adoption of a conical bullet required a modification to the sights copied from the Lebel. In order to simplify this process as much as possible, the sight graduations on the base were kept, and a new, curved ladder installed, at the expense of ruggedness. The new projectile also allowed for the ladder to go from 2,700 аршины to 3,200 аршины (Arshins)**. The higher pressure generated by the new cartridge additionally required a recoil lug to be set in the stock.
As war broke out in the midst of the update process, Mosins can be found with any of the aforementioned features.
*Russia, unlike most other European nations did not use measurements that either were, or were easily translatable into metres.
A line amounted to 2.54mm (1/10th of an inch), whereas an arshin measured 71.12cm (28 inches). These measurements were coined by Peter the Great.
The new sights used an updated ladder while simultaneously keeping the graduations on the sight base. Note that the updated sight displayed here has its markings on the right hand side, which is something only seen in rifles out of the Châtellerault contract.
Considered to be the best variation of the Mosin rifle family, the Finnish M/39 made a name of itself in the Continuation War with improved ergonomics and sights, becoming a popular rifle amongst collectors today, cherished for its accuracy.
While often associated with famous sniper Simo Häyhä "The White Death", the rifle he used was an M/28 updated to the M/28-30 pattern.
One peculiarity that is special to the Mosin is the fact that the rifles were sighted in with bayonets attached.
Unlike contemporary powers that moved away from side-mounted spike or Yataghan-style bayonets in favour of underside mounted knife or spike bayonets, the Russian Empire stuck with a side-mounted spike bayonet that was to be attached at all times via a screw-locked collar behind the front sight. While cutting out the time needed to fix the bayonets in case of need, it caused the rifle to become even more front-heavy.
Serbian troops in particular were very displeased with this fact as they did not keep the bayonets attached on the rifles they received as aid during the war, causing a notable shift in point of impact.
Mosin's rifle would outlast the Russian Empire in spite of all of its shortcomings. With millions produced for its own army, hundreds of thousands sent abroad as aid and even more captured by its adversaries, to be used against its home country.
However, Mosin's legacy would go on even long after the fall of the monarchy and become one of the most produced firearm systems in history. Approximately 37 million were produced by the Russian Empire and its successor, the Soviet Union alone, ultimately serving in both world wars with almost negligible changes to its overall setup.
The nation that would attempt to get the most out of the platform turnt out to be Finland. With hundreds of thousands of rifles in storage after declaring independence from the Russian Empire in 1917, the Finnish, over the following two decades, would improve the system as much as possible, improving bolts, magazines, sights and stock setups. Finnish troops would go on to wield their own Mosin variants with great success in the Winter- and Continuation Wars of 1940-1944.
Like the cartridge developed for it, the famous 7.62x54mmR, which as of today is the oldest serving cartridge in military use on Earth, the Mosin is seeing use today as well in various conflicts and even on its home turf in the hands of Russian troops and Pro-Russian separatists in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.
