The weapon of great victories: 115 years of Mosin rifle  

"Three-linear rifle of 1891" - under this name the legendary rifle was accepted for service by the army. On 28 April 2006 that event turned 115 years old. This is the weapon of our army during the war with Japan, WWI and WWII - over one half of all the rifles were produced at Izhevsk arms factory (now - JSC "Izhmash").  

The rifle of Sergey Mosin was the first rifle designed in Russia and accepted for service by the Russian army. The army used it for 50 years. It was an absolutely new type of rifle made for the new 7.62 mm round that combined case, primer, gun powder and bullet. The unique part of this magazine rifle was a cut-off rejecter that simply and safely prevented the jams in the receiver with the subsequent round from the magazine. By its features the rifle was superior to all small arms in the world. With time only minor modernizations took place, and that improved efficiency of production and reduced production costs.

Three arms factories at a time manufactured the rifles - in Izhevsk, Tula and Sestroretsk. But only Izhevsk made all the versions - infantry, dragoons, Cossacks, training, sniper, carbines and even acting miniature copies. Since 1925 Izhevsk factory was the leader in the output. And it was not about quantity only - Izhevsk rifle was twice cheaper than the one from Tula. Besides, Izhevsk manufactured barrels and receivers for all three factories.

During the Great Patriotic War Izhevsk technologists, designers and workers achieved a lot: labor costs per rifle decreased by 5 times, and output hit 10-12 thousand daily - enough to arm one division. In total, during the war there were assembled 12 million 100. thousand Mosin rifles, and 11 million 145 thousand of them was manufactured at Izhmash (factory № 74).

The production of Mosin rifle was ceased in 1944, but the weapon was re-born in new makes of sporting, hunting and ballistic guns of Izhmash. Valuable experience of Mosin rifle mass production as well as design, technological and labor potential formed the basis for the mastering of Kalashnikov assault rifle in 1947.

Izhevsk machine-building plant follows centuries-old traditions of Izhevsk gunsmiths and still manufactures combat and sporting guns. The latest models, accepted for service by the Russian army - 100-series Kalashnikov assault rifles, Nikonov assault rifle AN-94, Bizon submachine gun.