Mosin-Nagant Rifle

The Mosin-Nagant is a bolt-action, magazine-fed military rifle developed jointly from designs by the Russian officer Sergei Mosin and the Belgian Nagant brothers, adopted by the Imperial Russian Army in 1891 and remaining the standard Russian and later Soviet infantry rifle for over half a century, through the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and the Second World War. Chambered for the 7.62x54mmR cartridge, a rimmed round retained even as most other nations moved to rimless cartridges, the rifle became renowned above all for its extreme mechanical simplicity and reliability under the harsh conditions of the Eastern Front, functioning even when poorly maintained or exposed to mud, cold and neglect that would disable more delicate designs. Produced in the tens of millions across Russian, Soviet and other manufacturers, the Mosin-Nagant also became the standard weapon of famous Soviet snipers during the Second World War, including Vasily Zaitsev during the Battle of Stalingrad, and variants of the rifle remained in reserve or second-line service with various forces for decades after the war.