Brief Operational History

In the years following the Civil War the Red Army wanted a standardized weapon for their troops.  This was due to the fact that dozens of different weapons were in use following the Civil War and keeping them in ammunition was very difficult.  A committee began work on modernizing the M-1891 in early 1924.  The first trial weapons were made in 1927.  The final design was adopted in on 10 June 1930, by the head of the Red Army's armaments department Ieronim Uborevich.  

As with many things of that time, the production of the new rifle was shrouded in extreme secrecy.  French intelligence from the late-20's stated that they were being made in Omsk, while a U.S. intelligence report of February 1933 said that it was being made in Kharkov, Leningrad, Moscow, Penza, Poltava, and Nikolayev.  The reports could simply have referred to where parts of the rifles were made, but the data is insufficient to say.  What was known is that the weapon saw production at both Izhevsk and Tula.

The primary focus of the new weapon was ease of production.  To achieve this end the weapon was to have different front and rear sights, a rounded receiver, and metric measurements.  The barrel was also shortened by 5mm and a new bayonet was added.  These changes transformed the old M-1891 into a modern weapon that gave the Red Army a weapon was both easy to produce and use.  The M-91/30 took only 13 hours to produce and its initial production run was 102,000 rifles in 1930.

Even though the M-91/30 was a modern weapon for the late-20's and early-30's, the years following its official adoption saw the Soviets begin to investigate whether it would be practical to replace the M-91/30 with a semi-automatic rifle.  This resulted in the SVT series that proved unreliable and too difficult to manufacture.

The first uses of the M-91/30 in combat was during the Spanish Civil War where they were sent as foreign aid.  They were also widely used in the repressive actions of the Stalinist regime.  It also saw extensive use in the border conflicts with the Japanese in Manchuria and the Winter War.  It became one of the most produced weapons of the Great Patriotic war era.

With the outbreak of hostilities with the German Army in 1941, weapons production became the focus of Soviet industry.  In this regard the M-91/30 proved to be the most widely manufactured Soviet weapon of the war.  More than 12 million rifles and carbines were made in Izhevsk and Tula during the war.  As an interesting note: during the Great Patriotic War many of the barrels of M-1891 and M-91/30 rifles were cut down to be used as barrels for PPS and PPSH sub-machine guns.

By the end of the war over 17,475,000 M-91/30 rifles had been manufactured.  This proved to be a problem in the years following the conflict as the Red Army began to demobilize.  Many of these rifles were shipped to China, North Korea, and Eastern Europe to aid Socialist governments and revolutionary movements.  Even so, the M-91/30 continued to serve in reserve units well into the early 1960's.  Today the weapon can still be found in isolated parts of the world or on the surplus market as old warehouses are emptied.

Tactical Use and Limitations

The M-91/30 replaced the M-1891 and M-91 Dragoon rifles as the standard infantry rifle of the Soviet army.  When compared to the weapons it replaced, it offered the same performance while being easier to manufacture and weighing less.  It was a rugged weapon that allowed a trained rifleman to engage targets at ranges of over 800 meters.  The more accurate versions of this weapon were chosen to become M-91/30 sniper variants.

Still, its design was hardly innovative, simply being a modified Dragoon rifle.  The weapon's 5 round magazine and socket bayonet seemed to many to be relics of the previous war.  These disadvantages were significant at a time when most nations were using either knife bayonets, semi-automatic rifles, and/or 10 round magazines.  By the late 1930's studies began to see if replacing the M-91/30 with a semi-automatic rifle would be practical.

Method of Operation

The M-91/30 is a manually cycled bolt action rifle.  After firing, the user pulls the bolt handle up to unlock and cock the action, then backwards to eject the spent cartridge.  When the bolt is pushed forward it strips a round from the magazine and chambers it.  The weapon is now ready to fire.

Deployment Chronology

Here you can see what weapons the M-91/30 rifles replaced and what weapons eventually replaced them.  You can find out more about each weapon by clicking on the links below.

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.

• Soviet Small-Arms and Ammunition, by D.N. Bolotin, published by Finnish Arms Museum Foundation 1995

• Military Small Arms of the 20th Century 7th Edition, by Ian V. Hogg and John S. Weeks, published by Krause Publications, 2000

• The Mosin Nagant Rifle, by Terence W. Lapin, published by North Cape Publications, 1998