Light MGs
RPD: The LMG Adapts to Modern Combat
Today we are looking at a Chinese Type 56 RPD, but we will be focusing on the basic design and why it was adopted in the Soviet Union rather than the details of its use […]
Russia
Ammunition
Stopping the action of pistol bullets. Soviet view.
This guest post authored by Andrey Ulanov. In the USSR, the issue of choosing the main pistol cartridge was dealt with twice. For the first time, this was done by a commission in the early […]
Heavy MGs
The Drama and Mystery of the Goryunov Machine Gun
This guest post authored by Andrey Ulanov. In the minds of Western people, the inhabitants of the USSR may sometime look like ants; a large mass working towards one great goal without personal ambition. This, of […]
Select-fire Rifles
How Russia Captured its First MKb-42(H)
This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. When a new weapon model gets to the front, there is always a risk of it getting captured by the enemy. Armed forces go to great lengths to […]
General Purpose MGs
DS-39: The Failed Soviet Machine Gun of World War Two
The Soviet Union recognized the need for a modernized machine gun to replace the Maxim, and in the late 1920s Degtyarev began work on a “universal” type of gun. This would be air cooled, use […]
Light MGs
The Long Road to the DP-27
This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. The Russian military first got acquainted with light machine guns in 1904, on the brink of the Russian-Japanese War. After having tested a few Madsen LMGs, the Army […]
Antiques
Colt-Berdan I: Russia’s First Military Cartridge Rifle
In 1867, a Russian delegation came to the United States to source new small arms for the Czar. In addition to purchasing Gatling guns, they met with Hiram Berdan and agreed to purchase a trapdoor […]
Light MGs
LAD: The Soviet Pistol-Caliber SAW that Could Have Been
This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. In 1942, the Red Army was experiencing big problems with machine guns. Before the war, great hopes were pinned on Dyagterev’s brand new DS-39 heavy machine gun. But […]
Semiauto pistol
The Lahti L35 in Soviet Testing
This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. In 1941, at the NIPSVO shooting range, the Soviet military conducted a series of comparative tests of standard foreign and Soviet pistols as well as the Soviet experimental […]
Heavy MGs
Semiauto DShKM “Dushka” in .50 Browning
Developed by the Soviet Union primarily as an antiaircraft weapon (and used to good effect in that role through World War Two), the DShK heavy machine gun was modernized almost immediately upon adoption. The first […]