Mosin-Nagant
Dot Net Presents:
A "Frenchman" : The First Russian
Rifle Mosin-Nagant M91
History of the Three-Line-Rifles-Production
in Chatellerault
By: Karl-Heinz Wrobel
It is a fact: The first mass-produced
rifles Mosin-Nagant M91 were not manufactured in Mother
Russia. Though the large factories of Tula
and Izhevsk and the smaller one in Sestroretsk received
the production order in 1891, the first rifles came
from Chatellerault in France. To understand why,
it is necessary to know the historical and political
situation at the end the 19th century.

The first Mosin
Nagant with early features
Historical Background
In the time from the 15th to the
17th September 1884 three European monarchs met in
the Russian castle Stierniewicze, Emperor Wilhelm
I. of Germany, Emperor Franz Joseph I. of Austria
and Czar Alexander III. Alexandrovitch of Russia.
A treaty was signed, the so called "Rückversicherungsvertrag,
which established an alliance between those countries.
After the lost war against Germany
1870/71 the other main country in territorial Europe,
France, was completely isolated. The German chancellor
Bismarck was the father of both this isolation and
the new alliance. His intentions were to end the
danger of a two-front-war against two powerful enemies,
France and Russia. It was a very tricky alliance
and only a political genius like Bismarck was able
to handle it. However the young Emperor Wilhelm II.
of Germany did not like this strong old man at his
side, so Bismarck was forced to retire. One of the
new advisers of Wilhelm II. was a man in the foreign
office, Geheimrat Baron von Holstein. This man was
sure, that France with its Republican Government
and Russia with its Monarchy never would come together.
Therefore Wilhelm II. refused to renew the Rückversicherungsvertrag.
The thin wire to Petersburg, as Bismarck
once called it, was cut off.
Baron von Holstein was wrong. Now
the political situation of the agricultural country
Russia had become extremely difficult. Great Britain
was the main enemy of Russia at this point and now
the possibility of a new powerful enemy with gigantic
technical resources just on the other side of the
western border of Russia, Germany, arose. And Russia
had no more allies, it was isolated like one certain
other country in Europe. Therefore it was nearly
inevitable that those countries came together. Bismarcks
nightmare, the two-front-battle, came out of its
grave. After first consultations between France and
Russia the upcoming alliance was set on a military
base too. July 25th, 1891, a French fleet visited
the holy grail of Russia, the harbor of Kronstadt.
How desperate Czar Alexander III.
needed new allies will be illustrated by the following
little story: During the visit of the French fleet
the absolute Monarch, introduced by God and reign
of life and death of his subservients, took off his
hat and listened or better had to listen to the Marseillaise,
the song of the French Revolution, the battle song
of the French people, who had cut off the head of
another Monarch, the French King Louis XVI. August
22nd, 1891, a military treaty was accepted and signed
august 18th, 1892; September 17th, 1892, the French
President Sadi Carnot visited Russia and December
27th, 1892, the Czar signed the French/Russo Treaty.
Chatellerault
Chatellerault (in
medieval times Castrum Heraldi or Castellum Airaldi)
is the capital of one Arrondissement in the French
Department Vienne near the railway from Orleans to
Bordeaux. In 1883 there were 15.244 inhabitants.
The weapons factory was founded July 14th, 1819,
and started the production of edged weapons with
67 workers. Beginning 1829 first rifles were manufactured.
From 1866 they made the Chassepot rifle with 2.187
workers and from 1874 the Gras rifle. 1883 the factory
had 1.800 workers in 5 so called Ateliers.
During the Russian order roundabout 2.000 workers
were occupied in 1893 and in June 1894 5.794 men.
In 1895 the amount of workers decreased to 2.000
again. After WW II not enough orders came in and
so the factory was closed in 1968.

The Factory
The Treaty
May 10th, 1890, first
official consultations between the representatives
of the Czar and the ones of the French weapons factories
happened. The businessman and French representative
of the factories, Adrien Treuille, had been authorized
by the French War Ministry, to run the negotiations.
His partners on the Russian side were Lieutenant
General Tschagin, head of the Russian commission
for the acquirement of a rifle with small caliber,
and the Russian military attaché in Paris, Lieutenant
General Baron von Freedericksz. The first agreement
on 300.000 single shot rifles was may 21st, 1891.
The executing factory should be Saint Etienne. Some
weeks later the order was changed. July 16th, 1890,
Mr. Treuille got a new, pretty uncertain, order on
500.000 magazine fed rifles. At this time it was
not clear, what rifles should be manufactured and
at what cost. But a new factory was chosen: Chatellerault.
Up to now the reasons for the relocation from Saint
Etienne to Chatellerault are not clear.
December 31st, 1890,
General Freedericksz told Mr. Treuille, that the
order would work. Up to June 1st, 1891, the (handmade)
five master weapons should be in Chatellerault. They
really arrived in time. The technical department
of the French Artillery took the rifles to pieces
and examined them. After that the price for the single
weapon was fixed: 48,65 Francs including the bayonet.
Added to that price had to be 3 fr for the production
expenses, 0,35 fr for proof shooting and another
7 fr as fees of the factory. The total price therefore
arose to 59 fr. It was a good deal for the French
factory, because the average costs for one rifle
soon decreased from 50,8942 fr to 37,9802 fr in November
1894. It is interesting to know, that essential parts
of the raw material, like the stock-wood, raw barrels
and the raw steel for the entire chamber had to be
delivered from Russia.
The treaty was signed
December 19th, 1891. The French Government accepted
to deliver 503.750 Three-Line-Rifles M1891 in the
time from 1892 up to 1894. A Russian control commission
came to Chatellerault October 20th, 1891. First there
were only two persons, Colonel Sokerine as head of
the commission, and Lieutenant Prince Gagarine. January
1893 the next member, Captain Kholodovski, and September
12th, 1893, the last one, Captain Orloff, arrived
in Chatellerault. But there were many delays in starting
the production. Blueprints, tools etc. did not come
in time from Russia. It was April 18th, 1892, when
some very important parts, like the master barrel
and a master bayonet, arrived. So the first rifle
M. 1891 was assembled only in July 1892.
The following table
shows the number of established machines and employed
workers during the production of the Three-Line-Rifles
in Chatellerault:
Production
Data |
September
1892 |
January
1893 |
January
1894 |
January
1895 |
Amount
of workers |
880 |
1.231 |
4.706 |
3.535 |
Machines
for producing the barrel |
1.133 |
1.366 |
4.022 |
3.295 |
Proofmachines |
1.210 |
1.642 |
4.072 |
3.752 |
Toolmachines |
1.425 |
1.756 |
4.076 |
3.753 |
Installation
machines |
1.551 |
1.934 |
4.090 |
3.755 |
Building one rifle needed altogether
42 hours of work with 1446 different stages of work
and 812 proof measurements.
Production, Deliverance
In the treaty you find that in
the first nine month of production Chatellerault
had to produce the parts of the rifles only, not
to assemble rifles. In the tenth month, which means
from July 19th to august 19th, they had to assemble
100 rifles per day in 25 working days per month.
There had to be an increase of production every month,
175, 250, 325, 400, 475, 550, 625, 700, 775, 850
and 925 per day in the next months. From July 19th,
1893, there had to be a production of 1.000 rifles
per day, which means 25.000 per month. The last month
of this high production should be the 33rd from June
19th to July 19th, 1894. After that there was a monthly
decrease from 800, 600 and 400 per day in the following
months and than there should be a daily production
of 200 from October 19th, 1894 to January 19th, 1895.
It seems that the factory fulfilled
the time schedule very well, though different French
sources tell us different dates of deliverance. So
the facts remain a little bit sketchy. One source
says, that the first 25.000 rifles had been assembled
by September 1892 and shipped from Dünkirchen to
St. Petersburg, where they arrived October 3rd, 1892.
In 1894 alone there should be a production of 475.000
rifles! Another source tells us the total amount
of assembled rifles in September 1892 to be 153 and
the daily production 4 rifles. In January 1893 the
total production was 3.520 rifles with 150 rifles
assembled daily at the end of this month. Up to January
1895 the total production shall have been 461.800
rifles M91. If you remember that the first five rifles
have been accepted in December 1892, a fact clearly
proofed by the letters of Colonel Sokerine, the source
telling us about the deliverance of the first 25.000
rifles in September 1892 is obviously wrong.
But it is a fact too that Chatellerault
delivered all weapons in time. The last crate with
the number 25.129 was delivered April 25th, 1895
with the remaining 17 rifles. Altogether not 503.750
rifles, but 503.539 "only were shipped
to Russia.
Production data per year can be
estimated nearly exactly by checking the remaining
rifles:
Year
of manufacture |
1892 |
1893 |
1894 |
1895 |
Amount
of production |
~22.000 |
~128.000 |
~330.000 |
~24.000 |
The first pattern of the Chatellerault
rifles has the following characteristics:
Stock |
- slim, one part
- sling swivels at the
upper band and at the front of the magazine
housing
- no recoil bolt
|
Handguard |
- without
|
Bands |
- without inside cuts for
the metal fingers of the handguard
- open tightening screws
|
Cleaning
rod |
- short with the long head
|
Finger
rest |
- with finger rest behind
the trigger guard
|
Rear
part of the cocking piece |
- large with steps
|
Frontsightbase |
- low
|
Sight
graduation |
- base 400 to 1.200, leaf
1.300 to 2.700 arshini
|
Years
of manufacture |
- 1892 to 1893
|
Factories |
- Chatellerault, Tula,
Izhevsk, Sestroretsk
|
 
Brands
The barrel of the French rifles
always shows the Czarist double headed eagle and
the Cyrillic inscription (weapons
factory Chatellerault), the year of manufacture and
the serial number of the rifle with an N as
a prefix. The main factory brand has three lines,
the upper one with the word Orushejnyj slightly
curved over the second straight line with the word "Sawod and
the third straight line with the word Chatellerault.
This word is not a word-for-word transcription of
the name Chatellerault, but shows that
name in the way it was spoken in the Russian language.
All characters have the same size.
All main parts have
been stamped with the parts logo of the factory,
an encircled "C (for Chatellerault). This
character is not the Cyrillic "S, like
it is found on Serbian rifles Mosin-Nagant. All weapons
show the brand of the Russian proof commission, the on
the barrel.
Differences to
the Russian made rifles
All parts of Russian
and French made rifles M1891 have the same dimensions.
You can use every part of a French rifle
in a Russian one. The reason for that is, that all
tools and gauges were made in one factory only, Sestroretsk,
whereas Izhevsk was responsible for the steel for
all rifles. Some of those tools for the chamber can
be seen here.




Here the charts
are continued



But some little differences
can be found! On every Russian or American rifle
Mosin-Nagant M91 and all dragoon or Cossack rifles
M91 you find the (Russian, not Finnish!) graduation
of the backsight on the left side
of the base (or stamped into the wood of the handguard,
on the left side too). The Chatellerault rifles have
the marks 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 (for 400 up to 1.200
arshini) stamped on the right side
of the base, like it can be seen in the following
photo.

It does not matter,
whether the sight leaf of the rifle is the first
one, graduated up to 2.700 arshini, or the second
one, graduated up to 3.200 arshini. Most of the old
Chatellerault rifles backsights have been changed
to the curved sight leaf to fit the new cartridge
M1908 (and got the recoil bolt), but that happened
by changing the sight leaf only, not the base.
On Russian Three-Line-Rifles
M91 you find the character (Cyrillic g = goda =
year) just behind the year of manufacture. Here is
the second difference: Chatellerault rifles M91 do
not have that character. The third difference is
the Czarist eagle. You do not find it on the chamber,
but on the barrel only.
Serial numbers
In front of every
serial number of a Chatellerault rifle you find the
sign N, which is no Cyrillic character
(you cannot find it in the Cyrillic alphabet), but
of German origin, indicating number.
All digits of the number are exactly on one line
and parallel to the other inscriptions on the barrel.
Russian weapons got their numbers starting newly
every year with 1. That was different in Chatellerault.
Here the numbering was continued over all years.
In Chatellerault the
first serial number of the year 1892 was not the
number one. The numbers of the first five rifles,
produced in July/august and accepted in December
1892, are known: 707, 757, 760, 780 and 786. The
reason is that all rifles got their numbers before
they were proofed and accepted. Therefore rifles,
which became finally rejected and destroyed later,
are in the system of numbering too. That means that
there are higher serial numbers than the amount of
accepted weapons.
Year
of manufacture |
1892 |
1893 |
1894 |
1895 |
Range
of serial numbers |
707
- ~27.000 |
~27.000
- ~150.000 |
~150.000
- ~485.000 |
~485.000
- ~510.000 |
You find the serial
numbers, which are a little bit smaller than the
Russian ones, on the normal four places, on the barrel
just beyond the year, on the bolt, on the magazine
cover and on top of the metal buttplate.
Technical Changes
There are many differences
between the first five prototypes that arrived in
Chatellerault in May 1891 and the normal rifles produced
since 1892. The prototypes had different graduations
on the back sight base for instance. The trigger
guard was rounded at its backside. And the bold handle
was still the same as can be seen on the old Berdan-II-rifles.
So many modifications had to be done even before
mass production started in Chatellerault. But during
the normal manufacturing it was just the same. Some
improvements came, like a better frontsight, sometimes
a alteration was done to simplify production only.
Finger-rest
The first rifles from
Chatellerault are the crown jewels of those rifles.
They should have the finger rest just behind the
trigger guard.

June 4th, 1893, Colonel
Sokerine wrote a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Camps,
director of the Chatellerault factory, to inform
him that the finger rest should be abandoned. From
that time all rifles were built without them. That
means that finger rests can only be found on rifles
built within eleven month from the start of production.
Therefore finger rests are extremely rare. Round
about 80.000 rifles from Chatellerault and another
round about 40.000 from all three Russian factories
have been made with them. To find a rifle with a
finger rest became even harder, because it was ordered
to remove the finger rest from the older rifles.
Many of those rifles got a matching piece of wood
inletted in the stock, or a plain piece of metal,
screwed at the same place, instead of the finger
rest. Very few rifles with the rest survived.
The rifle without
the finger rest is the second pattern of the Chatellerault
rifles with the following characteristics.
Stock |
- slim, one part
- sling swivels at the
upper band and at the front of the magazine
housing
- no recoil bolt
|
Handguard |
- without
|
Bands |
- without inside cuts for
the metal fingers of the handguard
- open tightening screws
|
Cleaning
rod |
- short with the long head
|
Finger
rest |
- without
|
Rear
part of the cocking piece |
- large with steps
|
Front
sight base |
- low
|
Sight
graduation |
- base 400 to 1.200, leaf
1.300 to 2.700 arshini
|
Years
of manufacture |
- 1893 to 1894
|
Factories |
- Chatellerault, Tula,
Izhevsk, Sestroretsk
|
Cleaning rod
The short cleaning rod with the
longish head is another significant feature of the
first rifles Mosin-Nagant. It is not as long as the
barrel. In the barracks it should be used to clean
the chamber area only. Normal cleaning of the barrel
had to be done with a cleaning cord. But the cleaning
cord did not prove and became replaced by a wipe
rope, made of copper wire. But in the field cleaning
of the barrel had to be done with the cleaning rod.
To do so two of the short rods were screwed together.
After that a round grip had to be screwed into the
free head of the rods, which served as handle for
the rod.

The following table
shows the dimensions of the short cleaning rod:
Length
overall: 426,085 mm |
Length
head: 28,575 mm |
Diameter
shaft: 4,445 mm |
Diameter
head: 7,238 mm |
This cleaning rod was in use up
to 1896. During that time it was reworked and changed
several times. With the first pattern the shaft was
bruined, but the head of the rod phosphated. That
changed in 1893. From then the head became bruined
too. In January 1894 the opening in the head became
increased from a diameter of 4,47 mm to 4,52 mm.
The construction of the cleaning
rod was a little bit weak, because the head only
was screwed on the shaft. The main problem caused
by this was, that the head was rattled loose and
became lost. Another problem was the normal use of
the rod for building pyramids with the rifles. Doing
this caused considerable powers to the rodhead, for
instance by rough putting together or removing the
rifles from the pyramid. Therefore the Russian Artillery
Commission asked the factory of Chatellerault to
make trials with another connection of both parts
and tell the costs of an alteration. Colonel Sokerine
reported to St. Petersburg and march 29th, 1894,
the new attachment of the head by soldering was approved.
The requirement was, that the soldering had a power
against breakage of 58 kg/cm. Short after that the
first 10 new cleaning rods arrived. The new gauges
were sent to the factory April 2nd, 1894. The result
of the next trials was a power against breakage of
70 to 85 kg/cm, and so the approval was no problem.
The well known long cleaning rod
with the short head, seen at nearly all rifles M91,
came in 1896. Therefore all rifles, produced in Chatellerault
should have the short type with the long head. But
I fear you will find none. There are some rifles
with short cleaning rods in museums; some lucky collectors
have very few too, but nearly all other ones have
been altered to fit the new rod.
Epilogue

The successor of Czar Alexander
III., who was assassinated November 11th, 1894, Tzar
Nicholas II., donated a bell to the church Saint-Jean-l´Evangéliste à Chateauneuf
in Chatellerault, showing the portraits of the political
fathers of the treaty, Czar Alexander III., Czar
Nicholas II., the French Presidents Sadi Carnot,
assassinated too June 24th, 1894, and Faure. On the
bell there is a motto too: "For peace and understanding
of the nations".
Beside this the Czar
appreciated the efforts of the French officers and
controllers involved in the manufacture of the rifles.
All of them were donated a medal. Military persons
got the award St. Anne and civilians the award St.
Stanislaus.
April 25th, 1895,
a great banquet was celebrated in Chatellerault on
the occasion of the farewell of the the Russian Mission.
That was the official end of the Russian-French cooperation
for manufacturing the Three-Line-Rifles. April 30th,
1895, the last 9 crates were shipped to Russia. But
they contained parts of weapons and the possessions
of the members of the Russian Mission only.
Before he left, Colonel
Sokerine requested the French Government to destroy
all documents, like blueprints and drawings, and
all models of the rifles together with all machines
and gauges, as far as they were used for the Russian
rifle. Because of the observance of secrecy he the
asked for the delete of that chapter of the history
of Chatellerault dealing with the manufacture of
the rifle M91.
But: The documents
still exist. The entire correspondence of the Russian
Mission with the factory, the French War Ministry
and some other French sub-factories, like Rouart,
survived, including drawings and blueprints. The
reason is that the factory (and the French Government
of course) intended to make one or better more other
deals with that rifle. And so Adrien Treuille spoke
with the Serbian Government in 1897 to sell several
thousand rifles Mosin-Nagant M91. But it seems that
there were negotiations between the Serbs and the
Russian Government too that time and so Chatellerault
did not get an order. French newspapers reported
great interest of Bulgaria too. But the Bulgarian
Government denied this: Because of the bad financial
situation of the country it is impossible to obtain
the new rifle from France. A letter of the factory
of September 15th, 1915, tells us, where all documents,
gauges, tools and other stuff of the Russian rifles
were stored to make new production possible: In the
cellar in very large and heavy wooden crates.
So the French business
interests made the Russian observance of secrecy
fail. But that did not really matter. The espionage
of that time was as good as today. Just a short time
after the first rifles were assembled in Chatellerault
the British Secret Service got some in its hands.
Up to now it is unknown, whether the rifles came
from Russia or from France. The weapons were examined
by the British. After that they reported the results
to their American friends. On demand of the US-War-Ministry
the US-military-attaché in London got one rifle too
from the British Secret Service.
Official consultations
between Great Britain and Russia first happened in
the middle of the 90th. An agreement was signed,
stating the exchange of the ordinance rifles between
both countries for visiting and test purposes. Therefore
Great Britain sent the British ordinance rifle of
that time to Russia. But on the Russian side a nice
little deception happened. Not knowing that the British
had the rifles already, the Russians dedicated a
very special adopted rifle" to Great Britain:
It was nothing else than the old and in 1891 rejected
test rifle of the Nagant brothers with the serial
number 424 with its test bayonet, which is slightly
different to the normal pattern of the Russian bayonet
too. That is the way the Belgium weapons came into
the famous Pattern Room collection in Nottingham.

Tang marking
Some last words: I
want to say THANK YOU to Vic and Tuco for
this great forum with its "collection of
great users and writers, Tuco and Vic included of course.
It is full of knowledge and I enjoy it very much
(too much, as my wife would say). Thank you again
for your great work, my friends.
Karl-Heinz Wrobel |