During World War I in 1916 and 1917, the Russian army faced severe shortages of small arms, leading them to seek additional production from foreign contractors for Mosin-Nagant rifles. The manufacturing contracts were primarily awarded to two American companies—Remington-UMC and Westinghouse of New England—which produced large quantities of the Model 1891 rifle in the 1910 configuration.
However, after the October Revolution of 1917, these rifles were not delivered to their original customer—the overthrown Tsarist government. Instead, approximately 280,000 rifles were acquired by the U.S. military, most of which were modified for basic training purposes only.
When the U.S. sent troops to Archangelsk (Arkhangelsk) in 1919 as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, some of these American-made Mosin-Nagants were issued to the expeditionary forces. By the time the Americans withdrew in 1920, the soldiers disliked the rifles so much that they simply abandoned them on Russian soil.
Ultimately, many of the U.S.-purchased Mosin-Nagants were later distributed to National Guard units or sold as surplus on the civilian market.
