Russian and Ukrainian Military Mixing in WW1 and WW2 Gear

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It is not common but there are pictures and video of Russian and Ukrainian military mixing in WW1 and WW2 era guns and helmets.

Some of the Russian (or Russian allied) soldiers are being issued WW2 era helmets and AK-74 assault rifles and even some bolt action guns like the M1891.

The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891 and informally in Russia and the former Soviet Union as Mosin’s rifle. The 3-line rifle, Model 1891, its original official designation, was adopted by the Russian military in 1891. Production began in 1892 at the ordnance factories of Tula Arsenal, Izhevsk Arsenal and at Sestroryetsk Arsenal.


This is the M1891 and the name, 1891, is the actual year this bolt action gun design was created. A gun design that pre-dates WW1 with copies in various military museums is being used in the current war in Ukraine.

With the start of World War I, production was restricted to the M1891 dragoon and infantry models for the sake of simplicity. Due to the desperate shortage of arms and the shortcomings of a still-developing domestic industry, the Russian government ordered 1.5 million M1891 infantry rifles from Remington Arms and another 1.8 million from New England Westinghouse Company in the United States in 1915. Remington produced 750,000 rifles before production was halted by the 1917 October Revolution.

At the beginning of the war, the Mosin–Nagant 91/30 was the standard issue weapon of Soviet troops. Millions were produced in World War II for use by the largest mobilized army in history.

The Ukrainians are using some WW1-era guns. The Pulemyot Maxima PM1910 is a heavy machine gun that was used by the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and World War II.

9 thoughts on “Russian and Ukrainian Military Mixing in WW1 and WW2 Gear”

  1. They aren’t fighting with Mosin Nagants, from the comments these are DPR soldiers from 2014 who armed themselves with whatever they could get their hands on, and Russia refused to send weapons to them. They are most likely just doing drills and training and don’t have enough weapons.

    Ukraine does the same thing except they train with cardboard guns

    Russian soldiers that are actually fighting are using AK-12 or AK74 or better

    >After a review and some research, this video must be from the DPR between 2014-2015. That is when they mostly issued the older soviet helmets. The forces of the DPR also used from early on the white armbands. They have much more standardized clothing and more modern helmets.

  5. The Maxim is fine for sustained fire in a fixed position. It is too heavy to maneuver unless it’s on a pintle mount attached to a vehicle.

  6. The Mosen Nagant has an effective range of 800 meters.
    The AK-47 has an effective range of 300 meters.
    Front lines rarely get closer than 1000 meter because of artillery, mortars, automatic grenade launchers, and machine guns. Closing the gap with tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles has become costly in the age of drones and shoulder mounted anti tank weapons. Closing the gap with suicide attacks is a tactic that only the Russian mothers love. Russian generals pretend to have an unlimited supply of men and materiel. They did during WWII when Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania supplied the men, and USA supplied materiel. Today they don’t.

  7. When I was a range instructor in my youth, I used bolt action rifles to teach the kids how to shoot.

    Not what I would want for going out after folks with assault rifles and such.

    I think an awful lot of these relics are going to be found abandoned on the battlefields because the owner is dead or fled.

    • Many snipers use bold action rifles. Spray and pray isn’t a viable aiming strategy.

      Also many of my posts on this thread never showed up.

      • And the M1891 was used as a sniper rifle during WWII, so it’s known that it can be shot accurately at long range. But the reports indicate it’s being issued in lieu of assault rifles, so sucks to be Russian infantry. What will they bring back next the ‘cult of the bayonet’?

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