[russian officer]"Ees gun! Ees not safe!"[/russian officer]
The Soviets were having a hell of a time with Hitler when they realized their 91/30s were too long for the close range fighting they were doing, and started chopping them down into m38s, then m44s. My Browning Buckmark came with ELEVEN pieces of paper or booklets detailing everything from what finger to use to pull the trigger to how not to shoot other people in the face. The Soviets did not have that luxury. As soon as their communist slave labor spat one of these rough-and-tumble rifles off the assembly line, it was tossed into a bin which, when full, would be lifted into a railroad car, and sped off to the Western front. Safety manuals were not something for which they had the time or need.
"Manual? Why need manual? You put boolets in one end, pull trigger, and they come out other end! When we charge, you extend bayonet. Is simple as dying for glorious motherland."
Military surplus firearms are also time capsules of sorts. Finding out how a firearm was developed, and what was important at the time gives you a glimpse into the frame of mind that constructed them. What was their primary concern? What was their goal? What was important to them? What was UNimportant to them?
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