Russia has a history of making robust small arms, but historically they’ve lagged behind. Outside of a brief period during the Cold War, the Russian small arms industry has never been revolutionary. This led to the adoption in Russia of numerous foreign arms, especially in pre-Soviet times. Believe it or not, there was a time when Russian soldiers were armed with something more akin to a cowboy gun than an eastern European blaster.
Today we are looking at four times throughout history when the Russian military packed cowboy guns.
1) Colt 1851 Clones
Percussion cap revolvers changed the game and made the single-shot musket obsolete. In the mid-1800s, the Russian military was severely lagging behind the militaries of Western Europe and was still fielding the flintlock, a single-shot pistol. Russian soldiers greatly disliked these pistols and would often prefer to leave them on their saddles.
