Russo-Turkish War of Liberation 1877-1878

Chapter Three - Small arms of the warring states

Russia

As mentioned earlier, at the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s of the 19 th century, the Russian weaponry had reached the level of most advanced European models, while the Berdana 2 model had even surpassed their quality. Thus Russia was in a better position when compared with its preparation for the 1828-1829 actions as well as for the Crimean War. As of January 1, 1877, the Russian army had at its disposal 613,283 rifles and carbines Krnka, 332,902 Berdana 1 and Berdana 2, 150,868 rifles and carbines Karle, and 9,872 Baranov for the navy. There were also some percussion arms.1

Russia started the war at a time, when its army was in a process of rearmament. Only 16 out of 47 divisions were armed with Berdana 2 but they did not take part at the beginning of the war. In general, when crossing the river Danube the Russian infantry squadrons were armed with Krnka rifles, which were the main small arms used in the war. The troops on the Caucasian front were amed with an earlier Karle model. Due to their more specific functions, some of the Cossack units fought with percussion rifles Taner. The main revolver of the Russian army was Smith & Wesson of American production.2

"Krnka"

"Baranov"

"Berdana"

"Karle"

Revolver "Smith&Wesson"

Notes:

1. Nurkov I, op.cit., pp. 136
2. Ibid. , pp. 137