The Mystery of the Molot Mosins (Part 1)

Statue of Lenin at the entrance to "The Hammer" [Source]

 

It's early in the morning when a non-descript box truck rumbles it's way off the factory grounds and onto Lenin Street in Vyatskiye Polyany. Pausing briefly in front of a well worn statue of the man himself, the driver coolly lights a cigarette while glancing at the edifice of “The Hammer” before continuing on his way. As the truck bounces down the dusty road to ports unknown, its cargo shifts and jostles in the back, straining against its cardboard confines as it prepares to take a journey halfway around the globe.

View of Vyatskiye Polyany looking toward the Vyatka River [Source]

 

“The Hammer” is the new name applied to the old Vyatskiye Polyany Machine Building Plant located at 135 Lenin St. in Vyatskiye Polyany. Nestled along the swampy banks of the Vyatka River, Vyatskiye Polyany is a small town of approximately 35,000 on the southern tip of the Kirov Oblast in the Russian Federation. Like U.S. Steel was to Pittsburgh, so too is "The Hammer" to Vyatskiye Polyany. The single industrial enterprise in town, the plant was one of the many arms production facilities in the sprawling Soviet Defense Industry, perhaps best known for its production of the PPSh-41 submachine gun, Stechkin APS automatic pistol, and the RPK light machine gun.

 Logo of the Molot Joint Stock Company [Source]

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Vyatskiye Polyany plant was finally freed from state control and moved quickly toward privatization by reorganizing itself into The Molot (literally translated as “The Hammer”) Joint Stock Company in 1992. However, the impetus for this managerial reform also opened the way to financial trouble. Massive reductions in defense spending and the elimination of government contracts meant that the newly formed Molot company needed to find other streams of income, or face insolvency. Molot, who had previously been responsible for approximately 10% of all Russian small arms production, turned to the production of small arms for the civilian market to fill the gap left behind from lost government contracts.

[Own work]

 

As old borders were redrawn, new international markets and opportunities began to present themselves to the beleaguered Russian arms industry. In the years proceeding 1991, arms makers like Izhmash and Molot began to find new friends in the most unlikely of places. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States, one of the world's biggest consumers of personal firearms, became an unlikely marketplace for millions of orphaned Russian small arms and scores of ammunition and accessories.

A delegation from the Molot JSC attends SHOT Show 2014 in Las Vegas, NV [Source]

While arms sales may have been lagging in Russia, the business in the United States was booming. Molot's first foray into the morass of the American consumer market was with its “VEPR” line of RPK derivative sporting rifles in 1994. However, despite the popularity of their products in America, Molot's waining fortunes back home caused them to become insolvent in 2010, necessitating a restructuring of the company. In the proceeding years, though, Molot appears to have recovered well enough to expand their product line and create an American subsidiary, Molot USA, which operates as an 08 FFL to handle the direct importation and sales of their products in the United States.

Molot VEPR-308 in standard configuration with a 20.5" barrel and front sight frame base [Source]

Their product line, at least the one offered here in the United States, expanded predictably. Their flagship product, the VEPR rifle, began appearing on store shelves in a variety of calibers and stock styles, even expanding so far as to include offerings in popular western calibers like .223 Remington and .308 Winchester. In addition to their line of rifles, Molot also offers an autoloading 12 gauge shotgun, the VEPR-12, and a semi-auto RPK-201 clone known as the VEPR-1V.

RPK-201 clone "VEPR-1V" [Source]

However, here's where things get interesting. Remember our fictional box truck, bouncing down the dusty roads of Vyatskiye Polyany to some unknown port? Its cargo is not VEPR rifles, but actually surplus Mosin-Nagants. While the Iron Curtain may have dissolved to rust, much of the history and details of small arms production in Russia still remains shrouded in mystery. Among the things we do know, though, is that the Molot plant never once produced any Mosin-Nagant rifles or carbines. So how then did Molot become one of Russia's main exporters of Mosin rifles, and (more importantly) what does this mean for the American collector?
 

[Own work]

Reports of “Molot Mosins” began surfacing on-line in the summer of 2012, with collectors puzzling over the freshly applied markings etched onto the receivers, barrels, and bolts of these guns. Provenance, in some cases, was quickly determined simply by looking at the packaging.

 

"Retail" style packaging for Molot rifles [Own work]

In the absence of the retail style packaging, more versed collectors immediately recognized the miniature Molot logos etched onto the rifles in various places. In some cases, the name “Vyatskiye Polyany” was etched right onto the receiver, leaving no doubt as to the rifle's origins.

Etched "Molot" trademark along with a Klimovsk C.I.P. proof marking and the year [Own work]

Etched origin marking showing "Vyatskie [sic] Polyany Russia" [Own work]

Characteristically, the “Molot Mosins” appear to be identical to those brought into the country through the Ukraine by importers like CAI and PW Arms. However, many collectors have called into question the authenticity of these rifles, concerned about possible modification work being performed by Molot before they export. Of principle concern to collectors are the offerings seen on their commercial sales page, which features the KO line of “hunting carbines.” These rifles are reportedly “based on the Mosin rifle” and feature cut down stocks (in a similar pattern to a M1907 carbine), new chrome lined barrels, and turned down bolts. Some models, such as the KO-91/30M (the "M" likely stands for "Modernizirovanniy" or "Modernized"), feature a Vepr style side rail mounted to the receiver for optics and accessories.

Google Translated screencap of the Russian Molot consumer catalog showing a "KO-91/30 hunting carbine" [Source]

While Molot has been less than forthcoming with information about these rifles, many collectors speculate that these “KO” model Mosins are nothing more than surplus rifles which are being sporterized by Molot. These speculations have cast a long shadow of doubt upon the "Molot Mosin," with some collectors swearing them off completely.

Unfortunately, the collecting community simply does not have enough data at current to have a full understanding of the Molot Mosins. As a lone collector splashing around in the shallow end of the collecting pool, there is no conceivable way for me to craft a comprehensive overview of the Molot Mosins. However, what I can do is share with you findings from my own collection in the hopes of improving the knowledge base for the entire collecting community.

This will be an ongoing effort documented through a series of articles published on this blog. In the next article in this series, we will be examining two Molot exports side by side, one a '32 Izhevsk and the other a '42 Tula. Stay tuned...

Selected References:

Chivers, C.J. The Gun. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.

Iannamico, Frank. AK-47: The Grim Reaper (Second Edition). Henderson, NV: Chipotle Publishing, 2012.

Lapin, Terence W. The Mosin-Nagant Rifle (Sixth Edition). Tustin, CA: North Cape Publications, 2013.

Snodgrass, Brent. The Russian-Soviet Mosin Nagant Rifles/Carbines General Production Information and Numbers. http://mosinnagant.net/USSR/RussianSovietMosinNagantNumbers.asp (accessed March 2, 2014).

Wrobel, Karl-Heinz. The Last Dragoon Rifle. http://mosinnagant.net/USSR/Soviet-M9130.asp (accessed March 2, 2014).