Wanted: Stories of Soviet Weapons Confiscation and Disposition

Gun Watch ^ | 17 June, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The old Soviet Union did not generally destroy the weapons that it confiscated from people.   The Soviets understood value, and did not wantonly destroy valuable property for no reason.   They confiscated much property and sold it for state purposes, used it in defense of the state, or redistributed it to "reliable" Party members and officials.

I am looking for sources to validate how the Soviets distributed the weapons that they confiscated.   I know that even old obsolete revolvers made for the Czar were refurbished in state armories.   I own one.

Any sources for stories about Soviet officials using confiscated guns, or selling them surplus to obtain money to build their enterprises, or sending them off to support revolutionaries in other countries, would be appreciated.

I would love to hear from people who have family oral history from the Soviet Union to tell.

 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

In a way, the Soviets were thrifty with resources. The lessons of WWI, the revolution, and WWII were burned into their brain. In those times, they were often short of weapons.

[elcid1970]

This 1919 Bolshevik poster comes to us courtesy of peoplescube.com & depicts every kind of weapon being surrendered by the trusting masses.

It says, “Citizens! Turn in (your) weapons!”

The Soviet terror state with its midnight arrests, executions, massacres & labor camps for those who survived REALLY got under way after the citizenry had been totally disarmed.

[Chainmail]

Whole bunches of captured German weaponry and every sort of Eastern Bloc weapon made it to Vietnam - and other "national liberation wars" around the world from Angola to Nicaragua and so on.

As a side story, I was responsible for numerous facilities in Okinawa in 1977-8 and that included two Marine Corps Quonset huts on Kadena Air Force Base. When we opened those two buildings we found that they were packed to ceilings with hundreds of confiscated weapons taken from some our more adventurous Leathernecks returning from Vietnam. It certainly included every kind of AK known to mankind plus every kind of ComBloc machinegun and mortars, recoilless rifles, etc. but there was also a fully engraved Remington Rolling Block in 11mm, a minty French Chatellerault machinegun, MAT-49s, a gorgeous Charleville 1776 flint musket, and a rusty Luger pistol with the Japanese Chrysanthemum on the breech.

We submitted a list of our finds to HQMC and never heard what happened to them after that.

[SeeSharp]

Putin’s ODOM security force distributed weapons to Dagestani civilians when Chechens rebels were raiding across the border. When the crisis was over they called for the weapons to be turned in and got back a total of four rifles.

[njslim]

In Iraq our troops were capturing thousands of ex German MP 44 “Sturmgewehr” assault rifles captured at end of WWII !

Remember back in 1983 after Reagan cleaned out Grenada -
at Andrews Air Force Base were thousands of Com Bloc weapons

Among them AK 47 and SKS , along with lot of older weapons
- Czech Mod 52 semi auto rifles, Model 23 and 25 submachine guns, Moisin Nagan type 44 bolt action rifles

Russian never threw anything away on theory if still could shoot someone could use it