Rem-UMC Rifle Works Warehouse, Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1916.
Remington-made Mosin Nagant rifles ready for shipment.
Remington received their largest single order for military rifles during World War I from Russia on November 3, 1916. The contract called for the delivery of one million Mosin-Nagant military rifles and bayonets, at a cost of $30 each.
Remington-made Mosin Nagant military rifles are 5-shot, bolt-action weapons which were nearly-identical to their Russian-made counterparts. Rem-UMC was given an initial down payment of $7,500,000 from Russia which was used to purchase machinery and raw materials. Manufacturing commenced in Rem-UMC's Bridgeport facility soon after. Hundreds of thousands of rifles were fabricated in 1916, and into 1917. Simple arithmetic indicates that if this order were completed, it would mean $30,000,000 to Remington, but this would never come to pass.
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However, in February 1917, Czar Nicholas II was overthrown, and the Provisional Kerensky Government took over. Despite the turn of events, Remington continued to fabricate Russian rifles. As late as November 1917, Rem-UMC's Bridgeport facility was producing between 4,000 and 4,200 Russian rifles per day, which is an astounding 100,000 rifles per month. Concurrently, the plant was also manufacturing 10,000 Russian and British bayonets per day.
Of the 750,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles manufactured by Remington, only 469,951 had been delivered to Russia by February 1917. Facing a horrific economic loss after Russia defaulted on the balance of the weapons, Rem-UMC was relieved when the U.S. Government purchased most of the remaining, completed rifles. Many were used for military training purposes, and some were used to arm the A.E.F. troops which were dispatched to Murmansk, Archangel and Vladivostok in 1918 and 1919.
(Remington Archives Photo Collection)
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