USSR: Red Army Cavalry 1938 Model ‘Carbine’ (17.5.2022) 

The concept of the ‘carbine’ may well have originated during the late 1500s in France and referred to the weapon these ‘Light’ Cavalrymen used to carry. In this instance, this may well have been a ‘slang’ term used in the French language which referred to mounted archers from Flanders who were considered deadly shots and sure bringers of ‘death’! (The association is unclear but may refer to an assumed connection between the ‘carrion beetle’ and the ‘plague’, etc). Whatever the origin, a ‘carbine’ appears to refer to a ‘short’ and highly effective weapon carried when sat in the saddle and used when riding the horse whether into or out of battle. The 1938 ‘Carbine’ Model measured just 1020 mm (or 3.4 feet) long (minus a bayonet) – and fired a round measuring 7.62 mm! The ‘Carbine’ Model 1938 was sighted to fire up to 1000 meters! The Izhevsk Machine-Manufacturing Plant was the only place equipped for producing this ‘Carbine’ between 1941-1942 – during the height of the ‘Great Patriotic war’ – when the workers of this factory produced over 1,106,510 which were sent immediately for frontline service! 

USSR: Red Army Cavalry Swords! (12.5.2022) 

It is remarkable to consider that although the Red Army Cavalry were issued were ‘Carbines’ in 1941, this was not before massed men on horses had launched traditional Cavalry charges against the Nazi German Army as it moved into the USSR from June 22nd onwards, in 1941! Indeed, the 6th and 36th Divisions of Red Army Cavalry were literally ‘wiped-out’ as every man and horse was lost when they ‘charged’ at advancing Nazi Germany tanks in West Ukraine at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)!

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