BLOOM This began in those distant times, when in the place where the country with the sonorous name of Russia is now located, there was a completely different state, although many residents of that former state are still alive today, but not only in another state, but also under a different system . This was when there was a popular figure of speech: - Where did you get it? - Got it. Mikhei Ivlich and Sindiy Spiridonovich - Pichugin and Malyugin, respectively, after a shift at the metallurgical plant, drank in the public canteen of the city food trade in the corner of Sovetsky Prospekt. The peasants had already drunk the first glass and a leisurely conversation began between them. “Zhinka is very happy with me for my ability to get everything that is needed on the farm,” Mikhei Ivlich, a stocky, broad-shouldered, somehow well-tailored forty-year-old man, told his friend with a chuckle in his voice. - It’s understandable, you’re in a hardware shop. There's even a nail, even a screw - everything on the farm is just as good. If you worked in consumer goods on enamel dishes, your wife would put you in the red corner and pray to God for you. And I work on the blooming; what can we get? Is it bloom? So it weighs more than three tons and is about six meters long! Who needs it? - Sindy Spiridonovich got excited, all dry and skinny, like the immortal Koschei. Tall, not exactly an old man, but it was somehow indecent to call him a peasant. - Bloom, you say this is interesting. Heavy? Six meters, you say? How wide is it? How thick? - It is the same in width and thickness, which means it will be a little less than half a meter. - And perhaps a good bridge over the ravine in our gardens will turn out. Be smart! We'll find a use for your bloom. Try to get it. It will be the work of the Century! - Micah Ivlich was delighted. The workers finished the half-liter they had brought with them, said goodbye and went home. At that time, of course, they drank, but they knew when to stop. The next day, during lunch break, in the factory canteen, Sindiy Spiridonovich met his younger son-in-law Alyosha and recounted to him yesterday’s conversation with Mikhei Ivlich. - Well, it’s a good thing, every time we go to the garden with Mashenka and the child, we struggle through this damned ravine. It’s okay to go light, otherwise the bags are full of vegetables and everything will go through this ravine. A bridge would be very useful there. I think where the tracks pass through Steel Rollers Street at the entrance to the steel rolling plant, if you stop the turntable with blooms for a short time, then one bloom can be quickly overloaded. The turntable always goes there so as not to cut the arrow when it is necessary to send a train to the eighth dead end. All you need is a long dismantling with fiskars, which is used to load lumber and round timber. Yes, I will arrange this. My classmate Kolya Molotkov works on such a machine. I think it will help,” Alyosha realized quite quickly. This is what youth and a fresh head mean! This conversation took place on Monday, and on Thursday the car with the fiskars very carefully placed the bloom, as they say, in previously prepared positions. On Friday, a flyer drove up to the makeshift bridge, pieces of an inch pipe and a welding machine were unloaded from it, and by the evening two young guys in canvas overalls built a neat railing on the bridge. And in the next issue of the city newspaper "Metallurg" there was an article where summer residents thanked the city administration for their care. It should be fairly noted that the city committee allocated fifty kilograms of paint and primer, and also sent a painter - pensioner Savely Osipovich, who very conscientiously painted the bridge. Someone asked the chairman of the gardening association: “Where did you get the bridge across the ravine, my friend?” “Where did you get it?” the chairman snapped in a standard manner, without thinking for a minute.
Many pages of Russian history are associated with this surname. Famous bearers of this surname devoted their lives to serving the Motherland, its army and defense industry, the country's hunting industry, and educating young people. I want to tell you, dear readers, about the dynasty of the arms and hunting family, a dynasty of patriots that left a bright mark in the memory of descendants and continues its educational and educational work.
One of the galaxy of Soviet gunsmith designers, ally of Degtyarev, Fedorov, Tokarev, Simonov, Shpagin and others, an excellent shooter and athlete, hunter MIKHAIL NIKOLAEVICH BLUM is the founder of this dynasty. The first story about him.
BLUM Mikhail Nikolaevich
Born in 1907 on June 26 in Vladivostok in the family of military doctor Nikolai Eduardovich Blum. His father was in the Far East during the Russian-Japanese War and for some time after it, and was the head of a military hospital in Nikolo-Ussuriysk. Mother, nee Vera Dmitrievna Ilyinovich, was a nurse in the same hospital during the war and was awarded the medal “For Bravery.” About three years later, she and little Mikhail moved to Kyiv to live with relatives.
Kiev is the first place where Mikhail Nikolaevich’s grandfather began his career in Russia (he was from Lower Saxony), in this city he had his own pharmacy business, and there he married a Ukrainian woman. Their son, Nikolai Eduardovich, graduated from Moscow University, received a medical education and was sent to the Arkhangelsk Infantry Regiment as a regimental doctor. Here he began his career, and then went through the entire chain of ranks in military service to the rank of general of the medical service. He died in 1918 in Kyiv. It was a troubled time of the German occupation. Since the family’s roots and friends gravitated more towards the Far East, Vera Dmitrievna and two children began to make their way across all of Russia to Vladivostok.
The further education and formation of Mikhail Nikolaevich took place in the Far East. There he graduated from high school. There were a lot of weapons at that time. Even as a child, living in Ukraine during the civil war and the German occupation, he began collecting all kinds of weapons at the risk of his life (they could be shot for possession). This hobby continued in the Far East. It was a hard time; I had to feed my family and help raise my younger brother. Mikhail Nikolaevich went to work as a laborer and loader. But his fascination with weapons continued. In 1927, he entered Vladivostok University and at the same time worked at OSOAVIAKHIM as a marksman instructor, then as head of the weapons workshop at the House of the Red Army, where he created the first weapons museum. While still a student, in 1928–1929 he was elected executive secretary and head of the Hunting Grounds of the Vladivostok Society of Hunters (now Primorsky Krai).
His first invention related to military weapons was a small-caliber self-loading rifle. He was noticed, and when in the early 1930s Mikhail Nikolaevich was drafted into the army and served in the Red Banner Far Eastern Army under the command of V.K. Blucher, he was first appointed head of the weapons workshops, and then sent to Moscow at the disposal of the Main Artillery Directorate.
At this time, he began to be closely involved in the development of weapons, both combat and sports. He developed and used for quite a long time in competitions a sports single-shot small-caliber pistol. As a development of the rifle he had previously developed, he created a small-caliber machine gun in 1934, which was adopted for service. The originality of the design of this weapon was that it did not have the cartridges extracted outside (the spent cartridges were returned to the magazine). This machine gun was designed to reduce the training time for young soldiers to shoot. Such machine guns were also installed on training tanks, aircraft, air defense installations, etc. at a significantly lower cost of ammunition and a reduced training shooting distance.
Mikhail Nikolaevich worked at the arms factory in Kovrov together with Degtyarev and Fedorov and developed anti-aircraft, aviation, artillery systems, as well as light machine guns. One of the developments, the so-called spinner - a drum machine gun with a high rate of fire (about 6000 rounds per minute) passed state tests and was accepted by a commission chaired by Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky, who awarded Mikhail Nikolaevich a motorcycle for this development. Then, in the light of well-known events, all this had dire consequences: Tukhachevsky was declared an enemy of the people and shot. Military developments under his leadership were declared sabotage, and employees were fired or repressed. Mikhail Nikolaevich was fired from the Kovrov plant and banned from developing combat systems. He went to Moscow and began working again as a shooting instructor.
During the war, as an employee of the OKB M.N. Blum worked on artillery systems, and since 1947, in parallel with closed topics, he began to work on hunting weapons and ammunition. In Russia there were no domestic hunting cartridges for rifled weapons, except for the Kochetov cartridge (developed in the 40s), 8.2 mm caliber, which could not seriously be called hunting. It was a very large cartridge (the case is 66 mm long, and the bullet is light - 9.7 g), a bullet without a jacket, a charge of black powder, an initial speed of 420 m/s. There have been many tragedies when using this cartridge in practical hunts for large game. Therefore, the idea that Russia needs its own hunting cartridges for rifled hunting weapons for commercial shooting of large animals was constantly present to Mikhail Nikolaevich, and in the 1950s he began developing a complex of these cartridges.
In 1955, at the Exhibition in Moscow, cartridges were presented: 5.6 x 39 and 9 x 53. It must be said that at all times large funds were not allocated for the hunting industry, so the economic factor came first. It was necessary to develop cartridges at minimal cost. Therefore, it was decided to use the components of live ammunition (cases, capsules and powder), but change the calibers. The law prohibited the use of military rifled weapons while hunting. Therefore, on the basis of the Mosin cartridge case, a hunting cartridge 9x53 (now 54) was developed, and on the basis of a cartridge of the 1943 model - 5.6x39, then it was called a cartridge with a high muzzle velocity. These cartridges quickly became popular and at the same time hunting weapon systems began to be developed for them.
Previously, to test cartridges in real hunting conditions, re-barrel SKS carbines were used (for testing 5.6x39 cartridges), and to test the 9x53 cartridge based on the Mosin rifle, the KO-9 carbine was used. Two years later (in 1957), at the same exhibition, a set of cartridges for hunting was presented: 5.6 mm caliber based on cartridges from a revolver - 5.6x38, the 5.6x39 cartridge, which had already been put into production, and a high-speed cartridge like the American Swift on based on a 53 mm cartridge case (Mosin rifle) of 5.6 mm caliber with an initial bullet speed of 1200 m/sec, as well as several experimental batches of 6.5 mm cartridges based on the Nagan cartridge case and on the basis of the Mosin rifle cartridge case. But the 6.5x53 cartridge did not work as a hunting option and was later used only as a sports cartridge in the “Running Deer” exercise.
In addition, in the large-caliber niche, a 9x66 caliber cartridge was developed based on the 8.2 mm cartridge case (66 mm case). At that time, it was not possible to increase the power of a cartridge with a 53 mm sleeve by simply increasing the amount of gunpowder due to the lack of powerful powders, so it was decided to use a 66 mm sleeve. Initially, the same cartridge case was used in the English powerful Jeffrey cartridge. Mikhail Nikolaevich used an already produced 66 mm cartridge case chambered for a 9 mm caliber cartridge. Again, due to the lack of the necessary gunpowder, to avoid high pressure, a bullet weighing 13 g was used. This bullet accelerated to a speed of 840 m/s. The cartridge had more power and in the future was to be produced with bullets up to 17.5 grams. But this cartridge (9x66) was produced only for one year (during 1962). The B-9 carbine (working name) was developed and manufactured for it at TsNIITOCHMASH. It showed good results, but, unfortunately, our industry stopped at the production of cartridges and carbines of 5.6x39 and 9.3x54 calibers.
In the 1950s and 1960s, when there was an acute issue in the country of supplying hunters with weapons that would allow them to shoot animals at distances further than 50–60 meters, Mikhail Nikolaevich developed a shotgun with a 32-caliber paradox drill and a cartridge for it with sufficient heavy bullet (about 30 g). It showed good results in terms of accuracy and lethality: When shooting at 100 meters, the spread was 7 cm. Only about 25 copies were produced at TsNIITOCHMASH.
In recent years, Mikhail Nikolaevich has been improving and developing new systems for hunting weapons and cartridges. He was awarded many medals, diplomas and certificates of honor. Since 1950, a permanent expert on hunting and hunting weapons and ammunition at the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements, member of the VDNKh Council committee, member of the scientific and technical council on hunting weapons of the Main Nature Protection Department of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture and the USSR Ministry of Defense Industry. Awards M.N. Blum were transferred to the Military History Museum of St. Petersburg. Mikhail Nikolaevich died on May 21, 1970.
This was a story about him as a designer. But Mikhail Nikolaevich did not ignore such a wonderful hobby as hunting. It cannot be said that he was a very passionate hunter, perhaps in his youth, in Primorye, when he hunted a tiger and a bear. He hunted especially actively until 1965. He loved duck hunting and had a wonderful 1901 Browning for it. Most often I went hunting with my sons to the Zabolotsk hunting estate of the SBI. He was an excellent shooter, he shot not only from rifled weapons, but also from smooth-bore weapons.
A man who devoted his entire life to weapons and had a huge collection of weapons could not shoot poorly. His friend, world champion in bullet shooting Ilya Konstantinovich Andreev, head coach of the USSR national team in the 50s, competed with him in hunting shooting, always lost and, jokingly, said about this: “It’s good that you didn’t go into sports , otherwise I wouldn’t have become world champion!”
Separately, I would like to say about Mikhail Nikolaevich’s wife, Antonina Nikolaevna (Sokolova), born in 1908. She was born in the city of Tomsk in the family of a gymnasium teacher, Sokolov. Her mother was born Erliksova. According to family legend, at the beginning of the 15th century, the Scottish nobleman Erlix, together with M.Yu. Lermontov’s ancestor, Mr. Lermont, came to Russia and entered military service with the Russian sovereign. For participation in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, they were granted estates in Russia: Lermont - in the Penza province, and Erliks - near Vladimir, in the Gusya-Khrustalny region. The village of Erliksovo still exists (now practically abandoned, but beginning to rise thanks to the efforts of the Vladimir Patriarchate), where there is a wonderful temple built by Antonina Nikolaevna’s ancestors. This temple has a bell tower 68 meters high, and occupies an area larger than the area of the Yelokhovsky Cathedral in Moscow. It was a fairly well-known noble family. When seven children were orphaned, according to the Highest Order they were assigned to be raised: boys in cadet corps, and girls in Smolny Institute. The elder sister, Anna Nikolaevna, graduated from the university and worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in Vladivostok. She took Antonina to her after the closure of the Smolny Institute after the revolution. There Antonina Nikolaevna entered the University at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, where she met Mikhail Nikolaevich Blum.
In 1933, their son Mikhail was born in Kolomna. Mikhail Nikolaevich was sent at this time to a cartridge factory, where a cartridge was being developed for the famous ShKAS aircraft machine gun designed by Shpetalny. In 1937, a second son, Alexey, was born in Kovrov.
Children grew up surrounded by weapons, which could not but affect their future fate. From childhood, their father taught them to shoot well, instilled in them a love of weapons and hunting. Mikhail Nikolaevich taught his sons shooting: from the age of five - with an air rifle, from the age of seven or eight - shooting with a single-shot small-caliber rifle, then with a twelve-shot small-caliber self-loading carbine. From a carbine, their father taught them to shoot at cans thrown up, to which strings were tied for convenience. The children had to hit the can twice while it was flying through the air, otherwise it was considered a miss. When the sons grew up, they began to train in shooting ranges, at shooting ranges and sports shooting ranges. During training, Mikhail Nikolaevich held a stopwatch in his hand, which he turned on before one of his sons had to put the butt into his shoulder. It was necessary to throw the carbine to the shoulder, aim and shoot in two seconds, otherwise the result was not counted. And the bullet had to be sent 100 meters into a target with a diameter of no more than 30 cm.
The brothers especially enjoyed training in firing bursts in complete darkness from an assault rifle designed by their father (made on the basis of the aforementioned small-caliber machine gun). It had a 39-round disc magazine. Mikhail Nikolaevich got behind the wheel of the car and turned on the headlights for a moment, illuminating a sheet of writing paper. The guys had to fire the entire burst from a machine gun into this sheet from a distance of 25 meters in complete darkness, without seeing either the front sight or the target. Moreover, the throwing of the weapon to the shoulder took place in complete darkness, so they could not take aim in advance.
How the further fate of the two brothers turned out, you will learn from the following publications.
To be continued.
Alexander SOLOVIEV (based on materials kindly provided by M.M. and A.M. Blyum) August 4, 2004 at 00:00
Hunting is the oldest human activity. She gave primitive people everything necessary for existence - food, clothing, bed, shelter. Its contribution to the formation of culture - language, arts, legends, beliefs - is also great. From the depths of time, rock paintings have come down to us, which mainly depict hunting scenes.
Hunting was extremely important for Ancient Rus'. This can be judged at least by the fact that furs and skins of wild animals have served as payment values for centuries, were the main subject of tribute and trade, the best gift to royalty, dowry in the most high-born marriages, a sure way of establishing diplomatic ties, peaceful resolution of interstate conflicts . They collected taxes, rewarded people, and paid for work. From here, apparently, came the common name for furs, which has survived to this day - “soft gold” as an exchange and commodity equivalent to precious metal.
Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Suzdal, Tver, the Moscow Principality, and other cities and lands conducted a lively trade in furs with the cities of Western Europe. And, I must say, “fur junk”, Russian “rukhlo” was famous all over the world.
In the Moscow state, hunting is becoming not only one of the main sectors of the economy, but also a leisure activity for rich people. In the 16th and 17th centuries, falconry reached its greatest flourishing, which was mainly practiced by the royal court, boyars, and service people close to them. Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, even a special falconry department arose - the Falconer's Path, which employed up to a hundred falconers. At the same time, the first hunting manual in Russia was created - “The Officer of the Falconer's Way”, written, according to historians, by the tsar himself. Perhaps, it is in “The Constable” that hunting is first spoken of as a wonderful pastime, wonderful leisure time, wonderful rest: “This great fun of the field consoles sad hearts and amuses with joyful joy, and this bird’s prey amuses the hunters... The flight of a high falcon is joyful with the red watcher... Be willing, have fun, be comforted by this good fun: it is very amusing, and pleasing, and fun, so that all sorts of grief and sorrows do not overcome you!”
The importance of hunting for the Russian state in a more recent era is evidenced by the following fact: in 1740, the population of the Irkutsk province was allowed to plow (engage in farming) if families did not abandon hunting. In order to preserve the habitats of the sable, cutting down forests where this valuable fur-bearing animal lives was prohibited.
At the beginning of the 20th century, due to predatory, almost unlimited fishing, the stocks of many species of game animals decreased sharply. By 1917, the sable and river beaver were on the verge of extinction, and marten, otter, and elk became rare in many areas.
Immediately after the October Revolution, the government of the country took steps aimed at developing the hunting industry. In May 1918 and July 1920, the first decrees on hunting were signed, which established the universal right to hunt, and measures were taken to preserve and increase the number of valuable animals and birds. Nature reserves and sanctuaries are being organized where rare species of game fauna are protected by humans. Since the late 20s, the implementation of a broad program for the re-acclimatization and acclimatization of wild animals (sable, muskrat, river beaver, etc.) began. As a result of these works, the number of sable in Russia was restored, and 10 years later permission was granted for its regulated production. Already in the early 40s, the leading place in fur harvesting was occupied by the muskrat, previously imported from North America, and about two decades later, the harvest of river beaver began.
The importance of hunting and game management in the country’s economy and in the social sphere is quite great today. Thus, in a number of areas, hunting for many people serves as a means of primary or additional income, and for residents of some areas (for example, the Far North) it remains the main, vital activity. In general, throughout the CIS, fur-bearing animal skins worth over 70 million rubles are purchased annually, up to 17 thousand tons of wild animal meat (elk, deer, roe deer, wild boar, saigas, bears), half a million pieces, are sold to trade and procurement organizations and public catering networks. feathered game. In addition, a very large amount of harvested meat goes to the personal consumption of hunters and members of their families.
But, playing a certain material role in the life of society, hunting today, in the age of urbanization, accelerated development of production and urban growth, turns out to be an extremely important factor in improving the health of the population, provides rich opportunities for active recreation and restoration of human strength, and becomes an inexhaustible source of vigor and spirituality. balance, gives people the incomparable joy of communicating with nature.
Perhaps the Soviet writer Efim Permitin said the best about this meaning of hunting: “Hunting is a fabulous living water that restores youth to a person, sharpens the joy of life, completely absorbs all hardships and sorrows... Forgetting about everything in the world, the hunter does not think about any difficulties, and sometimes in danger - he acts like a man possessed. This “forgetting about everything in the world” provides that active healing rest that a person needs after hard work, worries and worries of city life.”
The variety of types of hunting in our vast country allows everyone to choose exactly what they prefer, as they say, to their liking and liking. For many, hunting has become a true healer, an excellent way to maintain health, prolong active longevity, improve their physical fitness, and for young people it serves as an excellent sports school. Let's say, anyone who has hunted fox with flags knows how much sweat you have to shed skiing through loose snow before you stand up for shooting. It happens that you spend a lot of effort to get to the treasured wood grouse current in the spring thaw: your feet get stuck in the muddy snow, as if in clay, and the notorious “straight” will make you curse more than once when you ford wild forest streams and hollows. Is it really easy to find a wild boar that has been shot in the wrong place, rushing kilometer after kilometer through forest slums and as if deliberately crossing all the ravines encountered along the way in the most inconvenient conditions? What about shooting ducks from the entrance of a boat, when you are struggling on a pole through reed supports, rafts and muddy shallows?
The uninitiated will probably never understand why our brother-hunter voluntarily dooms himself to the pangs of hunger, cold or sweltering heat. Most city dwellers, accustomed to the benefits of civilization and the rigid, minutely calculated regulations of life, find it difficult to believe that this voluntary refusal of comfort is done for the sake of understanding the world of Nature, those hidden corners of it, where instead of a smoking industrial landscape one can see what is left on a duckweed-covered surface. water along a dark path, the mustachioed muzzle of a muskrat, trotting along the edge of the forest, dragging its fluffy tail and sniffing, a fox, a disturbed bear rearing up in the middle of the yellow oats, and instead of the roar of electric trains, trams and cars, hear the roll call of cranes before sunrise...
After the fleeting days of the season, the hunter, having put away his gun and hunting accessories, will for a long time remember spending the night in the meadows near a haystack, the smell of smoke and cheerful sparks of a hunting fire, the rustling whistle of wings and the dark silhouettes of pintails suddenly emerging from the morning fog, the loud splash of ducks breaking the mirror water after a successful double. And the owner of the hounds will more than once see pictures of an autumn forest with a motley carpet of fallen leaves that have not yet had time to fade, islands of young fir trees brightly green against the background of birches, and a crimson Russian hound flashing excitedly among them. And again you will imagine how the white hare will jump out almost from under your feet, how the hound will roar “with sight,” and the hare, flashing its white “pants,” will disappear into the little things near the burnt swamp. How the rut will circle for a long time among the palisade of aspen trees, inversions, swamp hummocks, until finally the hare rolls out onto the pine mane, where after the shot it will somersault and stretch out in the green lingonberry...
Blum Mikhail Nikolaevich- born in 1907 on June 26 in Vladivostok in the family of military doctor Nikolai Eduardovich Blum. His father was in the Far East during the Russian-Japanese War and for some time after it, and was the head of a military hospital in Nikolsk (later Nikolsk-Ussuriysky). Mother, nee Vera Dmitrievna Ilyinovich, was a nurse in the same hospital during the war and was awarded the medal “For Bravery.” About three years later, she and little Mikhail moved to Kyiv to live with relatives.
Kiev is the first place where Mikhail Nikolaevich’s grandfather began his career in Russia (he was from Lower Saxony), in this city he had his own pharmacy business, and there he married a Ukrainian woman. Their son, Nikolai Eduardovich, graduated from Moscow University, received a medical education and was sent to the Arkhangelsk Infantry Regiment as a regimental doctor. Here he began his career, and then went through the entire chain of ranks in military service to the rank of general of the medical service. He died in 1918 in Kyiv. It was a troubled time of the German occupation. Since the family’s roots and friends gravitated more towards the Far East, Vera Dmitrievna and two children began to make their way across all of Russia to Vladivostok.
The further education and formation of Mikhail Nikolaevich took place in the Far East. There he graduated from high school. There were a lot of weapons at that time. Even as a child, living in Ukraine during the civil war and the German occupation, he began collecting all kinds of weapons at the risk of his life (they could have been shot for possession). This hobby continued in the Far East. It was a hard time; I had to feed my family and help raise my younger brother. Mikhail Nikolaevich went to work as a laborer and loader. But his fascination with weapons continued. In 1927, he entered Vladivostok University and at the same time worked at OSOAVIAKHIM as a marksman instructor, then as head of the weapons workshop at the House of the Red Army, where he created the first weapons museum. While still a student, in 1928–1929 he was elected executive secretary and head of the Hunting Grounds of the Vladivostok Society of Hunters (now Primorsky Krai).
His first invention related to military weapons was a small-caliber self-loading rifle. He was noticed, and when in November 1929 Mikhail Nikolaevich was drafted into the army and served in units of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army under the command of V.K. Blucher, he was first appointed head of the weapons workshops, but already in January 1930 he was sent to the disposal of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army to implement his inventions.
At this time, he began to be closely involved in the development of weapons, both combat and sports. He developed and used for quite a long time in competitions a sports single-shot small-caliber pistol. As a development of the rifle he had previously developed, he created a small-caliber machine gun, which was adopted for service. The originality of the design of this weapon was that it did not have the cartridges extracted outside (the spent cartridges were returned to the magazine). This machine gun was designed to reduce the training time for young soldiers to shoot. Such machine guns were also installed on training tanks, aircraft, air defense installations, etc. at a significantly lower cost of ammunition and a reduced training shooting distance.
Among the huge number of types of automatic weapons, the most striking are several unusual and original systems. They were not used in combat and were rarely mentioned on the pages of history, but for the history of weapons art they are of great value. One of the samples is a Blum machine gun.
.22LR (.22 Long Rifle) - small-caliber rimfire cartridge. This, one of the most common ammunition in the world, was created back in 1887. It is widely used in sports, training, and hunting weapons, but it is of little use for automatic weapons. The powder charge is too weak for automatic operation, the cartridge is not strong enough, the primer is the entire bottom of the cartridge case.
The problem of a special automatic model for training machine gun crews was then very relevant. Machine guns were considered the basis of infantry firepower, the “skeleton” of its battle formations. The increase in the number of Maxim heavy machine guns in the Red Army and the entry into service of the new Degtyarev DP light machine gun raised the question of high-quality training for a mass gunner. This could not be achieved without regularly shooting live ammunition at targets. But under the conditions of the economy regime, such a consumption of live ammunition was highly undesirable, especially since it also consumed the resource of military weapons, the reserves of which are still insufficient.
Small-caliber machine gun insert mounted inside the Maxim machine gun
1 - retarder pendulum; 2 - receiver; 3 - trunk; 4 - transmission lever of the trigger mechanism; 5 - shutter handle
It is no coincidence that one of the articles in the magazine “Military Bulletin” (1927) was called “Machine-gun mode of economy”, and the teacher of the “Shot” courses V.V. Glazatov in the same year wrote in the “Strelvovo-tactical collection” that widely resort to practical shooting machine gunners with live ammunition “is beyond the capabilities of not only our still economically weak country, but even economically rich bourgeois states.” On the other hand, not all units were able to create shooting ranges of appropriate sizes to ensure the necessary safety when firing from automatic weapons. The relatively cheap and low-power small-caliber cartridge was an excellent solution to these problems.
Easel (main) small-caliber machine gun, model 1930.
1- butt plate; 2 - receiver; 3 - shutter handle; 4 - trunk; 5 - transmission lever of the trigger mechanism; 6 - store; 7 - magazine latch; 8 - extractor.
At that time, small-caliber weapons chambered for 5.6 mm rimfire cartridges - original or converted from combat weapons (to better consolidate the skill) - were widely used for training personnel in many armies. Now, in addition to small-caliber pistols, revolvers and rifles, a small-caliber training machine gun has been added. But during its development, it was necessary to solve a number of problems in the operation of automation and power systems, taking into account the features of the rimfire cartridge (or, as they said then, “sidefire”), withstanding the weapon in small sizes.
The slight pressure created in the barrel bore when firing a 5.6 mm rimfire cartridge forced the choice of automatic action based on blowback recoil. The trigger mechanism of the training machine gun was operated by a recoil spring, and the shot was fired from the rear sear. Initially, it was planned to mount a small-caliber machine gun inside a Maxim machine gun for training shooting; the dimensions of the receiver and the length of the bolt stroke had to be reduced as much as possible. This gave rise to an excessively high rate of fire - up to 3000 rounds per minute, so it was necessary to introduce a rate slower, which reduced it to 450-800 rounds per minute. Again, to reduce the size, we limited ourselves to a magazine with a movable rack with a capacity of 25 rounds.
Easel small-caliber machine gun on a high mounting
However, after factory tests, the “liner machine gun” was abandoned in favor of a small machine gun mounted outside the Maxim. Accordingly, the size of the receiver increased, which made it possible to ensure a rate of fire of 600 rounds/min (similar to the rate of fire of the mounted Maxim) without a special retarder, which was excluded from the design.
Easel small-caliber machine gun on a low installation
The power system was solved in an original way. The training machine gun, mounted outside the combat one, made it possible to use a larger-capacity magazine and fire in long bursts.
Basic example of a small-caliber machine gun attached to a DP light machine gun
The drum magazine of the Blum machine gun included a cartridge disk mounted in a round box and driven by a spring. Along the circumference of the disk there were 40 isolated sockets into which cartridges were inserted (for safe handling, only 39 sockets were filled). After release, the bolt moved forward, picked up the cartridge from the socket located opposite the breech of the barrel, and sent the cartridge into the chamber. Two strikers, rigidly fixed in the front part of the bolt, struck the primer composition in the rim of the cartridge case, and a shot occurred. When the bolt moved back under the influence of recoil, the spent cartridge case was pulled out of the barrel and again took its place in the socket. After the bolt had moved a sufficient distance, the cartridge disk was rotated, placing a socket with the next cartridge opposite the barrel. If the trigger remained pressed, the shutter, under the action of its spring, moved forward again and the automation cycle was repeated.
Aviation small-caliber machine gun
Thanks to the shot "from the bolt rollout" and the long recoil length of the bolt, the operation of the machine gun's automatics was smooth - the bolt impacts in the front and rear positions were barely perceptible. “Direct” supply of the cartridge reduced the load on it and increased the reliability of the system. When mounting the machine gun on top of the Maxim machine gun, the drum magazine was located on the right.
Tank small-caliber machine gun in the ball mount
To train the first numbers of a DP light machine gun, a tank DT or an aircraft DA, the same Blum machine gun was used, which was given an external resemblance to the corresponding model by attaching certain parts. Thus, to train light machine gunners (“tar machine gunners,” as they were sometimes called to distinguish them from the “maximists,” that is, the crews of heavy machine guns), a wooden butt, a sight, a perforated barrel casing, and a bipod were attached to the machine gun. The drum store was located at the bottom of the weapon. When simulating a DT machine gun, a metal butt was attached; for a DA machine gun, the rear control handle was attached.
Of course, the small-caliber cartridge could not imitate the recoil actions of its rifle-machine-gun counterpart, but it made it possible to practice targeted shooting methods in a limited shooting range. The maximum bullet range of the Blum machine gun did not exceed 1000 m. For comparison: for the Maxim machine gun it was 5000 m, for the DP machine gun - 3800 m. The bullet of the 7.62 mm cartridge retains its lethal effect up to 2500 m, the lethal effect range the bullets of the 5.6 mm cartridge are more than an order of magnitude smaller.
Light machine gun
Training machine guns were produced, of course, in smaller quantities than combat ones. So, in 1933, Kovrov Tool Plant No. 2 (now the V.A. Degtyarev Plant) produced 33 Blum machine guns, in 1934 - 1150 pieces, in 1935 - 1515 pieces.
The Blum small-caliber machine gun played a role in improving the shooting training of personnel in the 30s, and was also used to a limited extent in the system of non-military training. After the Great Patriotic War, machine guns of this type were never returned. In the 50s, when a large number of old military weapons were transferred to the hunting industry, an attempt was made to turn the surviving small-caliber machine guns into hunting weapons. The machine gun was equipped with a wooden stock and a diopter (ring) sight. With the help of such a “machine gun”, they carried out a test shooting of wolves from an airplane (there was such a campaign to combat wolves), but the matter was limited to this experience.
Small-caliber carbine-machine gun
Mikhail Nikolaevich worked at the arms factory in Kovrov together with Degtyarev and Fedorov and developed anti-aircraft, aviation, artillery systems, as well as light machine guns. One of the developments, the so-called spinner - a drum machine gun with a high rate of fire (about 6000 rounds per minute) passed state tests and was accepted by a commission chaired by Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky, who awarded Mikhail Nikolaevich a motorcycle for this development. Then, in the light of well-known events, all this had dire consequences: Tukhachevsky was declared an enemy of the people and shot. Military developments under his leadership were declared sabotage, and employees were fired or repressed. Mikhail Nikolaevich was fired from the Kovrov plant and banned from developing combat systems. He went to Moscow and began working again as a shooting instructor.
12.7 mm Blum anti-tank rifle. Prototype 1939
During the war M.N. Blum returned to work at the weapons design bureau and worked on artillery systems. The appearance of tanks with increased armor thickness among the Wehrmacht forced designers to look for a way to increase the penetration of anti-tank rifles. The work was carried out in two directions - “lightening” anti-tank guns and “enlarging” anti-tank guns. A number of ingenious solutions were found and interesting designs were created. Among them, the single-shot anti-tank rifle designed by M.N. aroused great interest in the GAU. Bluma.
14.5 mm Blum anti-tank rifle. Prototype 1942
Blum's anti-tank rifle was developed for a 14.5-mm caliber cartridge (14.5x147), specially created on the basis of a 23-mm aircraft cannon cartridge case. The new cartridge made it possible to give the armor-piercing bullet an initial speed of 1500 m/s. The PTR had a longitudinally sliding bolt with two lugs and a spring-loaded reflector, which ensured reliable removal of the spent cartridge case at any shutter speed. The barrel was equipped with a muzzle brake and folding bipod, and the butt was equipped with a leather cushion on the butt plate. The Blum PTR was tested in August 1943. The commission that conducted the tests noted: “In terms of power and armor-piercing effect, both tested samples of the RES PTR and the Blum PTR are significantly superior to the PTRD and PTRS in service and represented a reliable means of combating medium tanks of the T-III type and T-IV and even with more powerful armored vehicles of the enemy." Blum's anti-tank rifle penetrated 55 mm armor from a distance of up to 100 m, and at a distance of 200-300 m armor up to 50 mm. Despite this, Blum's PTR was not adopted for service. An important role was played by the extremely high pressure in the barrel, which led to its rapid wear. In addition, such tanks as the modernized T-IV and the new T-V were already too tough for the new PTR.
Since 1947, Mikhail Nikolaevich, in parallel with closed topics, began to deal with hunting weapons and ammunition. In the Soviet Union there were no domestic hunting cartridges for rifled weapons, except for the Kochetov cartridge (developed in the 40s), 8.2 mm caliber, which could not seriously be called hunting. It was a very large cartridge (the case is 66 mm long, and the bullet is light - 9.7 g), a bullet without a jacket, a charge of black powder, an initial speed of 420 m/s. There have been many tragedies when using this cartridge in practical hunts for large game. Therefore, the idea that the USSR needed its own hunting cartridges for rifled hunting weapons for commercial shooting of large animals was constantly present to Mikhail Nikolaevich, and in the 1950s he began developing a complex of these cartridges.
Cartridge 5.6×39 mm (.220 Russian) - in the middle; on the left is a cartridge case from 7.63×39 mm (taken as a basis for the development of the 5.6×39 mm cartridge), on the right is cartridge .223 Remington
In 1955, the following cartridges were presented at the Exhibition in Moscow: 5.6x39 and 9x53. It must be said that at all times large funds were not allocated for the hunting industry, so the economic factor came first. It was necessary to develop cartridges at minimal cost. Therefore, it was decided to use the components of live ammunition (cases, capsules and powder), but change the calibers. The law prohibited the use of military rifled weapons while hunting. Therefore, on the basis of the Mosin cartridge case, a hunting cartridge 9x53 (now 54) was developed, and on the basis of the cartridge of the 1943 model - 5.6x39, then it was called a cartridge with a high muzzle velocity. These cartridges quickly became popular and at the same time hunting weapon systems began to be developed for them.
Cartridges for rifled hunting weapons (from left to right): 7.62x51; 7.62X53; 9Х53
Previously, to test cartridges in real hunting conditions, re-barrel SKS carbines were used (for testing 5.6x39 cartridges), and to test the 9x53 cartridge based on the Mosin rifle, the KO-9 carbine was used. Two years later (in 1957), at the same exhibition, a set of cartridges for hunting was presented: 5.6 mm caliber based on cartridges from a revolver - 5.6x38, the 5.6x39 cartridge, which had already been put into production, and a high-speed cartridge like the American Swift on based on a 53 mm cartridge case (Mosin rifle) of 5.6 mm caliber with an initial bullet speed of 1200 m/sec, as well as several experimental batches of 6.5 mm cartridges based on the Nagan cartridge case and on the basis of the Mosin rifle cartridge case. But the 6.5x53 cartridge did not work as a hunting option and was later used only as a sports cartridge in the “Running Deer” exercise.
9 mm hunting cartridges. 1 - 9x53 cartridge with a brass sleeve; 2 - 9x53 cartridge with a bimetallic sleeve; 3 - domestic cartridge 9.3x64, developed at TsNIITOCHMASH; 4 - cartridge 9.3x64 from the German company Dynamit Nobel.
In addition, in the large-caliber niche, a 9x66 caliber cartridge was developed based on the 8.2 mm cartridge case (66 mm case). At that time, it was not possible to increase the power of a cartridge with a 53 mm sleeve by simply increasing the amount of gunpowder due to the lack of powerful powders, so it was decided to use a 66 mm sleeve. Initially, the same cartridge case was used in the English powerful Jeffrey cartridge. Mikhail Nikolaevich used an already produced 66 mm cartridge case chambered for a 9 mm caliber cartridge. Again, due to the lack of the necessary gunpowder, to avoid high pressure, a bullet weighing 13 g was used. This bullet accelerated to a speed of 840 m/s. The cartridge had more power and in the future was to be produced with bullets up to 17.5 grams. But this cartridge (9x66) was produced only for one year (during 1962). The B-9 carbine (working name) was developed and manufactured for it at TsNIITOCHMASH. It showed good results, but, unfortunately, our industry stopped at the production of cartridges and carbines of 5.6x39 and 9.3x54 calibers.
Carbine B-9
In the 1950s and 1960s, when there was an acute issue in the country of supplying hunters with weapons that would allow them to shoot animals at distances further than 50–60 meters, Mikhail Nikolaevich developed a shotgun with a 32-caliber paradox drill and a cartridge for it with sufficient heavy bullet (about 30 g). It showed good results in terms of accuracy and lethality: When shooting at 100 meters, the spread was 7 cm. Only about 25 copies were produced at TsNIITOCHMASH.
Carbine "Moose"
Currently, the following types of cartridges, developed at one time by M. N. Blum, are mass-produced: hunting cartridge 5.6X39, 9X54; The 9X64 hunting cartridge was produced only in 1962. These cartridges were used for the IZH-15 and MTs5 combination shotguns, the MTs10-09 fitting, the TOZ-28 tee, the “Los” repeating carbine, and the “Bear” self-loading carbine.
Self-loading carbine "Bear"
In recent years, Mikhail Nikolaevich has been improving and developing new systems for hunting weapons and cartridges. He was awarded many medals, diplomas and certificates of honor. Since 1950, a permanent expert on hunting and hunting weapons and ammunition at the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements, member of the VDNKh Council committee, member of the scientific and technical council on hunting weapons of the Main Nature Protection Department of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture and the USSR Ministry of Defense Industry. Awards M.N. Blum were transferred to the Military History Museum of St. Petersburg. Mikhail Nikolaevich died on May 21, 1970.
This was a story about him as a designer. But Mikhail Nikolaevich did not ignore such a wonderful hobby as hunting. It cannot be said that he was a very passionate hunter, perhaps in his youth, in Primorye, when he hunted a tiger and a bear. He hunted especially actively until 1965. He loved duck hunting and had a wonderful 1901 Browning for it. Most often I went hunting with my sons to the Zabolotsk hunting estate of the SBI. He was an excellent shooter, he shot not only from rifled weapons, but also from smooth-bore weapons.
A man who devoted his entire life to weapons and had a huge collection of weapons could not shoot poorly. His friend, world champion in bullet shooting Ilya Konstantinovich Andreev, head coach of the USSR national team in the 50s, competed with him in hunting shooting, always lost and, jokingly, said about this: “It’s good that you didn’t go into sports , otherwise I would not have become world champion!
