![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A steady supply of free surplus military firearms was one way that Moscow could support these movements and states whilst retaining plausible deniability as well as give Moscow a means to arm these governments and movements without providing them the latest Soviet infantry weapons (they were later supplied with the newer SKS and the AK-47). Most of these rifles (along with the Mosin–Nagant rifle) were eventually shipped to Communist or at least Marxist revolutionary movements and nations around the world from Central Europe to Southeast Asia during the early Cold War period. The Soviet arsenals made no effort to match the rifle's original parts by serial number when reassembling them, and some parts (the cleaning rod, sight hood, and locking screws) were deemed unnecessary and melted down for scrap metal. These rifles, referred to by collectors as RC ("Russian Capture") Mausers, can be identified by a crude "X" stamp on the left side of the receiver, the dull, thick reblueing and mismatched parts and electro-pencil serial numbers on smaller parts. These rifles were originally stored in the event of future hostilities with the Western Bloc. During World War II, the Soviet Union captured millions of Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles and re-furbished them in various arms factories in the late 1940s and early 1950s. ![]()
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