doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Geno, questions baout gun ownershipin Russia

Geno,
Maybe someone asked previously but what was itlike to own guns and hunt ounder the old regime. Obviously there was gun ownership or a butt load of guns were sequestered away so the commies couldnt find them.
ANd what is it like now, to buy, own hunt etc.

Rifles, shotguns, handguns, reloading supplies etc.

I was negotiating to do a hunting and fishing TV series in the Soviet Union around 1965 and there were lots of Communists and lots of guns, lots of fish and lots of game.

O.K.

I'll start and let Geno correct the mistakes, if any.

Now let's begin with the fact that "Russia" is a helluva lot of ground, covering lots of different places, cultures, etc. Namely, Russian Federation was just one of the 15 republics that the USSR consisted of. You can think of those as something like the states within the US, with federal laws, and state laws. The situation with gun control in, say, the Caucasian republics (Georgia, Armenia, Azwerbaijan) was slightly, but still different from the Baltic republics, Asian republics, etc. For example, Moldova had the tightest gun control of all, with hunting guns, at a time, being stored at the Militia (police) departments in the off season. So that;s one variable.

Another variable is between the "developed" regons, like most of the European part, where hunting was mostly recreation, and the "remote regions", like (roughly) Siberia, where hunting for fur and meat was a profession for many.

And then there's a factor of time.

So, I'll be speaking from the perspective of a "common hunter". Like, you live in an industrial or agricultural region (not in some wilderness), got a job, and go out with a gun if/when you have free time, for fun or maybe a bonus piece of meat for the table. Oh, yes, and in Russia proper, not in one of the other 14 republics.

So. Maybe it was because most of the fathers of the communist revolution, starting with Lenin, were avid unters. And maybe it was because hunting yielded furs - a principal export item - and food, which was always in shortage, but the communist government, ever since 1917, and up to about early 1960-s did not discourage hunting, and even promoted it.

With the hunting weapons, however, it wasn't so easy.

Until 1976, shotguns, for all practical purposes, were bought and sold free.

De-jure only a hunter could buy one, and the seller had to enter the purchase, with the serial No and such, into the buyer's Hunter's Card (the principal document giving the right to hunt). But on ptactice this rule was hardly ever enforced. Basicly, until 1976, there were no gun control regarding shotguns.

Since 1976, however, the situation changed drastically.

From then on, a hunter, who was willing to purchase a shotgun, had to gain a permit from the local Militia department.

To obtain the permit, the hunter had to prove that he?she^

- was a member of a Hunter's Unions with the right to hunt;
- had no criminal record;
- had ho history of mental deseases and alcohol or drug abuse;
- had no record of disorderly к aggressive behaviour;
- had the proper conditions for storing the shotgun (a metal box, with a lock, and a separate compartment for ammuntion, also lockable)

All hunters who got their guns before 1976 had to register those under the procedure described above. The license to keep and bear a shotgun had to be renewed every 5 years. The rules did not originally limit the number of guns one could own - but the officers in charge had unwritten orders to try and keep the "1 hunter - 1 gun" ratio.

These rules are essentially active until today, with minor changes (like now, if you want to have more than 5 shotguns you must have a collector's license).

The 1976 legialation had one curious effect.

Some guns were properly registered, some confiscated and destroyed.

But many more, once bought "just in case" or on a whim, were left hanging around, in the closets and barns (they still surface now and then). They were out of the light, out of legitimate circulation. Those who had them were normally just happy to get rid of them, for a bottle of alcohol or such.

So, when the first organised crime groups begin to appear in SU (just about at the time)? and until the widspread corruption opened the army arsenals for mafia in the early 1990-s, - they had a ready source of firearms in those "unregistered gun", which they usually sawed off to resemble a handgun.

As to the original question, a lot of guns were buried at the years of the Civel War (1917-1921). There was even a slang phrase "To store in the Land Banc" in the 1920-s, meaning the gun that was buried and unearthed, often a very good gun and often in miserable condition. It wasn't exactly the communists these guns were hidden from, it was the general chaos and anarchy and crime the country reresented at the time.

Another, but smaller, wave of "burials" came about 1941. As the Nazi hordes swept through Russia, the government in some regions gave weird orders that the citizens had to surrender all bicycles, radios, and hunting guns in their possession, "for military needs and temporary storage". The government promised to give vevrything back after the war, but some people figured their stuff was safer buried.

There's much more to say, namely about the rifles, but I can't go on right ow, sorry. I hope I've posted something useful and interesting for y'all.

And a Russian joke for dessert:

- Grandpa, Grandpa, stop watering the flowers with motor oil, it'll kill'em!
- I don't care about the darn flowers, I care 'bout my gun!