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Old January 12, 2012, 12:07 PM   #3
Scorch
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Join Date: February 13, 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 15,248
Yes, the Spanish Civil War was one of those political-backed wars designed to overthrow efforts to "liberate the masses". Russia, Italy, France provided weapons to the Republicans (Socialists, Communists, and government loyalists). Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Britain, and the US supplied the Nationalists (pro-military, Fascists, Monarchists). You will find an amazing array of weapons from the Spanish Civil War, including Mausers, Mosin-Nagants, Carcanos, Berthiers, BARs, Vickers, Lee-Enfields, Rubys, Astras, etc. Many were destroyed or warehoused at the end of the war in 1939 because the Spanish military wanted to show at least a semblance of standardization, many of those remaining were surplused in the 1950s-1960s period. The Soviets claimed the Mosin-Nagants were Russian property, so the Spanish government stored them instead of destroying them.

Bit of trivia- one reason you find so many Spanish M1916 Mausers with mismatched bolts is that the Republican government tried to neutralize the military by removing the bolts from their rifles and storing them at a different location from the rifles. Their reasoning was that the odds of two military commanders mutinying at the same time was remote. Bad reasoning, but that was the idea.
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