Shashka 2.

  As promised a series of blog posts on Cossack shashkas is continued. 

  Today we could study a nice drawing of so-called “Nizhegorodka” shashka M1834. [1] In that year shashka was officially adopted by the regular Russian troops. The author of the article writes: „These shashkas were still very similar to traditional Caucasian samples with the hilt of two wooden pieces. A steel or brass ring was added to protect the grip.”

Side view & several crosssections of the blade

  He continues: „The hilt was not embedded into the scabbards, so it was called “Asian” pattern, while those shashkas, popular among irregular Caucasian cossacks, which hilts embedded, were called “the Caucasian pattern”. Note that there is a hole for a knot – unlike traditional Caucasian shashkas. Scabbard is wooden, covered with leather, with a brass mouth, two scabbard bands with loose rings for a belt and two bands with mounts for bayonet. Initially there were no a chape on the scabbards, later it was decided to install it.

Side view of the scabbard

  Later some other regiments and units adopted it. This pattern was used till 1917. It was rather successful and popular pattern. So much so that when in 1881 a new shashka pattern replaced the P1834 in Nizhegorodsky and Seversky dragoon regiments, the soldiers disliked it, resented, and soon P1834 was returned them.”

  In the second picture there is a remark that the location and dimensions of the bayonet fittings are from a particular document N 157-1895. So it is clear that it was added in or after 1895, and the Model 91/30's cruciform bayonet is for the famous 3-line rifle M1891. [2]

  Specification (from [3] ):

• Total length ........................................... 1000 mm;
• Blade length .......................................... 880 mm;
• Blade width ........................................... 34 mm;
• Blade curvature .................................... 70/395 mm;
• Weight .................................................. 877-939 g

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1. Nizhegorodsky dragoon regiment (Нижегородский 17-й драгунский полк).
2. (Russian: трёхлинейная винтовка образца 1891 года), colloquially known in the West as Mosin–Nagant and in Russia as Mosin's rifle is a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine–fed, military rifle developed from 1882 to 1891, and used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations. It is one of the most mass-produced military bolt-action rifles in history with over 37 million units having been made since its inception in 1891.
3. Федоров: Холодное оружие. с. 70-71.