Imperial Tula Arms Plant (russian: Императорский Тульский оружейный завод, Imperatorskiy Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod) is a Russian weapons manufacturer founded by

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Peter I of Russia Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

in 1712 in

Tula Tula may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Tula Mountains *Tula Point India *Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar Iran * Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province Italy * Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...

Tula Oblast Tula Oblast (russian: Ту́льская о́бласть, ''Tulskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an Oblasts of Russia, oblast) of Russia. It is geographically in the European Russia region of the country and is p ...

as Tula Arsenal. Throughout its history, it has produced weapons for the Russian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. Its name was changed from Tula Arsenal to Tula Arms Plant during the

Soviet era The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...

History of the plant

Historically, the plant produced a wide variety of sports weapons and arms for the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

18th century

In the 18th century, Tula Arms Plant was recognized as setting the standard for Russian Arms Production.

19th and early 20th century

Reconstructed in the 19th century Tula Arms Factory became one of the most prominent arms factories in Europe. In 1910 the factory started production of the

Maxim machine gun The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian ...

. In 1927 planning and design office was established in order to improve the work of all of the plant's designers, the result of which was the development of aircraft machine guns - PV-1 and

ShKAS The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...

. Between 1927 and 1938 the plant built the country's first spinning machines.

Importance during World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Axis countries invaded USSR as part of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

. By December 5, 1941, the German

2nd Panzer Division The 2nd Panzer Division ( en, 2nd Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the Heer, during World War II. Created as one of the original three German tank divisions in 1935, it was stationed in Austria after the Anschluss an ...

had advanced to within a few kilometers of Tula, forcing the Soviets to evacuate Tula Arms Plant. As a result, far fewer weapons were produced there than at other Soviet factories such as

Izhevsk Mechanical Plant Izhevsk Mechanical Plant (russian: Ижевский Механический Завод, ''Izhevsky Mekhanicheskiy Zavod'') or IZHMEKH (ИЖМЕХ) was a major firearms manufacturer founded in Izhevsk in 1942 for manufacturing small arms. Histo ...

. In 1941-1945, working under the slogan "Everything for the front, everything for victory", Tula gunsmiths produced

Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891 and informally in Russia and former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle ( ru , винтовка Мосина, ISO 9: ) ...

91/30 rifles, SVT-40 self-loading rifles,

ShVAK The ShVAK ( ru , ШВАК: Шпитальный-Владимиров Авиационный Крупнокалиберный, Shpitalnyi-Vladimirov Aviatsionnyi Krupnokalibernyi, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocann ...

aircraft guns, Nagant revolvers and Tokarev pistols.

Cold War

was strategically important to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. Significant

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

deposits were situated relatively close to it and it had access to ample transportation routes like the

Upa River The Upa (, ) is a river in Tula Oblast, Russia, and one of the main tributaries of the Oka. The river is long, and has a drainage basin of .double-barreled over-and-under shotgun

TOZ-34 The TOZ-34 (ТОЗ-34) is a double-barreled shotgun. History TOZ-34 is produced and sold by Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod since 1964. In 1965, the shotgun was awarded the golden medal of the Leipzig Trade Fair.Э. Штейнгольд. Отечест ...

. During 1960s–1980s, the plant received an order for production of the world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifles (six variants), anti-tank guided missiles -

9M14 Malyutka The 9M14 Malyutka (russian: Малютка, links=no; "Little one", NATO reporting name: AT-3 Sagger) is a manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) wire-guided anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system developed in the Soviet Union. It was the first ...

9M133 Kornet The 9M133 Kornet (russian: Корнет; "Cornet", NATO reporting name AT-14 Spriggan, export designation Kornet-E) is a Military of Russia, Russian man-portable anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) intended for use against main ...

9M113 Konkurs The 9M113 ''Konkurs'' (russian: 9М113 «Конкурс»; en, "Contest"; NATO reporting name AT-5 ''Spandrel'') is a Soviet SACLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile. A development of the 9K111 Fagot with greater firepower, the 9M113 Konkurs can u ...

and the

Bonfire A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used either for informal disposal of burnable waste material or as part of a celebration. Etymology The earliest recorded uses of the word date back to the late 15th century, with the Catho ...

underslung grenade launcher.

Products

During the early to mid-Soviet era, Tula Arms Plant produced a variety military rifles, including the

, SVT-40, SKS, and

AKM The AKM () is an assault rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1959. It is the most ubiquitous rifle of the Kalashnikov rifles. It was developed as a replacement to the AK-47 introduced a decade prior. Introduc ...

. It also produced the Nagant M1895 revolver. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the factory produced the

AK-74 The AK-74 (Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet U ...

, and went on to manufacture the

VSS Vintorez The 6P29 and 6P30 ( GRAU Indices), commonly known as the VSS "Thread Cutter" (Russian: ВСС «Винторе́з» Винто́вка Сна́йперская Специа́льная, romanized: ''Vintóvka Snáyperskaya Spetsiálnaya "Vint ...

AS Val The 6P29 and 6P30 ( GRAU Indices), commonly known as the VSS "Thread Cutter" (Russian: ВСС «Винторе́з» Винто́вка Сна́йперская Специа́льная, romanized: ''Vintóvka Snáyperskaya Spetsiálnaya "Vint ...

OTs-14 Groza The OTs-14 Groza () is a Russian selective fire bullpup assault rifle chambered for the 7.62×39 round and the 9×39mm subsonic round. It was developed in the 1990s at the TsKIB SOO (Central Design and Research Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Ar ...

, and TOZ rifle weapons designed by

TsNIITochMash TsNIITochMash (russian: ЦНИИТОЧМАШ) is a Russian industrial design bureau which is a major designer and producer of weapons for the Russian military and MVD National Guard. The name is an initialism for Central Scientific - Research Ins ...

. The plant also produces large quantities of small arms ammunition for the military as well as for commercial sale. The factory has also manufactured a number of pistols over the years such as the

Korovin pistol The Korovin pistol (Пистолет Коровина, Тульский Коровин (ТК), GAU Index 56-A-112) is regarded as the first Soviet semi-automatic pistol. History Sergey Korovin designed the first 7.65 mm caliber military pi ...

TT pistol The TT-30,, "7.62 mm Tokarev self-loading pistol model 1930", TT stands for Tula, Russia, Tula-Tokarev) commonly known simply as the Tokarev, is an out-of-production Soviet semi-automatic pistol. It was developed in 1930 by Fedor Tokarev as a ...

Stechkin automatic pistol The Stechkin or APS (''Avtomaticheskiy Pistolet Stechkina'' = ''Автоматический Пистолет Стечкина'') is a Soviet selective fire machine pistol chambered in 9×18mm Makarov and 9×19mm Parabellum introduced into serv ...

, SPP-1 underwater pistol, and

MSP Groza silent pistol The MSP Groza ("thunderstorm") silent pistol is an over and under, double-barrel, derringer-type firearm designed in the Soviet Union in 1972. The firearm is chambered for the silent 7.62×38 SP-3 cartridge which can be loaded via a two-round cli ...

Notable products

Knives *

NRS-2 The NRS-2 (''Нож Разведчика Стреляющий'', "Scout Firing Knife") (official GRAU index 6P25U) is a gun hybrid with a combination of a knife blade and a built-in single-shot shooting mechanism designed to fire a 7.62×41mm SP ...

Pistols * SPP-1 underwater pistol *

TKB-506 __NOTOC__ The TKB-506 (russian: ТКБ-506) was a small handgun designed to look like a cigar cutter, developed by Igor Stechkin, allegedly on the orders of the KGB. The dimensions of TKB-506 are 11 x 9.2 x 2 cm. Weighing 0.44 kg empty ...

Shotguns * TOZ-28 *

* TOZ-66 * TOZ-106 *

TOZ-194 The TOZ-194 is a 12 Gauge (bore diameter), gauge, pump-action shotgun manufactured by the Tula Arms Plant. History In early 1990s was designed a pump-action shotgun based on TOZ-87. In late 1994 Tula Arms Plant made first TOZ-94.Николай ...

* TOZ-250 Rifles * APS underwater rifle *

* ASM-DT amphibious rifle *

SR-3 Vikhr The SR-3 Vikhr (''СР-3 Вихрь'', Russian for "whirlwind") is a Russian 9×39mm compact assault rifle. It was developed by A. D. Borisov, V. N. Levchenko and A. Tyshlykov at TsNIITochMash (Central Institute for Precision Machine Building) ...

* SVT-40 * TKB-010 *

TKB-059 TKB-059 (ТКБ-059) was a Soviet three-barrel bullpup assault rifle, capable of fully automatic fire, chambered for the 7.62×39mm round and manufactured by Tula Arms Plant in 1966. It was based on the Pribor 3B (Прибор 3Б), an earlier e ...

TKB-072 The TKB-072 (Russian: ТКБ-072) is a Soviet assault rifle designed by G.A.Korobov on the basis of creation of some skilled automatic devices chambered in 5.45mm spends experimental researches of influence of pace of shooting on кучность ...

TKB-517 The TKB-517 (russian: ТКБ-517) is an assault rifle designed by German Aleksandrovich Korobov. This rifle was externally similar to the AK-47, but based on the lever-delayed blowback mechanism invented by John Pedersen and refined by Pál Ki ...

* TOZ rifle *

References

External links

Official SiteTula ArsenalSales site
{{Coord, 54, 12, 02, N, 37, 36, 53.4, E, display=title Defence companies of the Soviet Union High Precision Systems Ammunition manufacturers Companies based in Tula Oblast 1712 establishments in Russia Russian brands Firearm manufacturers of Russia