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 and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Peter I of Russia 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 ...

Tula Oblast Tula Oblast (russian: Ту́льская о́бласть, ''Tulskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically in the European Russia region of the country and is part of the Central Federal District, covering ...

as Tula Arsenal. Throughout its history, it has produced weapons for the Russian state. Its name was changed from Tula Arsenal to Tula Arms Plant during the Soviet era.

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 M ...

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

spinning machines A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but t ...

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, 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 afte ...

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

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 nationa ...

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 t ...

. Significant ore 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. 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, 9M133 Kornet, 9M113 Konkurs 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 Mosin–Nagant, SVT-40,

SKS The SKS (russian: Самозарядный карабин системы Симонова, Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945, self-loading carbine of (the) Simonov system, 1945) is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Soviet small arms ...

, and AKM. It also produced the Nagant M1895 revolver. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the factory produced the AK-74, and went on to manufacture the VSS Vintorez,

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 A ...

, and

TOZ rifle TOZ rifles are a family of .22 Long Rifle bolt-action cadet rifles manufactured by the Tula Arms Plant (Russian abbreviation TOZ stands for ''Tulsky Oruzheyny Zavod''). Most notably the TOZ-8, TOZ-17 and TOZ-78 which were used to train generations o ...

weapons designed by TsNIITochMash. 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, TT pistol, Stechkin automatic pistol, 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 cl ...

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-34 * TOZ-66 *

TOZ-106 The TOZ-106 is a small, lightweight bolt-action shotgun produced and sold by Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod.Н. Борумбей. Ружье с откидным прикладом // журнал «Охота и охотничье хозяйство», � ...

TOZ-194 The TOZ-194 is a 12 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 Аксенов. А с ...

TOZ-250 The TOZ-250 (''ТОЗ-250'') is a Soviet double-barreled combination gun.ТОЗ-250 // История Тульского оружейного завода, 1712 - 1972. М., "Мысль", 1973. стр.485Что представляет собой � ...

Rifles *

APS underwater rifle The APS underwater assault rifle (APS stands for ''Avtomat Podvodny Spetsialnyy'' (Автомат Подводный Специальный) or "Special Underwater Assault Rifle") is an underwater firearm designed by the Soviet Union in the ear ...

ASM-DT amphibious rifle The ASM-DT is a Russian folding-stock underwater firearm. It emerged in the 1990s. History and design The introduction of the APS Underwater Assault Rifle solved the problem of how frogmen guarding a naval base could be armed, but there remain ...

* SR-3 Vikhr * SVT-40 * TKB-010 * TKB-059 *

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 *

* VSS Vintorez

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