Maxim

The first automatic machine gun was developed by American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1883. It entered service in Russia as early as 1895, with local engineers having introduced many changes to the original design to make it lighter, more reliable, and more mobile. Mounted on a stand proposed by Colonel Sokolov, it was adopted by the Russian army in 1910. In a modified form, this machine gun remained in the arsenal of the Soviet Union until the end of World War II (1939 – 1945). Serial production was carried out in Tula, Izhevsk, and Zlatoust (Russia). The Izhevsk gun factory produced 55,258 Maxims already in 1942. During the war, these weapons inflicted huge losses on enemy troops.