During World War I, the Russians were in desperate need of small arms and turned to foreign manufacturers for weapons. One such weapon was the Winchester 1895 lever-action rifle. Chambered for the 7.62x54R round and utilizing the same chargers for loading as the Mosin-Nagant, approx. 300,000 M1895 muskets would be purchased by and delivered to the Russians.
A number of these rifles would also end up in Spain during the Spanish Civil War as part of military aid provided by the Soviets.