WWII guns of Mosfilm

This is a look at real WWII guns portraying postwar guns, or, real postwar guns portraying firearms of WWII.

(The M16 held by this actor in 1982’s Incident At Coordinate 36-80 is actually an authentic and fully functional WWII German StG-44.)

 

Before I begin I want to acknowledge the author Vladimir Onkoy, who wrote on this topic for The Firearms Blog earlier this year and sparked my interest in this.

Mosfilm

Each of the USSR’s 15 constituent republics had a “state movie studio”; Russia (the largest S.S.R.) had three of which Mosfilm in Moscow was the largest and also the largest overall.

(The statue filmed for both the black & white and color versions of Mosfilm’s opening credits title, which is on the wall behind.)

Mosfilm survived the transition to capitalism and is still making movies in 2026.

guns

(During filming of Copper Angel, an actor holds two WWII British Stens, a WWII German MP-38, an altered WWII Thompson as described later below, and a StG-44 fake M16 described later.)

Mosfilm had, and still has, a huge armory of firearms ranging from the 18th through 21st centuries. Obviously there was no problem getting Soviet guns of WWII. Via wartime capture or Lend-Lease, Mosfilm had access to a decent variety of German, American, and British weapons as well through Soviet military storage and disposal.

(Captured WWII German P.08 pistols still in Russian Federation military storage during the 2010s.)

(A Wagner Group mercenary with WWII Lend-Leased M1A1 submachine gun captured in Ukraine during 2023. It had been in storage since the 1970s.)

German weapons of WWII were widely represented in Mosfilm movies, both because the 1941 German invasion was a common plot and also because they were simply so widely available, they were utilized when a generic foreign gun of no particular backstory was called for.

(WWII German MP-38 and P.38 seen in Copper Angel.)

(WWII German MP-40 in Velvet Season. This is an anachronism as the movie is set in the 1930s, before MP-40s existed.) (photo via IMFDB website)

ammunition and blanks

This is not to insult the intelligence of readers familiar with small arms ammo, but perhaps of value for those less versed.

Armies use overwhelmingly ball (“regular”) ammunition: real warfare, marksmanship training, base security, etc. A far smaller percentage is inert shapes, non-firing but accurately-sized pieces of metal or plastic. Uses are, for example, safely training new recruits how to clear jams.

Blank cartridges have propellant powder and a primer but no bullet.

(7.92 Mauser blanks.) (photo via Western Stage Props)

Beyond ceremonial salutes there is surprisingly little military demand for blanks….most army needs call for either something genuinely lethal, or, something that absolutely isn’t dangerous at all. Some training exercises use blanks but overall there isn’t huge military usefulness.

Blanks are not toys, it is still primed and filled with gunpowder. American readers of a certain age perhaps recall CBS cancelling the TV show Cover Up during 1985. The lead actor was goofing around with a .44 Magnum blank on-set; the round expelled sufficient energy down the barrel to lethally push a chip of his skull into his brain.

Some Commonwealth armies use the nomenclature “Cartridge, Blank Firing” to reinforce the need to treat these with caution.

relevance here

For Mosfilm, obtaining blanks in Soviet calibers was never a problem. For years 7.92 Mauser blanks were also fairly attainable within the USSR (this changed for the studio in the Soviet Union’s final ten years or so). Obtaining 9mm Parabellum blanks was difficult and costly but not impossible. While 9mm Parabellum was not a “combloc caliber” it was manufactured in East Germany and Czechoslovakia throughout the Cold War era.

The real problem was distinctly western calibers: .45ACP, .303 British, 30-06 Springfield, and 5.56 NATO. These were hard for the USSR as a whole to get and with blanks being a niche within; it was more or less impossible for a civilian Soviet movie studio to get blanks of these calibers affordably in quantity. This resulted in the guns below.

WWII American M1928A1 Thompson submachine gun

portrayed by: M1928A1 Thompson with WWII German MP-40 magazine

(This scene from 1980’s Pirates Of The 20th Century shows the adapter which the WWII German magazine was welded onto.)

Because of the difficulty in sourcing .45ACP blanks, a WWII German MP-40 magazine was adapted – however instead of using 9mm Parabellum (as in the real MP-40) to replace .45ACP (as in the real M1928A1), Mosfilm altered the magazine for WWII Soviet 7.62 Tokarev blanks. This WWII cartridge was used in the TT-33 pistol and PPSh-41 submachine gun.

 

 

A metal device dimensioned like a real Thompson magazine was made, basically a rump section, enabling mounting. On the front of the rump section was welded an entire WWII German MP-40 magazine.

The way a Tommy (a normal one) operates is shown below. The bolt moves forward and strips the top round out of the magazine, pushing it up a slight incline until it chambers, upon which the firing pin inside the bolt fires it.

What Mosfilm did was to cut out metal under the inclined “chute”, so it basically became an “arch”, forming a new makeshift magazine well, about 1½” ahead of where it should be. Tokarev blanks fed from the MP-40 magazine into this “arch”. The advancing bolt passed right over the original magazine well, stripped a Soviet blank round out of the German magazine, and shoved it forward putting the gun into battery.

Looking at the earlier photo, the MP-40 magazine was welded on to the rump Thompson magazine at a gentle angle to assist with this.

The Tokarev cartridge already had a slightly (3⁄32″ or 2.27mm) smaller base diameter so no reaming was needed in the M1928A1. It didn’t really matter if the round seated perfectly or not. As long as the process ended with sufficient centricity for the firing pin to contact somewhere on the blank’s primer, that was good enough. The Thompson is a blowback design and both the .45ACP and Tokarev are rimless cartridges. Thus, ejection was not affected.

This allowed cheap filming with a caliber of blanks readily available within the Soviet Union. Besides Pirates Of The 20th Century this gun appeared in 1982’s Fall Of The Condor, 1984’s Copper Angel, 1987’s Jaguar, and other movies.

(This scene from 1980’s Santa Esperanza shows how the MP-40 magazine was welded at a very slight angle onto the rump of the American magazine to facilitate Mosfilm’s new feed method. Santa Esperanza was a drama critical of the Pinochet regime in Chile.)

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WWII American M1919A4 machine gun

portrayed by: WWII Soviet SG-43 machine gun

This creation was seen in 1970’s Chyornoye Solntse (Black Sun) which is a semi-fictionalized telling of the 1960s events in the former Belgian Congo. This was not a Mosfilm studio production but rather Belarusfilm, its Minsk-based counterpart.

The WWII American M1919 was popular in real-life Africa of that time, obtained both as western military aid and via arms dealers like Major Turp and Sam Cummings. Due to the difficulty in sourcing .30-06 Springfield blanks, a combloc machine gun would be used for filming Black Sun, the SG-43. This belt-fed WWII weapon fired the 7.62x54mm(R) cartridge at 600rpm. During WWII it was commonly seen on a wheeled carriage with gunshield, however it could also be used on a simpler infantry tripod or as a vehicular weapon.

(SG-43 at top and M1919A4 at bottom.)

The alteration involved removing the SG-43’s front sight, carry handle, and flash hider. The M1919A4’s cooling jacket was simulated by two perforated metal cylinders, joined behind and ahead of the gas port, then appearing to be one continuous perforated tube.

(The SG-43’s spade grips and push-trigger can be seen here. The actress is Gemma Firsova, a longtime star from the 1950s – 1980s and later a director. She passed away in 2012.)

Nothing else was changed. The SG-43’s spade grips and push-trigger remained, not authentic to a M1919’s pistol grip. The gun continued to be chambered for 7.62x54mm(R). The SG-43’s gas tube remains visible under the fake cooling jacket; this missing on a real M1919A4 which operates via the short-recoil principle.

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WWII British Lewis machine gun

portrayed by: WWII Soviet DP-27 machine gun or WWII Soviet DT-29 machine gun

(A fake Lewis machine gun in 1985’s A Trap For Jackals.) (image via IMFDB website)

The Lewis machine gun fought in both world wars. Its distinctive feature is the outer sheath. In combination with a finned aluminum heat sink inside it, this was designed to act as a plenum with the gun’s muzzle flash inducing airflow over the heat sink. Modern diagnostic equipment has shown that the net effect was negligible, however the gun was a success in several roles including World War One fighter planes. During WWII, it was used as a vehicular weapon in the North African theatre and by the Royal Navy as a AA weapon aboard PT boats and other smallcraft. The magazine was a 97rds overhead pan.

(Lewis Mk.III* pair on a British Fairmile-B class motor launch during WWII.)

Lewis guns originally came to Russia via a 10,000-gun order by the czar’s buyers during the 1910s. Mosfilm movies often used Lewis guns as a plot device denoting criminality or “a shady vibe” for decades past. In any case the problem of getting sufficient blanks remained, as the Lewis was chambered in either .303 British or .30-06 Springfield depending on its origin.

DP-27 stand-in

One method was to use a DP-27. This WWII Soviet light machine gun fired the 7.62x54mm(R) cartridge from a 47rds overhead pan.

(DP-27 during WWII.)

For the alteration, the DP-27’s bipod legs and front sight were removed. A sheet metal cylinder was attached to the front of the DP-27’s action. A bipod was welded to a common screw-gear clamp which then secured onto the cylinder.

(This scene from 1970’s Beloye Solntse Pustyni (White Sun Of The Desert) shows the DP-27’s flash hider still on, inside the fake Lewis plenum.)

White Sun Of The Desert was a huge hit in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes mistakenly called an Ostern, that being a form of East German cinema set in the USA’s wild west but with roles reversed; where cowboys and sheriffs were colonialist oppressors and indians and outlaws were the good guys. However this was not the format of this movie. Voice-dubbed American westerns were allowed into the USSR and popular. Mosfilm and other Soviet studios sought to emulate that by using the same formula: a heroic rugged leading man, but instead of being a cowboy; being a Red Army soldier. These were set in the central Asian S.S.R.s which legitimately were lawless between the world wars as explained below.

(image via IMFDB website)

The scene above is from Poslednyaya Inspektsiya (The Last Inspection), a 1985 tv miniseries from Uzbekfilm, Mosfilm’s counterpart in Tashkent. Here the DP-27’s flash hider has also been removed.

DT-29 stand-in

The other method was to use a DT-29.

This was a vehicular weapon in Soviet tanks and armored cars of WWII. It fired the 7.62x54mm(R) cartridge from a 63rds overhead pan. The two spiked legs were a crude bipod so that if the vehicle was destroyed, it could be used by the crew for dismounted combat.

The DT-29’s sights were removed. Other alterations were similar to that described above for the DP-27, however here a new buttstock was needed as well. If there was an advantage to using a DT-29, it was that its “fatter” pan magazine looked more authentic to a real Lewis. The scene above is from 1989’s Iskusstvo Zhit v Odesse (The Art of Living In Odessa). The revolver the other actor is holding is a real WWII Soviet Nagant M-1895.

Above is a scene from Kapkan Dlya Shakalov (A Trap For Jackals), a 1985 movie from Tajikfilm, Mosfilm’s counterpart in Dushanbe. This shows that the DT-29’s 7.62x54mm(R) blanks created an impressive muzzle flash as a fake Lewis.

A Trap For Jackals involves a part of military history not well-known outside central Asia. Under the czar, petty sheiks and mullahs in this region were allowed some agency, in that as long as they paid taxes and stayed loyal to Moscow, the czar largely left them to their own devices.

After the 1917 revolution these local chieftains sought goals from the new communist government, ranging from sharia law, to preservation of their personal fortunes, to outright independence. From 1918 onwards there was significant fighting in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan with the USSR not fully regaining control until 1922. One of the rebel leaders was Shir Muhammad-bek Gazi (nom de guerre Korshirmat) who sought reestablishment of the extinct Emirate Of Bukhara, an ethnic-Uzbek kingdom in the region.

Korshirmat fled to Afghanistan after the final defeats in 1922. During September 1941, agents of Abwehr (the Third Reich’s military intelligence agency) at the German embassy in Kabul contacted Korshirmat and urged him to rile up a jihad within the Asian S.S.R.s to tie down Soviet troops. Korshirmat agreed however this second rebellion in the region never amounted to much more than sabotage and pinprick nuisance raids; and by late 1942 had been suppressed. Korshirmat fled again to Afghanistan where he passed away in 1970.

The plot of A Trap For Jackals is that a 1980s Soviet detective is investigating a homicide. He reveals that the crime might be linked to the 1920s upheaval, where local legend said an emir hid his treasure in a cave. The movie alternates between the 1980s and 1920s, the latter where the fake Lewis is seen. The 1920s chieftain had made a medallion broken in half, which when reunited in the 1980s, is a map to the cave. After an investigation and a fairly insane car chase scene with two boxy little Moskvitch sedans, the film climaxes at the cave, where the treasure chests are filled with stones.

real-life Soviet interaction with the Lewis

The USSR used some Lewis guns during the Winter War against Finland and then the opening stages of the German invasion in 1941. They were usually discarded as soon as something better was available. Mosfilm had a genuine Lewis in its expansive collection after WWII however it was not fired on screen, the problem of obtaining blanks necessitating the stand-in’s.

(photo via War Noir website)

The Lewis above is in Ukraine and genuine. It was being reactivated in 2024 for use in the current Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The box is commercial .303 British blanks so perhaps this was a more recent movie prop gun in the area.

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postwar Belgian Vigernon submachine gun

portrayed by: WWII German StG-44 assault rifle

From here on out are all alterations of WWII German Sturmgewehrs. The first example was a creation of Belarusfilm, the Minsk-based studio, and was used in Black Sun.

(The actor is Ambroise Mbia, a Cameroonian star who was in many movies of francophone Africa from the 1970s – 1990s.)

In the time period portrayed in Black Sun, the Vigernon (which performed well in dirty and humid climates) was something of an emblem of central Africa’s troubles.

The barrel was truncated, along with the WWII German front sight. A fake front sight somewhat resembling the Belgian design was added. The buttstock was removed and a MP-40’s folding stock was affixed to the StG-44’s stamped metal action in a spot which would not interfere with the firing group internally. The stock could not actually fold and was simply to imitate that of a Vigernon.

(An actual Vigernon.) (photo via Boise Gun Club)

The original rear sight was retained, and the weapon remained chambered for 7.92 Kurz; with sufficient blanks of that caliber apparently still being available. There was variation seen in Black Sun, for example the one used by Mr. Mbia in the earlier photo still has the original barrel length and lacks the fake front sight.

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postwar Belgian FN FAL assault rifle

portrayed by: WWII German StG-44 assault rifle

The “longarm of the free world” was simulated in two slightly different ways, both using the WWII German Sturmgewehr.

(A real FN FAL.) (photo via Firearms News magazine)

The first style was done by Belarusfilm for Black Sun and is seen below.

(The SG-43-based fake M1919A4 described earlier can be seen here too.)

The front sight of the Sturmgewehr was removed, and a sheet metal stamping with three holes per side to mimic the FAL’s foreguard was put over the front of the WWII German gun. It remained chambered for 7.92 Kurz.

The other style was also a Belarusfilm creation, but years later, and more significantly changed.

(image via IMFDB website)

This version was similar to Mosfilm’s StG-44-based fake M16s described next, and was maybe made at the same time as the Mosfilm guns. The StG-44 was rechambered for 7.62x39mm blanks. It was more significantly altered externally, more closely looking like a real FN FAL.

The image above is from 1985’s Dokument R. The plot is that in the turn-of-the-millennium United States (at that time, still a ways in the future), the FBI is attempting a coup to eliminate the Bill Of Rights and take over the nation. Dokument R was unique in that it was filmed partly within the USSR and partly on location in California. It is fairly easy for persons knowledgeable in firearms to tell what was filmed where: while in the USA, Belarusfilm could use the services of Hollywood prop lessors and thus, real American firearms. For scenes filmed in the Soviet Union, stand-in’s had to be used, like the fake FN FAL above or WWII Nagant M-1895s filling in for an American cop’s Smith & Wesson duty revolver.

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postwar American M16 assault rifle

portrayed by: WWII German StG-44 assault rifle

This is the most famous of Mosfilm’s altered prop guns.

The first iteration of this concept was not from Mosfilm but rather Lenfilm, the Russian S.S.R.’s other main studio, located in Leningrad. In a brief scene (below photo) from 1974’s Ya Sluzhu Na Granitse (I Serve At The Border) there can be seen a StG-44 with the front sight altered and a (very) crude representation of a M16’s carry handle attached to the top.

(In the scene, Soviet border guards and border guards of a nameless western country exchange unarmed intruders: a Soviet goat which had wandered over the border; and a hippie-type person who had done likewise in the other direction. Perhaps this was subtle commentary on western culture.)

The gun in this movie still has the original WWII German buttstock and the representation of the M16 carry handle is way oversized. It was not fired on-screen, and it is unknown if it was rechambered.

the Mosfilm guns

(A real M16.) (photo via Encyclopedia Britannica)

(Top: an unaltered WWII German StG-44. Bottom: Mosfilm’s StG-44 altered to look like a M16.)

Both externally and internally, Mosfilm’s M16s were highly-altered StG-44s. The alterations were done by Degtyaryov Zavod (aka ZiD, today a subsidiary of JSC Rostec) in Kovrov, Russia. ZiD was a longtime manufacturer of Soviet machine guns. The date is uncertain. The altered StG-44s debuted in 1978’s Kentaurii (Centaurs) which was written and partially filmed during 1977; so assuming the screenplay was written with them in mind they had to have been done at least by 1977 or maybe even 1976. For reference the real M16 entered US Army service during March 1965 (XM16E1) and February 1967 (M16A1), with the rifle replacing the M14 as standard-issue during 1967 – 1969.

(The 1978 on-screen debut of the StG-44 fake M16s in Centaurs. This movie was a semi-fictionalized telling of Salvador Allende’s overthrow in Chile.)

caliber

The gun was rechambered from WWII German 7.92 Kurz to the postwar Soviet 7.62x39mm cartridge; the round of the AK-47. Sufficient supplies of blanks would never again be a problem for Mosfilm as this caliber was infinitely available within the Soviet Union.

(A blank 7.62x39mm round.)

basic operation

Converting the StG-44 to a new caliber would be more difficult than the blowback-method Thompson described earlier. The StG-44 used the short-stroke gas method of operation. Combustion gas was trapped between the chambered casing behind, and the fired bullet advancing down the barrel ahead. Before the bullet exited the muzzle, some of this gas ported upwards where it moved backwards a gas piston, which then cycled the StG-44’s bolt.

One issue that ZiD’s gunsmiths had to overcome related to the use of blank rounds. With no bullet counterforcing in front of it, by the time expanding gas inside the barrel reached the StG-44’s gas port, pressure had prematurely dissipated so that it didn’t always have sufficient energy for the gas piston to fully cycle the bolt. There were two solutions.

The first is seen below, in a zoomed-in shot of a movie scene where the fake M16 was being held at just the right angle.

A permanent obstruction was fitted just behind the muzzle, but just ahead of the gas port. It created a momentary pressure surge as the expanding hot gas’s shock front met it. This then created enough energy to reliably move everything. Remaining gas advanced around it and exited the muzzle. The other method was similar: an internal choke collar was put inside the barrel; not an issue as no bullet would ever be going down it again. When used with a normal blank intended for normal AK barrels, this induced increased pressure within the now-constricted StG-44 barrel creating the desired outcome.

chambering

OAL of a 7.92 Kurz ball (combat round with a bullet) cartridge was 1 57⁄64″ and the same for 7.62x39mm ball was 2 13⁄64″, a fairly big difference. However the difference between 7.92 Kurz ball (with bullet) and a crimped-neck blank 7.62x39mm was only a scant 1⁄264″.

The shoulder angle on a 7.62x39mm blank was 17.3° with a diameter of 13⁄32″ (10.07mm). The shoulder angle on a 7.92 Kurz round was 19° with a diameter of 29⁄64″ (11.4mm).  Thus, although the WWII German cartridge’s shoulder was somewhat “fatter”, it sloped more harshly than the postwar Soviet blank, in that the latter still headspaced within the Sturmgewehr’s chamber; at least reliably enough for what Mosfilm needed.

The new magazine was handcrafted for the purpose and held 10 rounds of 7.62x39mm blanks. Most (not all) of these magazines had spacer metal welded on (as seen above), so that on camera they appeared more closely shaped like a M16’s magazine.

extraction

The StG-44’s extractor is pictured below. This laid flush atop the upper right quadrant of the bolt.

The “hook” at the front rode up over the rear of the 7.92 Kurz cartridge into the brass’s annular recess. In recoil, this “hook” then dragged the spent casing backwards, until it met a spur-like ejector, which than spat it out of the rifle’s right side.

Both the WWII German and postwar Soviet cartridges were rimless. The problem (which was difficult for ZiD to solve) was that on a Kurz round, the head-to-recess distance was 1⁄64 of an inch (0.2mm) less than that of a 7.62x39mm cartridge. Thus, the new caliber’s rear was too “thick” for the StG-44’s extractor to hook onto.

The then-current 7.62x39mm extraction system used on the AKM, RPK, etc was a different concept and unusable on the WWII German bolt. However the extractor used on the preceding 7.62x39mm SKS rifle was of (somewhat) similar concept to the StG-44, with different dimensions and different shape. The two designs were grafted into a functional product. The final ejection sequence was not a problem as the 1⁄32 of an inch difference in diameter of the spent casing was within the abilities of the German ejector to still snag.

cosmetic changes

The StG-44’s front and rear sights were both removed. A birdcage-style mock flash hider was attached to the German gun’s muzzle. Atop the front of the Sturmgewehr’s gas port was welded a fake front sight mimicking that of a M16. A wooden buttstock shaped more like a M16 was fitted onto the StG-44’s bodenstück, the metal part which was pinned securely to the rear of the action.

(The fake front sight as seen in Kazino, a 1992 movie about a casino robbery in the USA. This was filmed while the USSR still existed but released a few months after the December 1991 dissolution.)

(The new “front sight” was just a piece of metal and not actually sighted in to anything.)

The square-shaped thing with drilled hole under the fake sight in the photo above was the master nut of the gas cylinder. It could be removed for cleaning or repair. The holes were meant that during WWII, a German soldier could stick something in as leverage to loosen it as the nut was very tight. This was still a functioning item on the fake M16s as firing blanks still requires cleaning afterwards.

The little stick with a knob on the end was a stacking device, by this three StG-44s could be set up in the field teepee-style to keep them clean and dry. Mosfilm cut this piece of steel off the nut.

The M16’s carry handle was replicated by a sheet metal piece welded to the top of the StG-44.

(Scene from Copper Angel.) (image via IMFDB website)

The most curious feature of the fake M16s is seen below, the top charging device within the fake carry handle.

This wasn’t a functional thing, it was just a piece of metal welded to the top of the StG-44s. (It appears that it might actually be the finger portion of some other gun’s trigger welded on upside-down.) Actual cocking remained via the StG-44’s original left-side stud, which is seen in the photo above.

Eugene Stoner’s ArmaLite 10 concept rifle featured this. He intended it that the rifle be ambidextrous, and that it would be less likely to snag web gear. After unsuccessfully competing against the M14 as the replacement for the M1 Garand, the AR-10 was redeveloped into the 5.56 NATO XAR-15 prototype rifle, of which at least the first three dozen pre-production & developmental guns had this feature. This then evolved into the M16.

(photo via Institute For Military Technology)

This feature was not on production M16s, with the charger instead moved to the spine of the stock. The reason was that this made manufacture of the rifle’s chamber portion simpler and cheaper. The charger also grew hot when atop the chamber.

That it was included on Mosfilm’s fake M16s is then curious. ZiD had previously been provided one “technical example” AR-10 with the top-located charger. This would have either been one of the 100 AR-10s the arms dealer Sam Cummings sold Cuba just prior to Castro taking power, or, a Dutch-built AR-10 used by Portuguese troops in Angola during the 1970s (some of these then captured by communist MPLA forces).

(Portuguese soldier in Angola with a Dutch-made AR-10 during the 1970s, showing the charger inside the carry handle.)

When Mosfilm presented ZiD with photos of what they wanted the StG-44s altered into (M16s), the machine gun factory used their AR-10 as the template, hence the top charger being included.

The scene above from 1983’s Mirage shows the fake front sight, which if this were an actual service firearm, would have been impossible to gain a proper sight picture on. Also visible is the fake top-mounted charger and handle and the real cocking stud on the StG-44’s left side. For Mosfilm use, the gun was cocked off-camera using the German stud.

Mirage is discussed more later. The character above was a troubled veteran of the Vietnam War. American GIs returning from Vietnam with psychological problems was a somewhat-frequent trope and not always in the sympathetic way that for example, an American show like China Beach would handle it.

(image via IMFDB website)

Above is a good look at the whole thing, here from 1979’s Pokhishchenie Savoi (The Hijacking Of Savoy). This movie’s plot is that an airliner is hijacked by a drug gang in South America, headed by a nazi official who fled there after WWII (and still walks around in lederhosen). The gang wants the airplane to smuggle drugs to fund neo-nazi political activities in the NATO nations of Europe. This movie rolls a couple of tropes together….ageing fugitives of the Third Reich in South America, drugs in capitalist society, and NATO’s association with either.

(The Hijacking Of Savoy also featured unaltered StG-44s on screen, allowing a comparison with the fake M16s.)

total made and variations

The Russian defense website War Chronicle states that “several dozen” Sturmgewehr-to-M16 fakes were made. There were at least ten made for certain, that many appearing simultaneously on-screen in Jaguar, with six appearing in one scene of Mirage with some being fired simultaneously.

Above is a scene from 1987’s Ostrov Pogibshikh Korably (Island Of Lost Ships) which has a different fake handle, no upper fake charger, and wooden furniture. Of interest one of the other actors is holding a Mauser c/96 while another has a WWII Mosin-Nagant M-1938 carbine.

Above is a scene from Gorodok, a tv comedy show in the Russian Federation during the 1990s and early 2000s. This appears to be the same fake M16 as the Island Of Lost Ships one. It shows that these things continued as props even after the end of communism. This also shows a magazine without spacer metal.

real-life Soviet interaction with the Sturmgewehr

(Soviet soldiers pose along the Baltic coastline during the spring of 1945. One has a captured StG-44.)

There was no rigid WWII policy on captured German small arms use; generally if a unit commander allowed it than the soldier could continue using it as long as desired. There was no equivalent to the American DD-603 “trophy chit” in the Soviet army and it was mandatory to relinquish the weapon upon command or when mustering out.

Of the 425,977 StG-44s made during WWII the USSR ended up with roughly 102,000. There was no desire to add yet another small arms caliber to the Soviet army and these were made available for transfer to communist allies with Czechoslovakia, East Germany, North Vietnam, and Hungary receiving them. These were often retransferred again, ending up as far away as Somalia and Syria.

real-life Soviet interaction with the M16

When the USSR first got its hands on a M16 is not known for certain. However it was no later than the summer of 1975.

(Surrendered M16s and M151 MUTT after the fall of Saigon.) (Associated Press photo)

The USA provided South Vietnam 943,989 M16s, CAR-15s, and Colt 601s of which the Pentagon estimated that 791,000 were probably captured intact during the final 1975 defeat. This was later revised downwards but was still a lot. During 1975 Vietnam provided the USSR with a batch (often described as an entire ocean freight container) of which many went to a Soviet special instructional unit which trained soldiers on NATO equipment. Some went as “technical examples” to gun factories. Oddly, individual M16s were presented to civilian engineering professors at Soviet universities.

Mosfilm received a genuine M16 in 1978 or 1979 however it was apparently the only one the studio would own for many years. The Sturmgewehr-fakes were already made and being filmed by then.

The next interaction came during the 1980s war in Afghanistan. The CIA’s “Cyclone” operation originally sent unattributable combloc small arms, mainly AK-47s captured by Israel, to the Afghan mujahideen via Pakistan. President Reagan later authorized attributable kit (the most famous and effective being FIM-92 Stingers) which included M16s.

(Maj. Vladislav V. Eremeev of the 370th Spetsnaz Battalion inspects a M16 captured in Afghanistan.)

By this time the M16’s traits were known and the rifles were of little interest.

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some general notes on Soviet movies

An American cineplex is basically a popcorn restaurant which happens to show movies; the main revenue driver is concession sales. In the USSR it was uncouth to eat during a movie so this was absent. Ticket prices were very low, around  1, basically pocket change. This was just to cover expenses of the theater building. Actual funding to make movies came from Goskino, a national bureaucracy. Movies were considered a civic amenity like boulevards or museums and were expected to be annual losses to the national budget.

As such, no Soviet movie was profitable using Hollywood accounting. Instead, films were graded on how many awards they received, and total ticket sales regardless of revenue; ideally both: an artistically-acclaimed movie with mass popularity.

WWII was a constant topic, starting while the war was still in progress and never stopping. WWII is still a frequent plot in Russian Federation movies today.

(For 1959’s Ballada o Soldate (Ballad Of A Soldier), a romance set during WWII, Mosfilm cosmetically altered a T-34-85 into a German Panzer V, its real-life WWII nemesis. Ballad Of A Soldier was one of a few Mosfilm movies released in the American market.)

Censorship was strict under Joesf Stalin, and one of Mosfilm’s directors was executed during Stalin’s purges. Thereafter there was still censorship but perhaps not in the blatant way of say, North Korea or East Germany.

Up until the final few years it was strictly forbidden to question marxism or criticize the Communist Party. It was not allowed to belittle the Soviet armed forces. However it was allowable to lampoon the basic military lifestyle and there were comedies with Gomer Pyle-type characters. It was generally disallowed to portray a fictional defeat or destruction of the USSR, for example there was no Soviet counterpart to The Day After or Amerika. Obviously-embarrassing overseas topics, like the Berlin Wall or martial law in Poland, were also not allowed.

Nuclear warfare was generally avoided. One exception is 1986’s Pis’ma Myortvogo Cheloveka (Dead Man’s Letters) which portrayed a nameless American city after a nuclear war.

(The fake M16 in Dead Man’s Letters may be the same one used in Island Of Lost Ships. The American civilians in this scene are wearing Soviet GP-5 gas masks, a model manufactured from 1962 – 1990.)

It was not forbidden to show crime within the USSR (to the contrary, there were many detective movies) however vice-type crimes were emblematic of the capitalist west and these (especially narcotics abuse) were avoided. As long as they were not vulgar or politically problematic, foreign movies were usually allowed in. As mentioned earlier American westerns were popular, as were bollywood films from India. From the Brezhnev era onwards it was not forbidden to use the USA as a film setting and this was surprisingly common.

During the Gorbachev era, censorship relaxed further.

(This scene from 1988’s White Crows shows a USSR railway policeman with a Mosin-Nagant M-44; this was not an anachronism as the bolt-action WWII carbine was used by them into the 1990s.)

Bely’ye Vorony (White Crows) of 1988 is an example of how censorship eroded under Gorbachev. This movie’s plot is two dispirited veterans of the Afghanistan war returning to their hometown, which is run by corrupt Communist Party officials. Just two or three years previous, such a movie would not even have been considered.

a look at some movies with the guns described earlier

Piraty XX Veka (Pirates Of The 20th Century) (1980)

The plot of this movie, which features the fake M16s prominently, is that a shipment of raw opium intended to be made into medical analgesic in the USSR is hijacked en route.

(The container of opium, along with three of the Sturmgewehr-fake M16s.)

The somewhat convoluted plot has the pirates steal the opium, then rig a bomb to sink the ship with the crew aboard. The crew manages to escape in a lifeboat to a remote island where the pirates happen to have also chosen as their hangout.

This movie featured, besides the fake M16s, a variety of unaltered WWII firearms.

(One of the StG-44 fake M16s alongside a real WWII British Sten Mk.II submachine gun.)

(A real WWII German MG-34 machine gun.)

The most eye-catching thing remained the fake M16s, this being only the second movie they appeared in.

Pirates Of The 20th Century was a runaway blockbuster. It was the most popular Soviet movie of 1980 by a huge margin and using any metric, it is in the top five of all Soviet releases between 1918 – 1991. It was shown in all the east European satellite nations and was popular in the Turkish and Italian markets as well. For better or worse it is considered “a fork in the road” of Russian cinema in that for the first time, the plot was just a tool to string together action scenes, rather than action scenes supporting a plot.

Mirazh (Mirage) 1983

This was a three-part TV miniseries from Rigafilm in the Latvian S.S.R. however most of it was filmed in the Crimea which closely matched the topography of the southwest USA, where it was set.

The plot is four Americans of quite different backgrounds who conspire to rob a bank armored car. Due to various things their plan slowly falls apart and one by one they perish, the last two jumping off a cliff to avoid capture.

Rigafilm put a lot of effort into making a believable facsimile United States. A portion of Soviet highway west of Yalta (the site of the WWII summit) was altered with American speed limit signs and billboards for Coca-Cola and Camel cigarettes. A Pontiac Grand Ville (a forgettable 1970s General Motors land-whale) was imported into the USSR for filming.

There are some amusing things for Americans in Mirage. When civilian police encounter each other, they snap to attention and offer an army-type salute. In the USSR’s militsiya (police) this was normal and would be expected by a Russian audience. In real life, a cop in rural 1980s Texas who did that would probably get laughed at by colleagues. The legal concept of Posse Comitatus did not exist in the Soviet Union. Especially in border regions, the militsiya, KGB Border Troops, and regular army could cooperate. The climax of Mirage shows military personnel chasing the robbers as they attempt to make it to Mexico. In real life during the 1980s, use of the American military for a civilian investigation would be remarkable and deployment of American military airpower within the USA almost unthinkable.

(A Mi-8 “Hip” helicopter was repainted in USAF insignia.)

By 1983 Soviet citizens knew Americans had a standard of living at least as good as their own, so the movie’s producers did not pretend otherwise. Instead American culture was subtly painted as vapid consumerism. The final scene shows an American newscast reporting on the robbery and the case’s outcome, but with all the facts and details wrong: the implication being that Soviet citizens should not trust foreign news reports.

Sluchay v Kvadrate 36-80 (Incident At Coordinate 36-80) (1982)

This movie’s plot is that an American atomic-powered submarine has been fitted with a new computer from the American defense company Hughes (their trademark used without consent), enabling the sub to automatically launch an attack with no human action necessary. While operating near the aircraft carrier Kiev‘s battle group the submarine’s reactor begins to melt down. A crewman requests the submarine captain ask Kiev for emergency assistance, which the captain refuses to do. The crewman commandeers the radio and sends a SOS anyways, with the crippled submarine now on the surface. He then flees in a raft.

The Soviet navy orders a Tu-16 “Badger” with repair team and boat to rendezvous with a Tu-16 tanker and refuel, then aid the American submarine. The “Badger” tanker is being trailed by a P-3 Orion. The P-3 disrupts the refueling by putting the Soviet jets in its propeller wash. Back at the submarine, the captain executes the crewman trying to flee in the raft.

(The P-3 Orion was portrayed by a Il-38 “May” painted in US Navy markings.)

The submarine’s malfunctioning reactor short-circuits the Hughes computer which automatically fires two missiles at the Kiev flotilla. These are intercepted by Kiev‘s air defenses. The computer begins preparations for a much larger missile launch. Meanwhile the Tu-16s complete the refueling but now with the donor plane critically short of fuel for itself. The other “Badger” drops the boat with the Soviet repair team. The American submarine captain does not want them aboard and orders warning shots fired to keep them away.

(Warning shots being fired from the Sturmgewehr-fake M16. The captain carries a real M1911A1.)

The United States notifies the USSR of the situation and requests 10 minutes for the crew to abandon the submarine and scuttle it, preventing the second launch. The Soviet admiral agrees but says that if the submarine is not sunk in 10 minutes, he will do it himself, and an airstrike of Yak-38 “Forger”s sorties from Kiev. The Americans keep their word and scuttle the submarine, ending the crisis. Meanwhile the Tu-16, by now out of fuel, looks doomed. However the pilot recalls the location of an old abandoned Luftwaffe airbase from WWII and safely makes an emergency landing there.

The final action scene, the Tu-16’s emergency landing, did not use special effects. A VMF (Soviet naval aviation) squadron had a Tu-16 past its airframe fatigue hours. This plane was moved to a dirt access road at its base, at the end of which was built a faux WWII German hangar. The “Badger” (with pilot and jet fuel aboard) then taxied full speed down the dirt road, smashing into this building. After filming the damaged plane was cut up there and trucked away for scrapping.

The submarine captain was an erratic, ruthless hothead but otherwise, American servicemen were portrayed in a respectable way. Parts of the dialogue include the Americans praising how advanced Soviet military systems are. Incident At Coordinate 36-80 was a moderate success at the box office. It took over half a year to film and if Hollywood accounting was used, would have been 1982’s most expensive movie worldwide, easily costing more than Blade Runner or Star Trek II.

The submarine used for surfaced scenes was K-438, a “Victor-I” class SSN which served from 1971 – 1995. K-438 temporarily wore an American pennant number “574” which in real life belonged to USS Grayback (SSG-574).

Quite amazingly K-438 was fitted the SOKS system, which the Soviets made no effort to conceal during filming. SOKS is a non-acoustic, non-magnetic sensor that can detect at extremely short (1 kyd or less) ranges, a submerged submarine. This wasn’t an “intelligence disaster”, as the traits of a sensor can’t be told just by looking at the external array. Still, it is astonishing that a civilian movie crew was allowed to film the SOKS array.

Odinochnoye Plavanie (Detached Mission) 1985

This movie was made for a purpose. First Blood Part Two, of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo franchise, was released in 1985 and portrayed Soviet military advisors in an extremely negative way. That movie would not be allowed into the USSR but Mosfilm wanted something to “counter it” in third-world markets, where it would soon appear in secondary release and on VHS. Detached Mission was filmed entirely in Cuba during 1985, the closest setting Mosfilm could find to the Pacific tropics.

The plot is that the Kremlin is close to a breakthrough in peace negotiations with the USA. American defense corporations worry this will cut into their profits and in cahoots with the CIA, come up with a plan. They contact an American soldier, Maj. Hessalt, who committed war crimes in Vietnam and is psychologically troubled. In exchange for cash and a promised promotion, he is to travel to a secret base on a remote Pacific island. When a Soviet destroyer and a civilian cruise ship are nearby, he will fire an anti-ship missile at the cruise liner. The Soviet destroyer will then be framed for the sinking, ratcheting up tensions.

The missile is fired however it locks onto a sailboat that wandered into its path, with a honeymooning American couple aboard. The missile sinks the sailboat. The two American civilians are shipwrecked on the island, to which the Soviet navy responds to their SOS. The first firefight between the Soviets and Americans ensues.

(A Green Beret with one of the StG-44 fake M16s.)

The American man allies himself with the Soviets in the interest of world peace. During the Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev eras this was a common movie trope when the USA was involved: Americans are good decent folk, just led astray by capitalism and their government.

(The American civilian happened to have a WWII M1 carbine with him.)

By now Maj. Hessalt is having a paranoid breakdown and prepares to fire a nuclear weapon at the Soviet destroyer. He orders two US Navy warships to engage the commandos ashore.

(Probably the only time you will ever see a “Osa-I” flying Old Glory.)

The American warships were portrayed by active-duty Cuban navy vessels. The “Osa” above has the first digit of its bort number painted over, presumably a security measure by the Cubans.

Additional action scenes happen as the commandos storm the secret American base to stop the launch.

For Detached Mission Mosfilm used, besides the studio’s StG-44 fake M16s, real Cuban army weapons. The civilian’s M1 carbine was almost certainly WWII Lend-Lease to Cuba. It is an early-production M1 carbine: skinny retention band and no bayonet lug. The USA provided Lend-Lease to Cuba from November 1941 – September 1945.

The Soviet commando has a real FN FAL. Prior to Castro’s revolution Cuba ordered 35,000 FALs of which 12,500 were delivered. For readers further interested Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons did an excellent piece on this forgotten part of the FAL’s history. By the 1980s the Cubans had standardized on combloc kit and no longer neither needed nor wanted the FALs. For the movie, Mosfilm used these FALs as “American” firearms due to insufficient numbers of the fake M16s.

The scene above shows a vz.52 which was the stand-in for M60s as the squad automatic weapon of the Americans. After WWII, Václev Holek in Czechoslovakia adapted the prewar ZB-26 with improvements, for restarted production at Brno as the vz.52. It was chambered in 7.62x39mm. By the 1980s these were reduced to service in the MTT, Cuba’s second-line militia. A vz.52 (probably the same one as above) is also seen in a different scene aboard one of the American warships.

The Soviets are successful in stopping the launch. The United States then obliterates its own base with a B-52 Stratofortress (an obvious plastic model) bombing raid.

(One of the StG-44-fake M16s had a faux scope fitted.)

Detached Mission portrayed Americans (other than the one who joined with the Soviets) extremely negatively. The USA as a whole was portrayed as under the thumb of powerful defense corporations. Racism was highlighted, and several times the Soviet actors portraying Americans used slurs in English. The main antagonist was said to be a wanted war criminal of the Vietnam War. The US Army’s Green Berets were portrayed as unkempt thugs.

One bright spot is the superb performance given by the Latvian actor Arnis Līcītis, who made a very convincing psychopathic villain.

Detached Mission was a flop. The script was clunky and special effects cheap, both in part to production being rushed. Even with “action flick” suspension-of-disbelief, some fighting scenes are hard to take seriously. The ending was also weird: the final 90 seconds or so are the commandos visiting the home of a fallen comrade, to tell the father their son is dead, then credits roll. Hence moviegoers left the theater on a sour note. The movie was mentioned once in the New York Times but otherwise ignored in the USA.

The Russian actor Mikhail Nozhkin (who portrayed one of the commandos) stated that Mikhail Gorbachev pressured Mosfilm not to make any more movies showing the Soviet and American militaries in direct confrontation. That may or may not be true. Another possibility is with Detached Mission lacking popularity, the studio just decided to explore other directions.