The Mosin-Nagant rifle, known in the Russia as a "Vintovka Mosina" (Mosin Rifle), was developed under the government commission in the late 1880s and early 1890s, and was officially adopted for service by the Russian Tsar in 1891 as a "Trechlineynaja vintovka obraztsa 1891 goda" (three-line rifle, system 1891; three line means caliber of three lines; one line is an 0.1 inch, so it's an .30 inch, or 7.62mm)

the first batches of the M1891 rifle were purchased from Chatelleraut Arms factory of France, and a full-scale local production began only in 1894 - 1895 at two major Russian state arms factories, at Izhevsk and Tula.

During the First World War, when Russia was in desperate need for more rifles. Contracts were signed with two major American companies, Remington and Westinghouse.

Russian production of this rifle continued until the 1948, when the machinery was sold to Poland. The Mosin Nagant rifle in different variations was a standard military arm of the Russian and Red army for some 60 years, and also was adopted and used by China, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, North Korea and some other countries. The Mosin-Nagant rifle is a bolt operated, magazine fed rifle. It used an integral, single stack magazine, loaded from the clip chargers, with capacity for 5 rounds. Magazine protruded below the stock just ahead of the trigger guard, and had a hinged floor plate, used to unload magazine at once and to clean it. Due to the single stack design and a lack of the feed lips, a special device - second-round cutoff, was built into the magazine, to avoid double feeds. On early pattern rifles this device also worked as an ejector, but since the M1891/30 model, a separate ejector was introduced. Rotating bolt featured the dual frontal locking lugs that were located horizontally when bolt was locked. Rifle is striker-fired, striker was cocked on the bolt open action. Safety was incorporated into the bolt and locked the striker. It was applied by pulling out and rotating a knurled cap at the rear of the bolt. To disengage the safety, reverse operation was required. The bolt could be removed from the receiver without any tools, simply by pulling bolt to the open, then depressing the trigger and removing the bolt. It could be further disassembled without any other tools and contained very few parts. Original spike shaped bayonets featured a rectangular cross-section and a point shaped as a flat screwdriver, so it could be used to as a disassembly tool when removed from the gun. Bayonet was always carried in the battle-ready position. Some late pattern bayonet mountings featured a front sight protection hoods. All bayonets were attached directly to the barrel. Stocks were usually made from birch, except for American-made M1891/10 rifles, that featured an walnut stocks and were thus slightly heavier.

Sniper rifles, based on the M1891/30 rifles, hand-picked for accuracy, were issued with scope mounts on the left side of the receiver and with bolt handles bent down.