Why is the order to pick up guns from dead comrades for a weapon much more often associated with WW2 Soviets in rather than WW1 Tsarist Russia?

Four words: Enemy at the Gates. The movie is almost single-handedly responsible for the “two men; one rifle” image in popular memory.

Now, events similar to this did happen. However, they were extremely rare and the product of uniquely terrible local circumstances in 1941 and 1942. It wasn’t Red Army or NKVD doctrine to thrown half-armed men into bullets. Armed men are infinitely better than unarmed ones, and the Soviets knew this.

There are cases of Red Army units encircled during Operation Barbarossa during mid 1941 making desperate breakouts – some men had lost their rifles in the chaos; others were unarmed rear area troops caught up in the fighting. A few months later, citizen Opolcheniya militias were also organized by the NKVD and pressed into service at Leningrad in 1941-1942, Moscow in 1941-1942, and Stalingrad in 1942. Due to a shortage of rifles, these militias had to be armed with whatever came to hand, including obsolete Berdan and Lebel rifles. In extreme cases, these Opolcheniya units were forced into battle without enough weapons to go around.

All in all, the “two men; one rifle” tableau should be associated far more strongly with Tsarist Russia than with the USSR. It happened more FAR more often on the Eastern Front of WWI than it did on the Eastern Front of WWII.

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Did ‘Two Men; One Rifle’ Happen in WWII?

Popular myths aside, there are few accounts of Red Army soldiers or Opolcheniya militiamen charging into battle half-armed. One of the few cases is that of 18-year-old Mikhail Zorin.

During the early months of the war, Zorin was was given a WWI-era rifle and a few rounds of ammunition For the barely-trained teenager, it was an overwhelming experience. Recalling the war over 70 years later, Zorin says he wept when he was given the rifle "It was so big and heavy. I was scared, how was I supposed to shoot?"

For nine days Zorin's under-armed unit fought on Nevsky Pyatachok a toehold of land tiny strip of land by the Neva River where the Red Army was trying to break the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1942. Predictably, Zorin's detachment was cut up by the Germans.

"They were killing us like flies. There were corpses lying all over the place. The ground was mashed up by bombs and shells and we simply weren't equipped to fight back."

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Did ‘Two Men; One Rifle’ Happen in WWI?

Yes!

By late 1914, Russia’s rifle shortage was so dire that infantry recruits were being sent to the front unarmed. Sometimes they were sent back to the rear until they could rifles. In dire situations, they were sent into battle unarmed and told to scavenge rifles and cartridges from the fallen.

One Russian military officer wrote in his diary at the end of 1914 about the severe supply shortages:

“There’s not enough food. People are starving. Many soldiers have no boots. They wrap their feet with rags… There are great losses among infantry and officers. There are regiments with only a few officers left. Especially worrying is the state of artillery supplies. I read a commander’s order not to use more than 3 to 5 artillery shells per cannon. Our artillery does not help the infantry, which is pounded by the enemy’s shells. … Reinforcements comprising 14,000 soldiers were sent and they lacked rifles.”

Even by July 1915, the rifle shortage was still such a problem that Russian troops were being sent to fight unarmed. Those lucky enough to have rifles often didn’t have enough ammunition – their bayonetted rifles were little better than spears.

General Anton Denikin, commander of the 4th Rifle Brigade, later wrote about the shortages of 1915:

“I recall the battle of Przemysl in the middle of May [1915]. 11 days of bitter fighting... 11 days of the terrible roaring of German heavy artillery, literally wiping out our trenches together with their defenders. We almost did not respond [to their fire] – we had nothing. Regiments exhausted to the last possible degree, beat off one attack after another with bayonets, or shooting point blank. Blood was spilling… The number of graves grew as two regiments were almost completely destroyed by German artillery fire.”

So why didn’t Russian soldier have enough rifles and bullets? The logistical nightmare of Russia between 1914 and 1917 is a fascinating study in wishful thinking, hubris, incompetence, finger-pointing, over-ambition, deception, desperation, courage, and other highs and lows of the human condition.