This shotgun is lot #1256 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction.
Presented to Nikita Kruschev at the opening of the 21st session of the Communist Party session in 1959, this is an example of the best sporting arms being made in the Soviet Union at the time. It is an MTs-11 (МЦ-11) side by side double gun, mechanically a Beesley-patent Purdey type with plenty of bold engraving. Only some 600 MTs-11 guns were made between 1951 and 1960, by TsKIB SOO (ЦКИБ СОО) – the Central Design and Research Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Arms located in Tula. It is a very well made gun, complete with stereotypically poor quality case, and lacquer coating the barrels for some reason.
What I’d like to know is how this gun came to the U.S. – did Kruschev present it to someone here? Did a defector smuggle it out? Was it imported legally? One would think this would have ended up in a museum in Moscow or used by Vladimir to hunt grouse while riding his grizzly bear…
Here is one distinct possibility
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Khrushchev
“Did a defector smuggle it out?” — Ah, the romance… No, I suspect his son who lives in the US sold it.
I guess there is no way to remove a comment. For some reason I did not see Denny’s reply when I added mine. He already answered it.
What a catch, this should garner high price in bidding. When comes to gun it is as brash and boisterous as “kukuruznik” (corn-man) Khrushchev. This man almost caused world disaster and was later suspended and pilloried by Com-party leadership. It is rather ironic that all what is left after him on this side of Atlantic is this plush artifact.
Btw, I wonder if there was ever shot fired out of this. My guess is to contrary.
Regarding name “kukuruznik” (my own nickname for N.S.K.)
https://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/january-18/
He came to his love of corn during his visit in U.S.A
He loved corn? That’s mildly funny (although everyone loves corn). There’s also a dual-pun in the nickname, “coo-coo” (“kuku”) meaning mentally unstable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes#Khrushchev
“This man almost caused world disaster and was later suspended and pilloried by Com-party leadership.”
That image is… far from being complete. Keep in mind he was first of leaders of Soviet Union to leave this post without dying or becoming so ill to unable to held it. Also note that he undertake risk of issuing so called Secret Speech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khrushchev%27s_Secret_Speech which denounced Stalin decisions as First Secretary, which naturally caused some old minions of former First Secretary and some misinformed Soviet citizens to look at him as heretic. This also caused deterioration of PRC-USSR relations, but keep in mind that he abandoned Stalin’s… hmm… aggressive building methods using workforce consisting of “political prisoners” of which many examples could be given, but I would limit myself only to one – namely Camp 503: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18116112
In terms of relations with external political entities N.S.Khrushchev popularized peaceful cohabitation which in reality mean shift towards proxy wars which lessened chance of “all-out” war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_coexistence#Soviet_policy
Although I was child at time as the story broke out, I well remember the huge sigh of relief after denunciation of “cult of (Stalin’s) personality”. That is rightly added to N.S.K’s credit and that by itself is a significant achievement, although there must have been influential backers in politburo, who stood behind the motion. No single man could do it on his own.
What’s particularly interesting to me is that the slotted screws that hold the action together are engraved and incorporated into the design. Excellent craftsmanship.
ln quality shotguns, the bottom end of action body joining with forearm iron should be even leveled and slighest hanging down like a goat beard is the indicator of its craftsmans unsuffiency in parts laying down and design ability. This gun seems near excellent.
Haven’t watched the video yet, but the initial picture of the underside of the receiver, shows that the craftsmen at Tula were able to get the screw slots correctly aligned;
it’s not actually that difficult a task and, there are several ways to accomplish it,
The wood to metal fit that is visible in the still shot, is about what you would expect from a budget price 1970s Spanish (Anson & Deeley patent) boxlock.
The Beesley patent is actually expensive to make and to make well, which is one reason why most sidelock actions that are made world wide, copy the Holland & Holland “Royal” action, with or without the intercepting sears.
The Beesley has the advantage of being naturally “self opening”, as the hammers are cocked by the closing of the action
The frayed, unfinished edges of the lining seem too to me to be too crappy to be in their original state. Perhaps the interior was damaged somehow and then Khrushchev’s son, or whoever had possession of it, performed unprofessional repairs.
I agree.
How did the shotgun get to America?! Did his son sell it?
Getting screw heads to align is easy when you’re making the gun from scratch. Just use screws and bolts with very thick heads, whose slot bottoms are higher than the surface you’ll end up with. When all the mechanical work and fitting is done,mill the screw head off to final height- it will then be slotless. Put the slots wherever you want then.
Ok, watched the video.
I love the engraving, in a very twisted sort of way. The workers paradise built on mass graves containing tens of millions, and where life expectancy declined every single year from 1917…
Hmmmm, it’s unusual to see a sidelock that’s not stocked up to the fences.
Skip line checkering on a sidelock? Very tacky. I guess that it was the fashion at the time, Weatherby’s rifles from that time were covered in it, and white line spacers as well, but it doesn’t age well, and it’s not very well done.
And a beavertail fore end. Probably a very sensible addition in a place that gets cold winters. A splinter fore end looks good, but those barrels can get cold to hold, even in a mild British winter.
As for the dear leader of a socialist commonwealth, in which all animals are equal, having a bespoke sidelock shotgun
Well, Karl Marx, never addressed the inner contradictions inherent in his workers paradise
And even if he had, Engels would probably have suppressed the work.
Weapon god for slavic gays
A little more on the beavertail fore end
They’re not common on side by side doubles, but they do appear from time to time, even on the extreme high end bespoke side by side (shot)guns and rifles.
There’s even a picture somewhere of a bespoke side by side that had belonged to a pre independence Indian noble, that even had a top handguard