Alright so I found some of the stuff but it's disorganized so I'm just gonna write an effort post on the important part I want to carry across.
In the USSR not only were hunting weapons allowed but all students were given pre-military training. There was a class called Basic Military Training for grades 9 and 10. Teacher would usually be a retired military officer. One would have to take apart an AK and learn to do it within 30 seconds. They would also be taught to fire small-caliber rifles either semi-auto or bolt action on a range, from 25-100 meters. I doubt there was ever something like Columbine in the USSR and accidental deaths by guns either. (Meanwhile in the enlightened Britain one has to register a goddamn flare gun and/or antique fire-arm or have it rendered inoperable). The 2 year mandatory military service (or 4 months officer courses for University students) had every man taught how to use a machine-gun, assault rifle, to dig trenches etc. skills related to warfare that would stay with them forever.
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https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00047R000100160006-6.pdf -
http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12893.html -
https://archive.is/YrEkl - An anecdote:
https://ekabu.ru/125835-sovetskie-shkolnicy-1-foto.html -
https://web.archive.org/web/20170625060750/https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Начальная_военная_подготовка The State encouraged civilian gun use, awarding good marksmanship with medals like Voroshilov's Sharpshooter, awarded to +700,000 civilians. Throughout the USSR you could order hunting rifles and other things from the Soviet Postal service, with a magazine ordering system called Посылторг (Package Trade) similar to Sears Roebuck in the USA, but State-owned. You'd send a copy of your gun license, hardly a big deal considering.
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https://archive.is/nPq3G (catalog instruction scan in the comments below post).
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https://archive.vn/gX0QO -
https://archive.vn/xEA1U -
https://archive.vn/MfRbC Also notice how the wiki claim on gun control in the Soviet Union has (as of 2019) messed up sourcing, talking of gun control beginning in 1929 while sourcing decrees of 1918 and 1920 (When the USSR did not yet exist). The source of these claims is a scurillous pro-czar site that makes fallacious claims that gun-ownership, and everything was far better under the Czar. It also fails to actually quote any of the degrees from 1924 onward, only 'supposedly' describing its contents. The soviet poster, "Citizens! Hand in your arms!” during the reign of revolutionary terror in the Civil War of 1918–1921 was a war-time measure due to a critical lack of weapons available to the Red Army. It is no different to US WW-2 posters encouraging people hand in their metal, paper and silk to the US army. And the confiscation of weapons from those resisting or involved in sabotage is no different to any other revolution in which counter-revolutionary elements are disarmed.
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https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2013/01/hitler-stalin-gun-control/
>“Policemen were responsible for gun control,” writes Katherine Bliss Eaton in Daily Life in the Soviet Union (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004): "Private citizens and institutions could own hunting weapons if they had police permission and registered their guns at the local station house. The militia could confiscate weapons and ammunition from people who showed signs of dangerously irresponsible behavior." Sounds reasonable to me.
Punishment for not observing the rules were initially quite liberal. Before 1935, non-compliants risked prison for less than 1 year, or fines. A 5-year prison term was introduced in the Yezhovschina of 1937, unless more serious charges were brought in. Up 'til the '60s, a whole lot of people carried around guns. If the police asked questions about these, all people needed was some kind of documentation that showed the weapon was legal. This changed at the end of '60s after the first incidents of airplane hijacking* using firearms occurred. The number of non-military government officials entitled to service weapons was drastically cut. Use of firearms for self-defense outside of the home could result indictment for “excessive use of force”, until further investigation, something no different to the USA, which tightened its air-ports further and further, and has been placing "excessive use of force" charges regularly. The Criminal Code of the RSFSR 1960, Article 218, details imprisonment and/or fines for illegally owned/produced weapons; guns, explosives, etc.
Hunting was common and regulated only to prevent harming populations, (Now look at Russia's capitalist poaching) In 1953 (soon after Stalin's death) "On Hunting" law was promulgated by the Soviet of Ministers, postulating that hunting arms and ammunition should be sold with no licensing requirements whatsoever and that the MoD should 'improve production of guns for the benefit of gun-owners, develop and manufacture new better and cheaper guns'. Additionally there were organizations such as OSOVIAKHIM that provided free training in marksmanship and gun culture. According to the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of May 11, 1959 № 478 "On Measures to Improve the Management of Hunting", the free sale of smooth-bore hunting rifles was regulated to prevent poaching. The right to hunt with hunting firearms however remained granted to all citizens of the USSR, who were members of the Hunter's Society, who passed tests on the hunting minimum and paid a minor state fee in the prescribed amount (equivalent to a few dollars). To purchase a smooth-bore hunting rifle, it was necessary to present a member's hunting ticket of the hunter's society. In the industrial hunting areas (for furs), a different procedure was established.
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http://articles.latimes.com/1985-08-30/news/vw-25513_1_fur Not to mention sport's use managed by DOSAAF, which is why soviet snipers were some of the world's best.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSAAF -
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ворошиловский_стрелок As a side note: Vasiliy Zaitsev as an example of hunting weapons and their legality. Zaitsev grew up hunting regularly, owning his first rifle, a Berdan, at the age of 12. Zaitsev was born in 1915, so he owned the rifle in 1927. Zaitsev only joined the Communist party in 1943, 16 years later, yet continued to own several rifles and guns prior to this. This example debunks the idea that non-party members couldn't own guns.
Pavlichenko meanwhile was never a hunter, however she was a civilian marksman champion, but only entered a sniper school for a short period of time before being sent to the front line. There she made her name eliminating over 100 Germans, including 30 enemy snipers.
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/eleanor-roosevelt-and-the-soviet-sniper-23585278/ *A small source tid-bit:
https://splinternews.com/revisiting-the-airplane-hijacking-heyday-of-the-1960s-1793855875