They found an antique Russian Smith and Wesson 44 revolver wrapped in a blanket in the child’s cot near where he was sleeping on a bed.
LOL, a “Russian” S&W? I must have missed something or didn’t read that right.
Russian Model
Smith & Wesson produced large numbers of the Model 3, in three distinct models, for the Russian Empire by special order. The first was the 1st Model Russian (the original order design), and the Russian Ordnance Inspector mandated a number of improvements to the design, resulting in the 2nd Model Russian, with a final revision to the Russian design being known as the 3rd Model Russian.
Smith & Wesson nearly went bankrupt as a result of their Russian Contract production, as the Imperial government assigned a number of engineers and gunsmiths to reverse-engineer the Smith & Wesson design, and then began to produce copies of the revolver—both in their own arsenal at Tula and by contracting other manufacturers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to manufacture copies of the revolver (a common practice at the time—Webley & Scott's British Bulldog revolver was widely copied, too, by European and American gunsmiths).
The Russian and European copies of the S&W Model 3 revolver were generally of very high quality, but considerably cheaper than the S&W produced revolvers. This led to the Imperial government cancelling the order for significant quantities of Smith & Wesson–made revolvers (which Smith & Wesson had already produced), and delaying (or refusing) payment for the handguns that had already been delivered.[5]
In the late 1800's, S&W manufactured revolvers for the Russian government, to their specifications. This model is known as the Russian S&W.
Imperial Russian contract, from the Tsarist era.
***LOL, a “Russian” S&W? I must have missed something or didn’t read that right.***
S&W had a contract to build pistols for the Russians way before 1917. The same as Remington built Mosin Nagant rifles for them.
http://www.russianrevolvers.com/sw_first_contract.html
http://www.mosinnagant.net/ussr/US-Mosin-Nagants.asp