In tune with a secret agreement between Hitler and Stalin, the USSR invaded Poland on Sept. 17th, the Mosin was in the hands of almost all the infantrymen of the Red Army. The M38 had just started production, and very few were issued during that time.
On June 22nd, 1941, Germany invaded the USSR. During the first months of the Eastern Front millions of Mosins were captured by the Germans and placed into the hands of naval crews, and later in the War, the Hitler youth and Volksturmm.
In 1943 the Soviets decided they needed a carbine with an attached bayonet. A few M38s were adapted to hold a folding attached bayonet and put into battlefield trials. The trials were successful. Officially adopted in 1944, and known as the M44, it is the probably the most popular Mosin variant in the United States. The M44 is still in use by the Afghan Army and numerous insurgent groups around the world.
Production of the M38 and M91/30 ended in 1945, although several thousand M91/30s were made for sniper use in 1947 at Izvehsk. Soviet production of the M44 ended in 1948, and continued in Poland from 1950-53/54, Hungary from 1951-1954/55 Romania from 195?-195?, and in the Peoples Republic of China from 1953 to sometime in the Mid-60s. It is known as the Type-53, or T-53, China. There have been uncomfirmed reports of North Korea manufacturing a copy of the T-53 sometime in the 1950s or 60s. These rifles would be of doubtful quality, as almost all North Korean weapons are Korean copies of the Chinese copy of the Soviet example. Although M44s (T-53s were not in production as of yet) were used in Korea by both Chinese and North Korean forces, the main weapon were the PPS submachine-gun and the SKS carbine.