87-mm light field gun M1877 (Russian: 87-мм полевая лёгкая пушка образца 1877 года) was a field gun utilized in Russo-Japanese War, World War I, Russian Civil War and a number of interwar period armed conflicts with participants from the former Russian Empire. The gun was initially developed by Krupp, but was also produced in the Russian Empire. Russian-manufactured pieces differed from the German-manufactured ones in breech type and construction elevation mechanism. The gun lacked recoil mechanism.
In addition to the standard variant, a lightweight version was produced. It had shorter barrel (18 calibers), which resulted in reduced muzzle velocity (412 m/s) and range (6 km), but also in much lighter construction (360 kg).
During World War I large number of guns were positioned in fortifications in western Finland. Early in the Finnish Civil War many of these guns were taken over by the Finnish White Guard and became its de facto standard artillery pieces. By the end of 1918 the Finnish Army possessed 144 guns of the type, but soon afterwards they were removed from active service because of obsolescence and their poor condition. A few remained in use in 1920s as practice pieces.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Last night I watched my brothers play,
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In a field two yards away.
For half a century they were gone
Beyond the other side of care
To be among the peaceful dead.”
—Edwin Muir (1887–1959)
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)