Quoted: I'm not very familiar with these but word has it these are the bomb-diggity as far as accuracy and the best MN type there is.
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Here's a brief history.
The rifle has been around since the first Dragoon rifle, the M1891 Mosin-Nagant. There was flirtation with a carbine variant in 1907. A few Mosins were fabricated by contract by Remington during WWI (you'll occasionally see them as converted M91/30s) and a number of them ended up in the hands of the U.S. Forestry service - some of these were even converted to 30-06 and are a shredded shrapnel-laden face waiting to happen - don't ever EVER
EVER fire a M-N that is chambered for 30-06. The rifle was last updated as the M91/30 in 1930 - a number of these were converted Dragoon rifles since it was easier to update existing stuff than make new stuff. The first true carbine variant came as the M38 in 1938. Six years later, the M44 debuted. There is another carbine, the M91/59, but no one can decide if they are Russian or Bulgarian. Again, a lot of the carbines used to be rifles.
Now, nearly all of the old Soviet Bloc countries made their own variants. So did China. Finland bought a bunch as well, and picked a number of them off of dead Russians in the Winter War.
As far as accuracy goes, if you are going to get a carbine, get a Finnish model. They are, hand-down, the best and most accurate - as a group - of all the other carbine. The full-sized rifles of any origin are about on par with the Finns from what I've read, but they are VERY long and very heavy. Of course, they also don't kick as bad as the carbines.