Quality things last long, and this is confirmed by the history related to the defense of Moscow in the winter of 1941. At that time, German tanks approached the capital at a dangerous distance. It seemed that with one more powerful push, Moscow would fall. The most difficult area near Sokolniki and Krasnaya Polyana was ordered to be held at all costs, but there was a shortage of artillery.

Cannons were requested from the Supreme Command, but Stalin just shrugged: there were no reserves for artillery. Then it was suggested to seek help from the Dzerzhinsky Military Artillery Academy. It turned out that almost all training guns had been evacuated to Samarkand at the beginning of the war. After this information, Rokossovsky was disheartened. However, unexpectedly, one of the oldest instructors of the academy intervened, recalling the preserved warehouses with tsarist cannons on the outskirts of Moscow. The command immediately went there, opened the hangars, and discovered large cannons produced at the Perm factory, along with 6-inch shells for them. These guns were very old and had been used in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. Nevertheless, Rokossovsky was glad for this as well.

The old cannons had a strong recoil, so they were buried in the ground up to the wheel hubs to prevent them from rolling back too far. Despite their age, the tsarist cannons turned out to be very effective. Their 40-kilogram shells easily destroyed the turrets of enemy tanks. The Germans were horrified, initially thinking that the Russians were using some secret weapon. To understand the situation, the Wehrmacht temporarily halted its advance. This pause was used by Konstantin Rokossovsky, who quickly brought up reserves and held the area along the Sokolniki-Krasnaya Polyana line. Thus, the tsarist cannons from the Perm factory played an important role in saving Moscow.