Wow rifles. Clearly the most modern kind of weapon in WW1.

Russia had a gigantic army, rifles are a simple mass market commodity the the US was selling cheaply on mass. Simply sensible to buy some when there are so many other important things that you need to produce. Rifles are very small part of the overall military economy.

It starts with raw resources like steal, coal and everything you need to make explosives. Munitions production, heavy artillery and so on. Railroads, planes and so on.

Again, scholars pretty much agree on the success of Russia military economy. Compared to the state in the beginning of the war they did incredibly well.

Check out this serious of 24 lectures that goes a bit into technology and so on, the last couple are about the time we are talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEETkM6vwQPHJHhXinsuQ...

Winchester lever actions where second tier rifles at that point not Lee Enfield's. Gewehr 98 and so on and used different cartridges

Having to buy basic stuff like that on the open market is a sign that your in trouble.

Wikipedia says

"With the start of World War I, production was restricted to the M1891 dragoon and infantry models for the sake of simplicity. Due to the desperate shortage of arms and the shortcomings of a still-developing domestic industry, the Russian government ordered 1.5 million M1891 infantry rifles from Remington Arms "

What is your obsession with rifles? Non of this proves anything. Is your argument really is 'they buy some things from outside' then that applies to every country. Russia has insane numbers of troupes that needed basic equipment and much higher priority things they need to produce that were actually vital to not losing the war.

This even said 'with the start of WW1' to it not even an argument about how they did during the war.