Just picked up this seemingly-common M91/30 today from my local store. Picked it up via gunbroker after a friend tipped me off on it. Anyhow, here's what I know.

The rifle was made in 1941 at Izhevsk (or at least those are what the markings say). However, before the serial number, there is an M and an Г circumscribed inside a circle. This is the mark of the Max Geltz factory (known as Factory 810), which produced Maxim Machine guns, amongst other war materials. Factory 810 was located inside the Soviet city of Leningrad, which came under siege by the invading Germans in 1941. The siege lasted a total of 900 days (Sept. 8 1941 - Jan. 27 1944). The siege has become the stuff of legend and is a gut wrenching story about survival.

Not much is known about these rifles, and to date, there has only been one other found, serial number 356. We don't know if the Max Geltz factory simply refurbished the rifles, whether Izhevsk shipped barreled actions to Leningrad for finishing, or whether the rifle was repaired from combat damage at the factory. The evidence suggests that the serial number was not stamped over a previous number, which one would expect from a repaired rifle, as the serial number font is not what is found on Izhevsk rifles. There is also no evidence that it was rebarreled, as the indexing marks line up underneath the wood. The rifles lacks some of the typical proof marks that you'd find on a '41 Izhevsk. So really it is a mystery as to how this rifle came to be. I'm in the process of researching this factory and so far, very little has come up.

The rifle sits in a post war stock, and since it has been refurbished, all of the numbers have been scrubbed and restamped with the original rifles serial number. But this is expected. The bore is also excellent which is surprising.

Not many can truly say that they can tie a rifle to a particular point in history. But this rifle was certainly on the ground during the Siege of Leningrad, and to me, that makes it incredibly special. For anyone who is interested, please check out the following links for more info:

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?360521-Circle-M-mark-on-91-30

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?364354-Max-Geltz-factory-marked-91-30

As a side note, there were also special bayonets made during the Siege. They utilized captured German blades, as well as SVT-40 blades, welded to the Mosin Nagant sockets. They are known as Blokadnik bayonets and are sometimes offered for sale from Latvia and Estonia. I have ordered one to display with the rifle. Also, I included a picture of them in use.