This is a Mosin M91/30 that was used by the Soviet Union in WWII, refurbished postwar, and then aided to Romania, which was a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Romania was involved in the East Bloc liberalization of the late 1960's. Romania's new leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, was very vocal supporting Romanian nationalism, promoting liberalization, and desiring to make Romania more industrial and modern. The USSR was strongly against nationalism in its satellites, and wanted them to remain backward agricultural producers, dependent on the USSR for any manufacturing. Czechoslovakia was invaded by the USSR in 1968 over some of these issues. Ceaușescu condemned the invasion, and said he would form:
"armed patriotic detachments of workers, peasants, and intellectuals, defenders of the independence of our socialist homeland . . . The entire Romanian people will not allow anybody to violate the territory of our homeland."*
In addition, Romania had a historic aversion to Russia, since the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, which ended the Russo-Turkish War. Russia took Bessarabia, a historically Romanian-dominated region with productive wheat fields, and forced Romania to trade Dobruja, a less valuable region. Bessarabia was under Moldavian (Romanian) control since Russia lost it in the Crimean War in 1856; when Romania became totally free from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, they lost Bessarabia.
As a result, many thousands of Romanians joined the Patriotic Guard; to supply them, second-line rifles were pulled out of storage. I refer to the excellent write-up on mosinnagant.net concerning the subject further. Despite his positive reputation in the west, and the anti-Soviet policies he enacted, Romania under Ceaușescu soon into a harsh dictatorship.
"Instructie" (literally "instruction" or "training" in Romanian) rifles will usually be stamped "Instructie" in the stock or receiver, and have a band of red paint on the stock. This rifle lacks any writing, but has the red paint on the buttplate.
This rifle has a refurbishment stamp and postwar-made stock from refurbishment in the USSR; the receiver, buttplate, and magazine floorplate are matching. The bore has very good rifling with shiny lands. This rifle has a CAI import mark on the barrel and an import serial on the receiver, and was imported in the 1990's.
*. I quote The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, 1804-1999 by Misha Glenny, Viking Penguin, 2000.
Romania was involved in the East Bloc liberalization of the late 1960's. Romania's new leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, was very vocal supporting Romanian nationalism, promoting liberalization, and desiring to make Romania more industrial and modern. The USSR was strongly against nationalism in its satellites, and wanted them to remain backward agricultural producers, dependent on the USSR for any manufacturing. Czechoslovakia was invaded by the USSR in 1968 over some of these issues. Ceaușescu condemned the invasion, and said he would form:
"armed patriotic detachments of workers, peasants, and intellectuals, defenders of the independence of our socialist homeland . . . The entire Romanian people will not allow anybody to violate the territory of our homeland."*
In addition, Romania had a historic aversion to Russia, since the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, which ended the Russo-Turkish War. Russia took Bessarabia, a historically Romanian-dominated region with productive wheat fields, and forced Romania to trade Dobruja, a less valuable region. Bessarabia was under Moldavian (Romanian) control since Russia lost it in the Crimean War in 1856; when Romania became totally free from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, they lost Bessarabia.
As a result, many thousands of Romanians joined the Patriotic Guard; to supply them, second-line rifles were pulled out of storage. I refer to the excellent write-up on mosinnagant.net concerning the subject further. Despite his positive reputation in the west, and the anti-Soviet policies he enacted, Romania under Ceaușescu soon into a harsh dictatorship.
"Instructie" (literally "instruction" or "training" in Romanian) rifles will usually be stamped "Instructie" in the stock or receiver, and have a band of red paint on the stock. This rifle lacks any writing, but has the red paint on the buttplate.
This rifle has a refurbishment stamp and postwar-made stock from refurbishment in the USSR; the receiver, buttplate, and magazine floorplate are matching. The bore has very good rifling with shiny lands. This rifle has a CAI import mark on the barrel and an import serial on the receiver, and was imported in the 1990's.
*. I quote The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, 1804-1999 by Misha Glenny, Viking Penguin, 2000.