Can I tell what time of year my rifle was built by the Cyrillic prefix of the serial number?
A. No, the prefixes are not in any known order and certainly not alphabetical order. This was intentional to hide the total production numbers for each year from anyone who might capture a rifle. Although a rifle might be “serial #0001” it is impossible to know if it is the first rifle of the year, the first rifle of the last prefix block of the year, or something in between. In rare cases like first year production of Romanian M44s (1953) the first prefix block is known, but this is not the case with rifles from Izhevsk and Tula. For details on serial numbering see the Mosin Nagant Serial Numbers page.
