I received the following letter from Mr. Ilija Stanislevik who was kind enough to translate certain Russian inscriptions for me.  The references to the Berdan II markings are first.  Below there are references to Russian M1857/67 Krnka markings, which are linked via the "Picture Number"

Subj: Re: Translation, Krnka etc.
Date: 8/24/2003 12:54:59 PM Mountain Standard Time
From: ilijas@siva.com.mk
To: KeithDoyon@MilitaryRifles(.)com

Hello Mr. Doyon,

I think that all five pictures came to me in good condition. The texts written in Russian pre-revolution orthography are readable and here are the results of my translation:

Picture 1 (see below)
First I give you the text following the digits "41", transliterated in Latin letters: "IMPERATORSKIY TULSKIY ORUZHEYNIY ZAV. 1884".
The text reads: "Imperial Arms Factory of Tula" or "Imperial Tula Arms Factory", followed by four digits, probably denoting year. Another meaning is "Emperor's Arms Factory of Tula". I am not sure which English nuance reflects best the Russian original.  The word "Imperial" is in somewhat different font. Was it punched at later date than the rest?
The final word, meaning "factory", is abbreviated to 3 letters followed by dot. The full-length version should be "ZAVOD", of course in Cyrillic.

Picture 2 (see below)
The transliterated text is: "IZHEVSKIY ORUZHEYNIY ZAVOD N". The final N is in calligraphy imitating handwriting. In Russian this means "number". I expect that some digits follow there, denoting the number of the factory.
It reads "IZHEVSKIY ORUZHEYNIY ZAVOD N30.."
"Izhevsk Arms Factory No.30.."  (Keith Doyon Note:  The digits "3 0" are the first of several digits denoting the serial number)

Picture 4
Four digits (year 1859) beneath the dash-dot-dash line. Initials "T.O.Z." above.
Given the context, this would be an acronym for "TULSKIY ORUZHEYNIY ZAVOD" which reads "Tula Arms Factory".

Picture 5
The initials above the dash-dot-dash line are "S.O.Z.". Is it "SESTRORETSKIY ORUZHEYNIY ZAVOD" which means "Sestroretsk Arms Factory"?
The marking to the left is made of Cyrillic capital letter P followed by double Latin I (Roman numeral 2?).

Sound good?
Best regards,
Ilija Stanislevik
Ohrid, Macedonia

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