Before saying farewell to the existence of the ‘Russian Luger’ which was mistakenly labeled since many, many years as a (contract) pistol delivered to Russia (for the most part attributable to the extractor marking and the depiction of crossed Mosin-Nagant ’91 rifles over the chamber), there has recently surfaced some strong evidence and facts (which I am continuing to explore) that will open some new significant theories which will very likely lead to this Luger Parabellum being another Bulgarian variation. Firstly, it is necessary to listen to some attention-grabbing history about the principality and kingdom of Bulgaria including the reign of Tsar Ferdinand I and his military connections.
Although Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861-1948) was one of many monarchs to lose his throne in 1918, he had shown remarkable ability to retain it till the end in the face of civil disturbance, revolution and military defeat.
Born on 26 February 1861 in Vienna, Ferdinand was the youngest son of Prince Augustus I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He was elected prince of Bulgaria on 7 July 1887 by the national assembly as successor to Bulgaria's first ruler, Alexander I, who had abdicated in 1886.
His dynastic position was not however recognized by the major powers, a source of ongoing irritation to Ferdinand. At the time of his election as prince he had been serving in the Austro-Hungarian army as a lowly junior officer.
For all that Ferdinand was the nominal ruler of Bulgaria, until 1894 policy was dominated by the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Stefan Nikolov Stambolov. With the spectacular fall from grace of Stambolov in 1894 however, Ferdinand took the opportunity to assert himself over domestic affairs.
Marriage to the Bourbon princess Maria Louisa of Parma in April 1893 helped Ferdinand gain partial recognition from the major European powers, as did the entrance of his young son Boris to the Greek Orthodox Church in February 1896.
This latter event aroused the interest of Russia, who made diplomatic noises regarding rapprochement with Bulgaria. Finally, in March 1896, Ferdinand's position as Bulgarian ruler received international recognition.
Never a man to let pass a golden opportunity, Ferdinand declared Bulgarian independence of the Ottoman Empire on the eve of Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and proclaimed himself Tsar of Bulgaria on 5 October 1908 (celebrated on 22 September). The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed at the Saint Forty Martyrs Church in Turnovo. It was accepted by Turkey and the other European powers.
As imperialistic as any other Balkan ruler, Ferdinand championed the formation of the Balkan League of 1912, consisting of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro. Their aim, as a loose alliance, was to dismember European Turkey for their own disparate ends. Thus the First Balkan War of 1912-13 came about.
Despite finishing up on the winning side Ferdinand's territorial ambitions were frustrated when the allies failed to agree on a sharing of the Turkish spoils. This resulted in an alliance being formed by Greece and Serbia against Bulgaria, later joined by Turkey and Romania: cue the Second Balkan War of 1913.
Defeated and bruised by events in the Balkans, and having set himself against the other Balkan powers, the seeds were sown for Bulgaria's subsequent entry into the First World War with the Central Powers.
Bulgaria began the war as a neutral; however, once Ferdinand was as sure as he could be that the Central Powers were in the ascendancy - given the lamentable French lack of success of the Western Front and the Anglo-French humiliation in Gallipoli, as set against sweeping German victories in the east - he finally threw in his lot with Germany. He hoped for (of course) territorial gains as a consequence of a successful war, chiefly in Macedonia.
It was a fatal mistake. Germany proved by far the dominant ally in the partnership, and exploited Bulgarian natural and military resources to the full. Despite initial military successes against Serbia, success in the field quickly dried up and he found his popularity on the wane.
Having survived revolution in Bulgaria towards the close of the war, Ferdinand was finally forced to abdicate by the Allies in early October 1918 in favour of his son Boris III, having surrendered to the allies in late September.
Ferdinand chose to live thereafter in Coburg, Germany. He died there on 10 September 1948 having lived to the ripe age of 87; a better fate than numerous other deposed monarchs.
During my research, the most exciting piece of military news about Tsar Ferdinand I was his position as Chief or Honoury Guard of the
54th His Majesty the Tsar of Bulgaria's Minsk Infantry Regiment (54-i Pekhotnyi Minskii Ego Velichestva Tsarya Bolgarskago polk) which was part of the Russian 14th Infantry Division, 8th Army Corps, 1st Brigade with its headquarters in Kishinev till 15th October 1915. Each infantry regiment was made up of four battalions, each of 4 companies, except non-Siberian rifle regiments which had only two battalions. This regiment was not only made up of Russian soldiers and officers, but also of Bulgarian officers including those of very high rank even reaching the rank of General. With the presence of both Russian and Bulgarian officers in this regiment, it is likely that these Luger pistols were ordered by the Tsar for the regiment which he commanded with the purpose of the pistols having ‘bilingual’ characteristics. In terms of the (safety) indicators on this new model Bulgarian Parabellum, the major focus still remained on the safety marking ‘ОГЪНЪ’ in the Bulgarian language (started on the M1900/03 Parabellum), and the lesser focus was the extractor marking word ‘ЗАРЯДЪ’ (noun meaning ‘charge’) which was spelt and pronounced the same in the Bulgarian and Russian language. Observing the difficulty of reading the small text on the extractors, it is plausible that this marking was added by a Bulgarian arsenal instead of the DWM factory.
In regards to the presence of crossed rifles on the chamber on this particular Luger, it was common for the insignia of infantry regiments to be represented by crossed muskets or rifles (including those of American infantry regiments). If you examine closely the portrait image hereunder, you will notice a small symbol with crossed rifles which seems to have a credible connection to the infantry and it probably gives a sensible meaning to the crossed rifles on this Bulgarian Parabellum Luger which is now on a ‘paved road’ for receiving a new identity.
Moreover, there is mounting proof of this Luger pistol being of Bulgarian ‘nationality’ in view of the fact that at least three more pistols with crossed rifles exist in Bulgaria. Two of these Lugers are in private hands which have been in the country before the rise of some local Bulgarian collectors as well as before the beginning of the ‘Russian theory’. The other one, which was snatched away since a number of years, used to be housed in an 3rd Motorized Infantry Blagoevgrad Division museum in the town of Blagoevgrad (old name Dupnitsa) located in the southwest region of Bulgaria. I am trying to obtain the serial numbers of the two pistols in private hands which might be difficult. It is not a fluke that the pistol shown at the being of this thread has a Bulgarian holster (with an officers name inside the flap) even though this type of holster was issued in another period.
Based on my research and discussions with various collectors in Europe, I could never figure out why any knowledgeable person/collector from Russia could not correctly and quickly identity this Luger if it was originally delivered to Russia for commercial sales or for an army test/contract. Giving some flexibility to the history and movement of these Luger pistols, there is a good chance that some of these Lugers went into Russia with Russian officers returning from service in Bulgaria. Subsequently, a couple of these pistols some how surfaced out of Finland and Norway by means of smuggling when many Russian citizens decided to search for a better life in those Scandinavian countries. If any of these Bulgarian Lugers happened to have a Russian Tula proof mark, it can easily be mentioned that this proof mark was applied by a Russian arsenal during the time the pistol was in Russia. When we notice the large quantities of surplus army guns and equipment that has been coming out of Bulgaria since many years, this huge amount of surplus inventory probably explains how 15-20 of these Luger pistols were able to ‘sneak’ out of Bulgaria and the surrounding region.
In an attempt to date the delivery of these pistols to Bulgaria, I reckon that these pistols were mainly given or awarded to officers in the 54th Minsk Infantry Regiment shortly after Bulgaria gained its independence in October 1908, and it is also likely that they were received as well by officers of other Bulgarian regiments if we presume that approximately 1,000 of these pistols were delivered from DWM based on the serial number range of those genuine pistols which have been recorded. In the same vein, the offering of these pistols from the king could have been seen as a way to commemorate the Bulgarian independence from the Ottoman Empire. In view of the fact that these pistols are original new model M1906 Parabellum Lugers made by the DWM factory in caliber 9 mm, I am confident that these pistols were delivered
after those Bulgarian Lugers in caliber 7,65 mm which were converted into caliber 9 mm by a Bulgarian Arsenal..
Many collectors still take the view that the lowest and highest surviving serial number of a military or organizational contract may reflect an estimate of the quantity of guns made or delivered which is most often not the case. We collectors want to see production and sales in a categorized and sequential way which is illogical and usually the real procedures are different. In almost every weapons factory in imperial Germany, there were manufacturing procedures which involved accuracy and repeatability tests, failure rates and rejects, which resulted in the actual acceptance rate to usually be lower than those delivered/received. The random selection and assembly of the remaining guns from the stock for the contract probably lead to large number gaps in the serial range spread causing collectors today to miscalculate the actual number of guns produced and delivered while there remains a limited availability of accurate archive records. It is possible that only 300-400 of these pistols were delivered to Bulgaria for the officers of various regiments even though the serial range spread can be observed from around 200 to 850. As a comparable example, why is the M1906 Portuguese Royal Navy Luger rig serial #147 which used to belong to Admiral Hypacio de Brion under King Carlos I happen to fall around the middle of the serial range for this first contract when it would be expected that an Navy admiral should have received a pistol in the first 1-10 pieces delivered? I have concrete proof that this rig used to belong to the admiral because I bought it directly from the family (great-grandson) in Lisbon.
It is difficult to determine whether these Bulgarian pistols were made before, after or during the same time of the two Portuguese Navy contracts in 1908 considering that both contracts had there own 1-3 digit serial range and each contract had an ‘organizational’ emblem on the chamber and not a national coat of arms. In fact, the two Portuguese Navy contracts have an organizational emblem (the crown anchor or the R.P anchor) because the national coat of arms for King Carlos I was completely different. Realizing that DWM had more sales with Bulgaria than compared to Portugal prior to 1907/08, it is possible that those original 9 mm caliber Bulgarian Lugers were made and delivered before the two Navy contracts to Portugal.
According to the ground-breaking information which I have uncovered that will probably end the long-standing glamour the ‘Russian Luger’, I propose that we collectors give it a new identity as a
M1908 Bulgarian Infantry Officers Luger instead of its previous label as a ‘Russian Luger’ which was created from guess-work and insufficient information. Of course, there will be some collectors who will strongly maintain that a (M1900) Russian 7,65 mm Luger Parabellum with the crossed rifles on the chamber will be “legitimate and unquestionable Luger variations” as stated on the web site of ‘Land of Borchardt’ (LOB):
“The fact that eight M1900 Russian Parabellums have been identified is irrefutable testimony to its existence, and when the next noted Luger author picks up the pen for the next chapter in Luger history, hopefully, will acknowledge and recognize the Model 1900 Russian Parabellum as a legitimate and unquestionable LUGER VARIATION…It seems certain from looking at the table that the 1900 Russian Parabellum is a genuine Luger variation”
LOB has steered off course with the use of rambling stories, sketchy quotations and using comparative images of Mosin-Nagant rifles in an attempt to authenticate the ‘M1900 and M1906 Russian Luger’, while my article simply scores strong sensible points that the crossed rifles above the chamber have a direct link to an infantry regiment (organization). LOB wants to some how squeeze in and justify the ‘M1900 Russian Luger’ as the predecessor of the contract ‘M1906 Russian Luger’ which he and others believe were tested by the Russians in 1904 at Oranienbaum (“Test Oranienbaum 1904”). Whatever LOB is trying to say, how could such ‘Russian Lugers’ in the serial range 11,000-12,000 be received after the true M1900/03 Bulgarian Lugers in the 20,000 serial range which were actually delivered to Bulgaria in 1903? This irregular ‘back-to-front’ sequence of events places a big question mark on a ‘M1900 Russian Luger’ with crossed rifles above the chamber (even if it was allowed to be redefined as a ‘M1900 Bulgarian Officers Luger’ without any safety markings). Based on a (1906) Russian dealer’s catalog that I have in my archive, it is plausible that the Russian Army had decided to ‘test-run’ a few M1900 Lugers, but these pistols were very likely ordinary commercial models in caliber 7,65 mm as depicted in the catalog. If we accept that Portugal first received a few M1900 Commercial Lugers, the same could have occurred with Russia, but these Lugers were not delivered as contract Lugers.
Unfortunately, a small group of foolish Luger collectors want to praise themselves as authorities by writing strange articles with no credit, and in the same fashion they try to legitimatize certain Lugers in their collection by scrutinizing and comparing every micro detail and measurement that usually causes them to make unfounded mistakes because they prefer to reply on ambiguous stories from other sources who act in the same way!
The various strong theories, opinions and information which I have explained in this article can be read in the way that the existence of the ‘cross-rifle’ Luger pistols has a low probability under a ‘Russian theory’, whereas extremely high probability under a ‘Bulgaria theory’. It will be interesting to observe in the future how this new information will affect the value of the M1908 Bulgarian Infantry Officers Luger from the perspective of prestige, desirability, rarity and its historical background seeing that the once occupied space of the ‘Russian Luger’ will likely become void.
Finally, by taking a quote from a forum member and applying some humour to it: "I guess, the Russian Lugers will be with us for a long long time" – my modest reply is “the Russian Luger is quickly fading away”.
Written by: Albert Beliard
Important contributions from Nick Stanev
E-mail:
imperialarms@att.net