Now that there is a service for researching Finnish military weapons through the national archives, it's made collecting these rifles more interesting. They archived an enormous amount of military documentation from WWII and starting a digital archive about a decade ago. In some cases, it's possible to track provenance to individual units and service members. The research service is available here at www.mosin.fi.




I recently bought this particular m/39 off the EE here because its serial number was listed on an index of rifles available for research on that site. Turns out, it's got a very cool history. It was assigned to a very interesting Estonian volunteer infantry regiment of the Finnish army, which served in combat in the summer of 1944 during the Soviet Karelian Offensive. It was called "Infantry Regiment 200" or Jalkaväkirykmentti 200, JR 200 and consisted of two battalions and supporting companies. This particular rifle was assigned to the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion. We know this, because it was inspected with the rest of the company's rifles at Jalkala village in the municipality of Kivennapa in the Karelian Isthmus on May 8th, 1944. Here is the document from the archive confirming this information:




The unit deployed to the front a few weeks later the first week of June 1944. They served in The Battle of Vyborg Bay, having to retreat due to overwhelming Soviet attacks. They suffered about 50 KIA and 100 wounded in the combat. Here are some photos of the unit from the Finnish national media archive SA-Kuva:





In August of 1944, the Soviet Union began a massive offensive into Estonia and this unit was called home to defend the homeland. This unit was deactivated on 16 August, this rifle was turned in on 17 August, and the men shipped back to Estonia on 19 August. Upon landing in Estonia, the unit stayed together and constituted a new Wehrmacht regiment under the command of General Wilhelm Hasse. They fought at the Tartu Front and stayed together until the end of the war. Many of them went on to become prominent Estonians. They had the nickname "Finnish Boys" and had a special anthem for their regiment:



Not often you can find out this kind of history from a surplus military rifle!

Very interesting. Thanks!  I’ll have to try this out with my m39 and 28/30.  I wonder if Lahti L-35s are also researched? I’ll have to look into all this later.

There are some.
https://www.mosin.fi/img/List_of_Lahti_L35.pdf

Where might I find this list?

https://www.mosin.fi/#faq

OP.... this is what I love about these vintage battle rifles and etc... the history!  Thank you for sharing your data find here!

Thats pretty cool. There is one in their list that is 3 above my M39 but mine is not there.

Thanks op. I will look up m39.

Dang. Mine is 1 number away from being in there.

It was sold to me as a M28 but it’s actually a M39.

Woof!

Struck out on my M39, M27, and all four M/91s!

Figured I'd have one, just by the odds.

I came up blank on both my M39 and M27. Off by two serials on both.

I will have to devote some time to looking at this later

One rifle on that list 3 away from mine.  

I bet the Estonians would trade you something pretty cool for it.

That's an awesome site! My M17 was one number off, couldn't find anything for my M91.

I have an M/39 on the list.