This is an extremely rare Colt Government Model Russian contract semi-automatic pistol that has been verified as authentic via Colt factory letter dated Feb 2010. During the 1914-1916 time frame the Russian Army was severely short of arms and ammunition and was forced to purchase thousands of weapons from abroad based on credits that the Russian Government had negotiated with Great Britain. These credits were supported by the Gold reserves held in Russia, however all the contracts had to be placed with Great Britain on behalf of Russia. Because of this Russia was able to purchase Colt pistols through Great Britain. During 1916-1917, Russia purchased approximately 51,000 Colt Model 1911 commercial pistols. These were standard Colt commercial models that did not have any specific Russian acceptance proofs, however the left side of the frame is marked in Cyrillic letters "ANGL. ZAKAZY", which roughly translate to "English Orders". These are an extremely rare pistol, almost no examples were ever reimported back into this country. These pistols fall into the serial number range of "C23000 to C89000", with this example being mid-way in the production run. The left side of the slide has the standard Colt pre-war commercial slide and has the two-line, two-block markings of "PATENTED APR. 20.1897. SEPT.9.1902, DEC. 19. 1905. FEB.14.1911. AUG 19.1913" followed by "COLT'S PT. F.A. MFG. CO./HARTFORD CT. U.S.A." with the Rampant Colt behind the rear of the slide serrations. The right side of the slide is marked "COLT AUTOMATIC/CALIBRE 45". The left side of the frame is marked with the correct Russian Cyrillic markings noted above with the right side marked "GOVERNMENT MODEL/C56231". The barrel is an all blue version, with the separate "H P" proofmarks on top of the chamber area with a small sub inspector proof of "D" and "L" on each side of the lug. It also has the early style (1914 pattern) checkered thumb safety, a serrated slide stop release, Colt wide-spur checkered hammer, flat smooth mainspring housing, along with a set of checkered walnut grips.