Soviet Molotov Cocktail Bottle 1941r

[VolksJager]

Well I had something new arrive last week that I wanted to show.

I dont know if you guys remember the Molotov bottle that was listed on here a while ago but I was lucky enough be the new owner. It arrived last week, safe and sound, and I finally got around to taking some pics. Has a nice paper label with instructions on the front, which was said to be instructions of use. Has an amount of dried up liquid in the bottom and some light staining in the neck. Also has a nice ink stamp at the bottom of the label, which has a 41r at the end.

I am very happy to have this in my little group of Soviet WW2 Items. One thing I can believe is how light it is, the glass is not heavy at all. I now have 2 more things on the way to, a 1944 field dressing and a first model bakelite dogtag capsule, still afew week away though.

Cheers
Jason

[Danmark]

THis thing amazes me! ..... how did an improvised bomb the Finns came up with during the Winter War ( that they gave a derogatory name to ) become "legitimised" into this creation? ....that must be a story in itself.

Jason, are you going to get the label translated? Does it say " apologies the foriegn minister"? ha, ha

Dan

[VolksJager]

Well there is no way I can read the label. Funny story, I picked this up on the way to work one morning and at lunch I sat down with the intent to try to translate or at least work out what the letters are. The I found there were 33 letters! How does that work? Needless to say I didnt get anywhere. Would love to know what it says though

BTW, Seller said it came from Karelia.

[kozowy1967]

Very interesting piece I would think that there would be a few members here that would be able to translate the text on the bottle .
Any thoughts on how these bottles would have been sealed for transport would there have been a cloth wick attached to a cork via a piece of string ?

Regards Mark K

[VolksJager]

Very interesting piece I would think that there would be a few members here that would be able to translate the text on the bottle .
Any thoughts on how these bottles would have been sealed for transport would there have been a cloth wick attached to a cork via a piece of string ?

Regards Mark K

That's how I would have though it would have happened as well. The glass is so light though, you would want them clanging around against each other

Jason

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Jason, somewhere I do have a translation of the Mixture No.1 label.

Nice buy.

Cheers, Ade.

[Poromies]

A great and very interesting item, I have not seen one of these until now! Congratulations! One way of using the Molotov cocktail I know of, was the way Finnish soldiers used it. It was a normal glass bottle such as yours, and on both sides would be a storm match. There was two storm matches because if a soldier would light the match, but not throw it, there would still be another match on the other side in case the need to throw one comes. The bottles would have a normal bottle cap. They would be carried on the soldiers belt, and to my knowledge, one soldier had one molotov cocktail.

The alcohol retailer Alko made molotov cocktails in the factorys in Rajamäki.

[GIZMO8Z]

This may be useful... Google translate with virtual keyboard for the Russian alphabet
Google Translate

[capazo1944]

The first military forces who used the molotov coctail were the spanish forces (both sides) during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) older than the Finnish War.

Regards

[Poromies]

That is correct. Finnish troops gave the weapon the name after Vyacheslav Molotov. Also, the Soviet RRAB-3 was nicknamed the "molotov bread basket".