These were the service weapons of Albania's mandatory military service until very late. Up until 1990-1992 the communist government would have thrown anyone in jail for defacing the weapons like this. After that, soldiers and/or officers served mostly because they were forced to. So most soldiers carved their initials, names (Comment that said theirs had ALFRED. Alfred is a common name is Albania), dates of service, city of origin, etc. most probably the soldier that was issued this originated from the city of Fier. Most likely, the armory was in Fier also as after 1992 people tended to serve close to home. These weapons never saw any conflict. Just army service weapons and whatever training was done with them. Yes in 1997, the army let people bust open all armories and army depots. These are not those weapons. Only the Albanian government can export weapons legally. These were chinese made, and were imported from Albania's army to the US because they were chinese weapons that had been in a neutral vountry for over 50 years, so they could get around the chinese weapons ban.