Gary,
That was not all that unusual at that time. The Nagants made in the US for the Czar's army were made were I now live, Meriden CT. The "old timers" I knew (we're all old timers) had fathers that worked at this factory. The same factory that made the AJ Aubrey shotguns, etc, for Sears. The factory building was torn down only 10 or so years ago, and was replace by a modern factory building.
One story I was told was that the Russian inspectors would inspect a rack of rifles, which were then rolled into another room & another rack rolled into be inspected. When that was done, the second rack was rolled out & the first rack rolled in to be inspected again. The only ones inspected were those two racks!
Another story is that the Russians wanted the rifles shipped to a Baltic port and the bolts shipped to a Pacific port. "Don't want to have them fall into the wrong hands", BUT no chance of them being reunited. You can imagine the attitude of the poor Russian gunt that got issued a rifle without a bolt!
I have heard similar, but more recent stories, from Winchester. One guy was a known drunk, but was good at what he did. (??) Anyway, a famous person showed up with his shotgun - the guy had to be propped up to fix it, but he did. They got a letter back praising the work, saying "now I can hit those birds!" So the famous customer was pleased.
Got to make you wonder. None of this would pass these days.
Regards, Ron
How old was your great uncle at the time?