Need Help Identifying Pictures

[Tiberius Tosi]

I have (hopefully) attached some pictures that I found in my great aunt's attic that I believe are from WWI. From what I can tell one appears to be Russian (I know that that side of my family lived in Lithuania but most of the family had to moved to the US) and the other the US. If anyone could tell me definitely what armies they are from, the time period, or even what service (like with the US one if it was Army or marines) it would be greatly appreciated. I apologize for the relative poor quality of the pictures, the real pictures although old are in quite exceptional shape but cameras I guess are not good at taking pictures of pictures. The picture of the writing is on the back of the one that I believe is Russian (it is obvious which one looks Russian and which one looks American). As a little bit of a note on the writing you can see that the last word is Astrowskus, which Astrowski (name was changed on Ellis Island) was the family name that this came from, so I know it was someone in the family (also the guy looks exactly like me, kind of creepy).

Thank you!

PS- Yes that is my leg in the background of the pictures lol, didn't much care to make them fancy.

[43rdFoot]

I can't tell you what the Russian looking one is or when it is from, but the American one looks to be Army, and is definitely pre-war. It looks like the M-1910 uniform which wasn't issued in Europe, and the M-1910 leggings which were dropped immediately after arriving in France. Probably 1915 or 1916, though any period between 1911-1916 is plausible.

[Farnan]

That writing is not Russian. Russian does not use the Latin script.

And the first pic may not be Russian. The Russians were not the only ones who wore overcoats.

[Tiberius Tosi]

I am almost positive he is Lithuanian (the -skus or -skis at the end of the name usually denotes Lithuanian [not to mention the family name in the States was Austrowki, the altered form of Austrowskus], not Russian [sky] or Polish [ski]), my family was not Russian (in fact, they all hate the Russians lol). I believe Russia occupied Lithuania around the time this picture was taken (unless of course it was post-WW I) so it could be that he was conscripted into the Russian army. That's what led me to think that it is the Russian army, also when one looks at the actual picture with a magnifying glass you can see that the bolt on the rifle sticks out straight, it does not curve down at all.

Just as a note the first second and third pic are all the same one, the third is the American one.

[Farnan]

I am almost positive he is Lithuanian (the -skus or -skis at the end of the name usually denotes Lithuanian [not to mention the family name in the States was Austrowki, the altered form of Austrowskus], not Russian [sky] or Polish [ski]), my family was not Russian (in fact, they all hate the Russians lol). I believe Russia occupied Lithuania around the time this picture was taken (unless of course it was post-WW I) so it could be that he was conscripted into the Russian army. That's what led me to think that it is the Russian army, also when one looks at the actual picture with a magnifying glass you can see that the bolt on the rifle sticks out straight, it does not curve down at all.

Just as a note the first second and third pic are all the same one, the third is the American one.

That could be Lithuanian script.