Самозарядная Винтовка Токарева СВТ-40
The 7.62-mm self-loading rifle of the 1940 model (SVT) , as well as the 7.62-mm automatic carbine of the Tokarev system , a modification of the Soviet self-loading rifle developed by F.V. Tokarev .
Rifle sample 1940
After the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, the SVT-38 rifle was modernized, which made it possible to simplify production. In 1940, the rifle was significantly lightened, a shortened bayonet was adopted for it. On April 13, the SVT rifle of the 1940 model was adopted. In the same year, a self-loading sniper rifle was developed and put into production on the basis of SVT-40. It differed from the standard by the presence of a removable bracket for the PU telescopic sight.
The self-loading rifle in the early 40s was supposed to become the main personal weapon of the Soviet infantry. So, in the RKKA rifle division, according to state number 04 / 400-416 of April 5, 1941 [1], it was supposed to have 3307 self-loading rifles and 6992 non-automatic rifles and a carbine, while in a rifle company - 96 and 27, respectively, and in a rifle squad - only self-loading rifles (8 pieces).
According to pre-war plans, in 1941 it was supposed to produce 1.8 million SVT, in 1942 - 2 million. [2] By the beginning of the war, more than 1 million SVT were manufactured, and many units and formations of the first line, mainly in the western military districts, received a regular number of self-loading rifles. In 1942, their production, however, amounted to only 264 thousand (and 14.2 thousand sniper rifles). Production was discontinued by order of the State Defense Committee (GKO) in 1945.
Soviet self-loading rifles, which were not inferior to the American M1 Garand and clearly surpassed the later German Gewehr 41 (G.41 (M) and G.41 (W)), earned a fairly high assessment of foreign experts. A significant number of automatic rifles from Soviet shooters came as a surprise to the Germans at the beginning of the war ("Russians are all armed with light machine guns"). [note 1]
Along with other trophy samples of SVT were adopted by the Wehrmacht. The SVT-40 that fell into the hands of the Finns became the basis for the TaRaKo rifle. In the Red Army, however, their rearmament during the war was curtailed for quite objective reasons. The main one was low-tech production: as noted by the People's Commissar of Armament DF Ustinov, SVT-38 consisted of 143 parts (of which 22 springs), for the production of which 12 grades of steel were required (including two special ones) [3] . This explains the high cost of SVT (higher than the DP light machine gun and an order of magnitude more than the Mosin rifle arr. 1891/30) [4]... In the conditions of the military defeats of 1941-1942, the evacuation of industry, the lack of qualified personnel and the growing needs of the front for weapons, this was completely unacceptable. In addition, like any automatic weapon, the SVT required more careful care and careful handling than a conventional rifle (because the SVT was armed with the Marines as more technically competent fighters). It was difficult to quickly teach these skills to a huge number of wartime conscripts, who often never dealt with complex equipment.
Most of the SVT troops that were available were lost as a result of the disasters of 1941-1942, as a result of which this self-loading rifle did not play a decisive role in the course of hostilities, since the SVT was more complicated and more expensive to manufacture than a magazine rifle and a submachine gun. its production was significantly reduced in favor of less advanced, but cheaper and simpler weapons. A similar situation developed in most other countries participating in the war, with the exception of the United States, where in 1939 the self-loading Garand M1 was adopted as the main infantry weapon, with which the units participating in the hostilities were armed almost without exception, and, in part, Germany, where attention was focused on the development of the "Sturmgever" - a fundamentally new weapon for an intermediate cartridge.
By the end of World War II, the opinion prevailed in the USSR that an automatic rifle for a standard rifle cartridge as the main weapon of an infantryman had outlived its usefulness, and the introduction of weapons under an intermediate cartridge began. At the same time, in the United States and in the West in general, for a long time after the end of World War II (until the mid-1960s and the adoption of NATO | 5.56-mm low-impulse intermediate cartridge), the concept of accurate self-loading and automatic weapons under a powerful rifle cartridge similar to the Soviet pre-war ABCand CBT, examples of which are the M14 (automatic rifle), Beretta BM 59, G3, FN FAL, L1A1 and others. A significant part of them is still in service, although in secondary roles, moreover, new models of this class are being created - for example, the FN SCAR H automatic rifle, intended for US SOCOM special forces.
Tokarev automatic carbine
On the basis of SVT, an automatic carbine was also developed [5] , which had the ability to fire in continuous bursts. He did not receive distribution, and, according to some information [6] , it was withdrawn from service in 1942.
Hunting option
The SVT-40 rifle in Russia is in civilian circulation as a hunting rifle under the official name OSK-88 [7] .
