This week’s firearm of the week is the Tokarev SVT-40. You may remember a few weeks back I listed the Soviet/Russian battlefield rifles we will be reviewing. We started with the Mosin Nagan 91/30, bolt action. You can buy the 91/30’s for about $100 with all the accessories. The SVT-40 is a cool rifle but had a short life for a variety of reasons. There are not many around but you can find them on the auction sites.
SVT-40
Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda (Tokarev Self-loading Rifle, Model of 1940)
The design of the rifle originated in the early 1930s when Fedor Tokarev gave up his attempts to design a recoil-operated self-loading rifle, and concentrated on the gas operating principle. Stalin had a great interest in semi-automatic infantry rifles, and in 1935 a design competition was held. The winning rifle was designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov, and was accepted into service the next year as the AVS-36. However, problems with the AVS quickly became apparent, and another competition was held, to which both Tokarev and Simonov submitted their improved designs. This time, Tokarev's rifle was chosen. It was accepted for production under the designation SVT-38, with hopes that it would become the new standard issue rifle of the Red Army. Ambitious production plans were made: production was anticipated to be two million rifles per year by 1942. Production began at Tula Arsenal in July of 1939.
As a side note, Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov went on to develop the popular SKS carbine. We will cover the SKS next week.
The SVT-38 saw its combat debut in the 1939-1940 “Winter War” with Finland. The initial reaction of the troops to this new weapon was negative. Among the issues were that the rifle was too long and cumbersome, difficult to maintain, and the magazine had a tendency to fall out of the rifle. A new and improved design was named the SVT-40. It was a more refined, lighter design incorporating a modified magazine release. The handguard was now single-piece and the cleaning rod was housed under the barrel. Other changes were made in an effort to simplify manufacture. Production of this improved weapon began in July 1940 at Tula, and later at factories in Izhevsk and Kovrov. At the same time, production of the Mosin–Nagant M1891/30 bolt-action rifle was discontinued. Since these factories already had experience manufacturing the SVT-38, production geared up quickly and an estimated 70,000 SVT-40s were produced in 1940.
By the time the German invasion began in June 1941, the SVT-40 was already in widespread use by the Red Army. The first months of the war were disastrous for the Soviet Union, and hundreds of thousands of SVT-40s were lost. To make up for this, production of the Mosin-Nagant rifles was reintroduced. In contrast, the SVT was more difficult to manufacture, and troops with only rudimentary training had difficulty maintaining it. In addition, submachine guns like the PPSh-41 had proven their value as simple, cheap, and effective weapons to supplement infantry firepower. This led to a gradual decline in SVT production. In 1941, over a million SVTs were produced, but in 1942 Ishevsk arsenal was ordered to cease SVT production and switch back to the Mosin-Nagant 91/30. Only 264,000 SVTs were manufactured in 1942, and production continued to diminish until the order to cease production was finally given in January 1945.
The SVT-40 shoots the 7.62x54r round. Here’s a picture of mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment