Early Soviet Light Arms
The basic strength of any army is its infantry. The combat effectiveness of infantry is largely dependent on firepower. The greatest military asset of Soviet Russia was manpower. Western efforts to overcome this manpower deficiency were directed toward quality instead of quantity, with the view in mind of increasing the effectiveness of the individual soldier by providing him with mobility and firepower, and by backing him with superior technology and greater industrial capacity.
Western efforts along these lines in the Great War were largely successful. During the Great Patriotic War, the tables were turned, and the forces of Hiterlite Fascism were crushed by a Red Army that had better weapons, and more of them. Fortunately for all concerned, the Cold War never turned hot.
Without small arms - the main armament of the infantry - it is impossible to imagine the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War. Tanks, planes, artillery can turn the tide of battle. However, the battlefield always remains with the infantry soldier. The infantry held back the onslaught of the enemy on the defensive, went on the attack, stormed cities and fortresses, destroyed the enemy's manpower, captured his fortifications and held the recaptured positions.
During the Great Patriotic War, the main weapon of the infantryman continued to be the 7.62-mm magazine rifle of the 1891 model designed by S.I. Mosin, a legendary Russian weapons designer.
When the Bolsheviks rose to power in October 1918, they faced the task of creating an armed force and providing it with the necessary weapons and ammunition, primarily small arms and artillery. The need for small arms was particularly critical. Initially, the Red Army depended upon models inherited from the old Russian Army. These included domestically manufactured Model '1891 Mosin rifles and carbines, heavy 1910 Model Maxim-type machineguns and 1895 Nagant revolvers. Also available were very limited quantities of foreign models of weapons purchased by the Czarist government during the first World War.
Inasmuch as Czarist Russia's technical and economic base had been barely adequate to supply even a third of the old regime's wartime weapons requirements, the new government marshaled its resources for the purpose of developing a self-sufficient arms industry. By dint of a concentrated organizational effort, which was spurred on by fears that counter-revolutionary military attack was imminent, considerable success was achieved, particularly in the development and production of small arms.
Thus, in the two decades following the October revolution, the combined efforts of scientists, designers and technical workers assembled at centers in Izhevsk, Kovrov, Saratov, and Tula enabled the Soviets to build an industry that was capable of outstripping the enemy in small arms production during the Great Patriotic War.
Production of Small Arms (1941-1945) USSR Germany Rifles & carbines 12,000,000 7,500,000 Submachlne guns 6,103,000 1,247,000 Light & mounted machineguns 454,500 617,000
Soviet small arms development was profoundly influenced by F.G.Fedorov, inventor of the assault rifle and founder of the first Soviet design bureau for automatic weapons; N.M.Filatov, a leader in the production and testing of automatic rifles; and A.A.Blagonravov, who provided administrative leadership in small arms research and expedited the development of new systems. Under the guidance of these men, many designers evolved including such notables as V.A.Degtyarev, P.M.Goryunov, G.S.Shpagin, S.G.Simonov, A.I.Sudayev, and F.V.Tokarev. The use of automatic weapons grew steadily during World War II as their superiority for close combat purposes became obvious. Wartime infantry unit holdings included 7.62mm PPD (Degtyarev) submachineguns, PPsh (Shpagin) and PPs (Sudayev) submachineguns, SVT semiautomatic rifles (Tokarev) and, near the end, SKS-45 semiautomatic carbines (Simonov), DP (Degtyarev) light machine- guns, and SGM (Goryunov) mounted machineguns.
The PPD, which entered service in 1940, combined the qualities of both a pistol (low weight and portability) and a machinegun (high rate of fire). The PPsh, supplied to the front at the end of 1941, retained the performance characteristics of the PPD, but was of simpler design, thus making it easier to manufacture. The PPS submachinegun was the most compact (623mm long), light (3.04 kg) and simple in design. It was noted for its folding-type metal stock and a 2-row box magazine with 35 cartridges and was convenient for use on reconnaissance missions. The air-cooled SGM mounted machinegun, weighing 36.9 kg, replaced heavier (66 kg) water-cooled Maxim machine- guns whose water jackets were vulnerable to bullets and shell splinters.
In an effort to provide Soviet infantry units with tactical independence when engaging highly mechanized enemy troops, each infantry regiment had a company equipped with 14.5mm antitank rifles [in modern parlance, these would be considered anti-materiel rifles]. Two models, the single loading AT rifle designed by Degtyarev, and the 5-shot magazine-fed self-loading AT rifle designed by Simonov, were put into service. The armor-piercing capability of the antitank rifles (not less than 20mm at a distance of 500 m) made them effective against enemy armored vehicles, machineguns, and armored emplacements.
With these weapons, our soldiers went through a glorious military path from Stalingrad to Berlin and hoisted the Banner of Victory over the defeated Reichstag.
Later Soviet Light Arms
By mid-century Soviet light arms were of the rough and ready variety. By American standards they were simple and some even crude in both design and construction. However, these arms lent themselves to mass manufacture, and had proven effective in the hands of the Russian soldier. All small arms in the Soviet division are 7.62: millimeter or 30 calibre. A comparison of characteristics of the principal small arms found in the Red Army rifle division and in Western infantry divisions was the heavy Russian reliance on submachine guns. A "submachine gun" provides high rate of fire by using "short" pistol bullets, which have short range and low velocity relative to much larger "long" rifle bullets.
It should be noted, in this respect, that Russian ammunition was of poor quality subject to corrosion and rapid deterioration, and was not particularly adapted for use in automatic weapons. Frequent misfires and stoppages may therefore be expected with these weapons. The short effective range of submachine guns has also resulted in high casualty rates among troops so armed. These casualties were accepted in return for the firepower developed.
The individual Soviet rifleman at mid-century was armed principally with the Mossin Naggant model 1891/30 rifle, a manually operated weapon with a magazine of five rounds. The Tokarev rifle was found in some units. It was a gas operated rifle which proved unsatisfactory for several reasons, and was withdrawn from production in 1943). A shorter version of both these rifles wasn produced as carbines. None of these weapons equal American standard rifle or carbine.
In the Soviet rifle squad, the armament was very similar to that found in the American squad. The main differences were that the Russian squad was armed with a light machine gun slightly superior to the Browning Automatic Rifle in firepower, and had an RPG antitank weapon which exceeded the American rifle grenade in armor penetration capability.
Among the designers, the most prolific was M.T.Kalashnikov, a former Great Patriotic War tank sergeant, who was responsible for the AK-47 AKM and AK-74 assault rifles; the RPK and RPKS light machinegun; and the PK, PKB, PKS, PKM, and PKT general-purpose machineguns. These weapons were uniquely successful in satisfying Soviet requirements for small arms capable of providing infantry units with increased automatic firing power and greater effective ranges.
Kalashnikov's gas-operated mechanism was the start of a new weapons family featuring light weight, reliable operation, a high cyclic rate and a relatively low dispersion shot pattern. The basic Soviet criteria for developing infantry weapons were reliability, simplicity of design, ruggedness, ease of operation and ease of maintenance under field conditions. Above all, however, weapons must be easy to mass-produce.
The Kalashnikov assault rifle was one of the most controversial automatic weapons around, just like its American counterpart, the M16. Some hail it as the most reliable such weapon ever built, while others describe it as “outdated.” The AK-47/74 series of rifle was one of the most prolific and useful weapons on earth. More than 100 million have been made in various parts of the world since 1949 – more than FN FALs, M16s, Heckler & Kochs and Uzis combined.
Still, despite the AK-47/74’s utility, accuracy and ruggedness, numerous attempts have been made to find a replacement for Mikhail Kalashnikov’s legendary invention. In 1981, the Soviet Defense Ministry organized a tender for an assault rifle that would be twice as better as the AK-47/74. As a result, the Nikonov AN-94 submachinegun successfully passed field tests and, although never mass produced, was adopted by the armed forces in 1987. Talk about pensioning off the tried-and-true AK-47/74 resumed in 2011, after the Defense Ministry announced that it was cancelling orders for more Kalashnikovs in addition to the 17 million it already had. Some experts were considering the AEK-971 assault rifle, designed in the late 1970s, as the most likely replacement for the veteran AK-47. Some even talked about buying FAMAS rifles from the French who discarded them in 2016 opting for the more advanced German-made HK416 assault rifle.
The AK platform was famous for its simplicity, reliability, structural strength and low price appeal. The downsides, especially when compared with its most advanced foreign analogues such as the FN SCAR and HK416, are its outdated ergonomics, inconvenient fire mode selector, comparatively low accuracy of fire, etc. Critics also point to the AK platform’s “low modernization potential” and non-modular construction, which was the predominant trend in 21st century firearm production. In theory, modular construction and interchangeable barrels and variable calibers may be vital for Special Ops units when you have to “assemble” a rifle for a specific mission, but many experts describe this as just a marketing trick by arms manufacturers eager to make more money.
Ergonomics-wise the AK’s bolt handle, the clip fixation and the butt shape are reminiscent of the Garand M1, FN FAL, M14 rifles of the mid-20th century and really look old-fashioned. However, modern arms makers – big-time and small alike – have learned to adjust the AK platform to the demands of this day and by minimizing the blowback and with a variety of user-friendly attachments.
According to the Kalashnikov Concern, their all-new AK-12, unveiled during the Army-2016 expo in September, will be able to remedy all these problems. The long and winding roads of AK-12 The AK-12, developed in 2011, looks very much like the AK-74M but with better ergonomics: a telescopic butt, Picatinni rails a newly designed barrel receiver a telescopic sight can be easily mounted on. The barrel was weighted ensuring more accurate fire. The fore grip and the hand guard are attached to the barrel receiver and the gas tube.
In their effort to make the AK-platform as modular as possible, the Kalashnikov designers unveiled the RPK-16 interchangeable-barrel 5.45 mm light machinegun based on the AK-12. With a long barrel the RPK-16 can be used as a machinegun and with a shorter one – as an assault rifle.
In highly secretive programs, some of which remain classified to this day, Soviet engineers actively worked to create unique designs to compete with the US's own next-gen service rifle programs, such as the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW), the Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) program, and the Special Purpose Individual Weapon (SPIW) program.
Looking through some of these Soviet projects in a 20 May 2017 analysis piece for Lenta.ru, military analyst and small-arms expert Vladislav Grinkevich explained that one key difference between the Soviet and American programs was that US weapons designers actively and energetically promoted and marketed their projects, the Soviet engineers' work was more often than not kept secret, much of it emerging only long after the USSR's collapse.
Soviet small-arms designers began experimenting with bold assault rifle designs right from their debut in the late 1940s, soon after the military had approved the 7.62x39-mm cartridge. In addition to the AK-47, which ended up winning the competition to become the Soviet Army's standard rifle, designers from the Tula Design Bureau entered an unusual design – the TKB-408.
Developed from 1945-1947 by legendary automatic rifle designer German Korobov at the Tula Arms Plant (TKB was the Russian acronym for the factory) the TKB-408 was broadly considered to be one of the world's first bullpup rifles. (A bullpup was the firearm configuration where the rifle's action and magazine are located behind the trigger). Aside from its bullpup arrangement, TKB-408 was otherwise a rather standard design, with a gas-operated, tilting-bolt action. State testing after the war did not yield particularly impressive results. The gun had low accuracy, poor reliability and a low working life of only 5,000 rounds. In other words, it was no competitor to the Kalashnikov.
In the early 1950s, the Soviet Army's Main Artillery Administration issued technical requirements for a new small arms system – an automatic rifle also serving as a light machinegun. In response, Korobov and his team developed the TKB-517, a design visually similar to the AK-47, but using a delayed blowback mechanism. Hungarian weapons designer Pal Kiraly had worked to perfect the concept of delayed blowback in his handguns and machineguns during the Second World War.
The TKB-517 would go on to become the main competitor to the AKM, the modernized variant of the AK-47 introduced in the late 1950s. Grinkevich recalled that "Korobov's gun was lighter, simpler and had superior accuracy in burst firing." On its basis, the engineer also developed a light machinegun operating on both magazine and belt-fed ammunition, which would become a competitor to Kalashnikov's RPK.
But notwithstanding its obvious advantages, Korobov's gun was still inferior to Kalashnikov's gun in the area where it counted most: reliability. Many experts believe that automatic rifles with delayed blowback are generally unable to provide adequate reliability for weapons using intermediate and machine-gun cartridges. The sad fate of the French FAMAS rifle, which uses a scheme similar to that of the TKB-517, was indirect confirmation of this.
For Soviet designers, the 1960s could be called the golden age of Soviet bullpups, with Korobov's designs complemented by those of another designer from Tula – Nikolai Afganasyev. The TKB-022 series of automatic rifle designs was broadly thought to be one of Korobov's most interesting creations. These were compact weapons encased in plastic housing. In terms of design and the materials used, the system was a genuine breakthrough – the famous plastic-based Steyer AUG appeared in Austria only about fifteen years later.
The TKB-022 had several variants. The TKB-022P featured a magazine system directly under the trigger, similar to the Israeli Uzi. The TKB-022PM, which had the same 415 mm barrel length as the AKM, was shorter than an AKMS with its stock folded. This was possible to achieve by placing the rifle's magazine well at the butt of the rifle.
Another innovation in the TKB-022 series was the discharge of spent cartridge casings forward, which solved the problem of shooting from the left shoulder. Grinkevich recalled that this innovation would be used in a 21st century Belgian design –the FN2000. Overall, according to available estimates (the official results of the tests have yet to be published), Korobov's rifles boasted characteristics similar to those of the AKM, but were far superior in the area of compactness.
As far as the TKB-022PM was concerned, its unusual center of gravity toward the rear of the rifle was perceived as a problem by the Army. As for the TKB-022P, the magazine feed's placement near the trigger was obviously a dubious ergonomic solution. Finally, the general problem of bullpup designs was their short sight, which has a negative effect on accuracy. It was no coincidence that the Steyer AUG features an integrated telescopic sight.
In the mid-1960s, well-known small-arms designer Nikolai Afanasyev developed his own bullpup design – the TKB-011, borrowing engineering solutions first pioneered by Korobov, including the overall layout, materials, and the cartridge ejection system. The TKB-011 had a very unusual appearance: the front and rear sections of the receiver were designed at an angle to one another.
For one reason or another, Korobov and Afanasyev's bullpup designs of the 1960s did not go past the prototype stage. According to military historians, it's difficult to say why this was the case – most of the designs remain secret, and openly available information on their testing was very limited.
The Soviet military's conservative appraisals regarding steel vs. plastics was likely another reason for the designs' shelving, with planners concerned not only about the guns' properties in rugged combat conditions, but also their ability to withstand decades of storage in cold warehouses. All in all, there may have been many reasons given, but the potential advantages of the rifles did not seem able to withstand the obvious downsides.
Also starting in the 1960s, Soviet engineers would begin to keep a close eye on the work of their US counterparts, and the latters' attempts to increase the efficiency of small-arms weapons. In the late 1950s, the US launched its Special Purpose Individual Weapon (SPIW) program, a series of projects aimed at creating a workable flechette-firing rifle which would fire bursts at an extremely high firing rate, and potentially allow for fire featuring controlled dispersion.
Looking to keep up with the Americans, Soviet engineers also conducted experiments to create rifles with a very high rate of fire, but they used traditional 7.62x39-mm bullets. In 1962, designers created a prototype called Device 3B, out of which the TKB-059 three-barrel bullpup assault rifle would emerge.
externally, it resembled an anti-aircraft machine gun, only smaller in size. Firing was conducted either in bursts, or bursts of three rounds. The rate of fire reached 1,800 rounds per minute. According to available information, the TKB-059 made it through to the state testing stage, and showed very high accuracy, but after that the triple-barrel experiment mysteriously ended.
When the military tasked designers to create a new assault rifle to go with the new, smaller, lighter 5.45x39-mm cartridge in the early 1970s, Kalashnikov went to work on a project that would eventually become known as the AK-74. The successor to the AK-47 would gradually go on to replace it in both the Soviet Army and those of its allies.
The AK-74's successor, the Abakan AN-94 - named after chief designer Gennady Nikonov - also had its origins in the USSR, although production would begin only in the 1990s, several years after the Soviet Union's collapse. The Abakan would become the last and most ambitious Soviet automatic rifle program. Within its framework were plans to create a fundamentally new weapon at least 200-250% more accurate and precise than the AK-74.
By timing, the Abakan, development of which began in the early 1980s, approximately coincided with the US's Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) program, which had a similar purpose – to double the efficiency of the M16.
Both programs' de facto goal was to create an assault weapon of the future, but the Soviets were a little more conservative in their ambitions. Where US designers began actively experimenting with caseless bullets and flechette ammo, Soviet designers were presented with restrictions from the very start: their 'miracle weapon' would have to work using the existing 5.45x39-mm cartridges.
The Abakan program would eventually result in the creation of the AN-94, whose features include delayed recoil and extremely high accuracy for two round bursts hitting close together thanks to its rapid 1,800-2,000 round per minute rate of fire.
Ultimately, the American Advanced Combat Rifle program ended up being a dead-end. In Russia, the AN-94 was formally adopted into service by the military, but the gun was raw, and there was no drive to engage in the necessary fine-tuning in the 1990s, as the country lay in ruins.
As of 2000, the AN-94 was armed with the individual units of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior (in particular the group of special purpose "Vityaz" , special units of DON, Izhevsk SWAT, because the machine has high requirements for skill and weapon culture arrow. Full transition to the AN-94, as far as is known, was not planned. The advantages of the AN-94 are shown mainly, not in assault combat, but in the defense of fortified settlements and special operations (where more importance was given not to high density with respect to heap fire, but reliable single shot defeat purposes).
Alongside the AN-94, named after chief designer Gennady Nikonov, another project to create the USSR's next-gen assault rifle came from Igor Strechkin, who developed the TKB-0146, another bullpup design. One of the major features of Strechkin's design was its mechanism releasing spent shell casings through a special hatch near the gun's pistol grip, allowing a user to fire from his left shoulder.
Nikonov too experimented with bullpups, creating the NA-2 and NA-4 designs in the early 1980s, which incorporated the delayed recoil technology eventually adapted on the AN-94.
Light Arms - Imperial Russia
In the Old Russian state, before the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, the Russian army almost exclusively consisted of infantry; the cavalry, which appeared in Rus' in the 9th century, was only of secondary importance. By the 15th century, the numerical ratio of infantry and cavalry in the Russian army was almost equal; however, even during this period, the Russian infantry continued to remain important in battle. Acting in conjunction with the cavalry, she showed her superiority over the heavily armed knightly cavalry (Battle on the Ice in 1242), over light Tatar cavalry and hired infantry (Battle of Kulikovo in 1380). The gradual equipping of the infantry with firearms has led to a significant change in the way they are used in combat. In the XV-XVI centuries in Russia, like in Western Europe, linear tactics were born. In the battle near Dobrynichi in 1605, the Russian army, armed with firearms, was built in a line of 4–6 ranks. With the formation of the Russian centralized state, the infantry continued to make up the bulk of the army. The organizational unit of the infantry at the beginning of the 17th century was the regiment, numbering up to 1000-1800 people, created according to the European model. The armament of the infantry was of various types and consisted of muskets, carbines, pikes, reeds, halberds and swords. Shotguns with flint locks began to be widely distributed in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century. Pretty soon they reached the Russian kingdom, most likely with the troops of the Commonwealth, and therefore, along with a new type of weapon, its Polish name was borrowed - fuzja, which goes back to the French word "fusil", that is, "gun". Lighter and more convenient than a musket, this weapon was much better suited for the large-scale rearmament of the army, which was started by Peter I. So the first Russian fuzei appeared even before the start of the Northern War. In 1695, a batch of 1,000 barrels of this type of weapon was produced in Tula, however, even with imported, Swedish locks: the development of our own flintlocks in Russia had not been completed by that time. But such a scale of production could not satisfy the Russian army, which was preparing to fight, and soon entered its first major war of the 18th century. The army needed tens and hundreds of thousands of fuses. Therefore, at first, almost half of the standard army weapons that entered the Armory were imported: merchants brought from abroad both ready-made fusees, as well as individual barrels for them, and even individual locks. All this did not help in any way to solve the main task: to provide the army with uniform weapons, the presence of which greatly facilitated the supply. Under Peter I in 1699, the first 27 infantry regiments of 10 companies each were formed, which marked the beginning of a regular army in Russia. At the beginning of the 18th century, infantry ("soldier", fusilier) regiments were transferred to a battalion organization and included in the infantry brigades and divisions. Increasingly important in battle began to acquire firearms, which led to the disappearance of such a type of infantry as pikemen, which was very important in the old days. With the widespread use of hand grenades, companies and consolidated regiments of grenadiers trained in their throwing begin to form. Equipping armies in the 19th century with rifled weapons further increased the importance of fire in battle. The formation of infantry in columns led to heavy losses already during the period of rapprochement with the enemy. During the Crimean War of 1853–56, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. rifle chains began to be used in the infantry. As part of the army, light infantry is reborn again - rifle battalions, which replaced the regiments of chasseurs, which had completely lost their original purpose. The main armament of the lower ranks of the infantry and rifle units was a 3-linear (7.62 mm) rifle of the 1891 model, developed by Colonel Mosin, the so-called "infantry" model - with a bayonet, having the longest barrel and the greatest weight. In addition, machine gun teams, reconnaissance teams and some other units were armed with 3-linear carbines of the 1907 model and 4.2-linear (10.76-mm) carbines of the Berdan system. During the war, only 2/3 of the personnel of the infantry regiments in battle operated a rifle with a bayonet, and 1/3 of the infantry units consisted of machine gunners, grenade launchers, signalmen, etc. Officers, sergeants and certain categories of lower ranks were armed with revolvers of the 1895 model of the Nagant system (there were two types of this revolver: officer and soldier, which differed slightly in weight and in the method of cocking the trigger - automatic or self-cocking). Officers were also allowed to have additional personal weapons of other systems (usually Mauser and Browning pistols). The melee weapons of the infantry, in addition to the mentioned rifle bayonet, were checkers arr. 1881 and 1909 (officers, sergeants), cleaver arr. 1848 (guards infantry, army musicians and drummers), bebut dagger arr. 1907 (machine gunners, mounted scouts). The machine-gun teams were armed with a 3-line easel machine gun of the 1910 model of the Maxim system.|
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