Fedorov

The Fedorov Avtomat (Автома́т Фёдорова) or FA is a select-fire, crew-served automatic rifle and also one of the world's first operational automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and later in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A total of 3,200 Fedorov rifles were manufactured between 1915 and 1924 in the city of Kovrov; the vast majority of them were made after 1920. The weapon saw limited combat in World War I, but was used more substantially in the Russian Civil War and in the Winter War. Some consider it to be an "early predecessor" or "ancestor" to the modern assault rifle. After 1925, the rifle was withdrawn from service and put in storage; the last unit to give it up was the Moscow Proletariat Red Banner Rifle Division in 1928. During the 1939–1940 Soviet–Finnish war, an acute lack of individual automatic weapons led to the reintroduction of the stockpiled Fedorovs into service. They were sent to the Karelian front, mostly to military intelligence units. It is presumed that most of the Fedorov Avtomats were expended or destroyed during that war. The Fedorov Avtomat is a short-recoil operated, locked-breech weapon which fires from a closed bolt. The bolt locking is achieved by a pair of symmetrical plates mounted to either side of the breech and held in place by a sheet metal cover, each with two lugs, one square and one round, mounted at either side of the breech, latching barrel and bolt together through recesses on the bolt. Those plates are allowed to tilt slightly down after about 10 mm of free recoil, unlocking the bolt. A bolt hold-open device is fitted and the firing mechanism is of hammer type. To minimize development delays and increase the chances of procurement by the Russian Army, the idea of a specific Fedorov cartridge was dropped and the Japanese 6.5x50mmSR (Semi-Rimmed) Arisaka cartridge was selected in its place. This round was a dramatic departure from the proven, standardized Russian 7.62x54mmR (Russian) cartridge, holding less power but dimensionally smaller, allowing a greater ammunition load, and putting less stress on the internal components - particularly during automatic fire. Since the Russian government had already imported many thousands of Arisaka bolt-action rifles and stores of cartridges, supply was not an issue and worked in favor of the Fedorov weapon.