The Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda or SVT-40 is a Soviet
semi-automatic battle rifle. The SVT-40 saw widespread service during and after
World War II. Intended to be the new service rifle of the Soviet Red Army,
production was disrupted by the German invasion in 1941 resulting in a change
back to the older Mosin–Nagant bolt-action rifle for the duration of
WWII. After the war new rifles were adopted by the Soviet Union, such as the
SKS and the AKM. SVT-38
Fedor Tokarev created the basic design for the SVT rifle in the early 1930s.
Tokarev gave up his previous experiments with a recoil-operated self-loading
rifle and pursued a gas-operating mechanism instead. Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin had a great interest in semi-automatic infantry rifles, and the
Army held trials of automatic rifle designs in 1935. 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 further trials were held to which both Tokarev and Simonov submitted their
improved designs. This time, Tokarev's rifle was chosen and 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 1939.
The SVT-38 is a gas-operated rifle with a short-stroke, spring-loaded piston
above the barrel and a tilting bolt. This configuration gained wider
acceptance later. There is some dispute about who exactly first developed this
operating principle, as the SVT's mechanism closely resembles Dieudonné
Saive's design of 1937; Saive eventually designed both the FN-49 and FN FAL,
which employ similar operating principles.
Soviet small arms were usually of simple and robust construction, designed for
use by poorly educated and sometimes poorly equipped soldiers. The SVT-38, in
contrast, had been designed with weight savings in mind, including its wood
stock, receiver, and action. It is gas-operated action with a gas-cylinder
cup that was not readily accessible. It was complex by Soviet standards, and was
not suited to handle corrosively-primed ammunition without frequent cleaning.
The SVT-38 was equipped with a bayonet and a 10-round detachable magazine. The
receiver was open-top, which enabled reloading of the magazine using five
round Mosin–Nagant stripper clips. Fairly advanced features for the time
were the adjustable gas system, muzzle brake, and telescopic sight rails milled
into the receiver. The sniper variant had an additional locking notch for a
see-through scope mount and was equipped with a 3.5X PU telescopic sight. This
instrument was slightly shorter than the otherwise similar PU scope used on the
Mosin–Nagant M1891/30 sniper rifle. SVT-40 and its derivatives
The SVT-38 saw its combat debut in the 1939–1940 Winter War with Finland. The
initial reaction of the troops to this new rifle 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. Production of the SVT-38
was terminated in April 1940 after some 150,000 examples were manufactured.
Subsequently, an improved design, designated the SVT-40, entered
production. 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 rifle began in July 1940 at Tula, and
later at factories in Izhevsk and Podolsk. Production of the Mosin–Nagant
M1891/30 bolt-action rifle continued, remaining the standard-issue rifle to
Red Army troops, with the SVT-40 more often issued to non-commissioned
officers and elite units like the Naval Infantry. 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. In a Soviet infantry division's Table of
Organization and Equipment, one-third of rifles were supposed to be SVTs,
although in practice this ratio was seldom achieved. 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. Total production of the SVT-38/40
was around 1,600,000 rifles, of which 51,710 were the SVT-40 sniper variant.
In service, SVTs frequently suffered from vertical shot dispersion. These
rifles were reported to be of "flimsey construction and the(re were)
difficulties experienced in their repair and maintenance." Many rifles were
poorly seated in their stocks allowing the receiver to shift upon firing,
though selective shimming with birch chips was practiced as a field
modification. For a sniper rifle, this was unacceptable, and production of the
specialized sniper variant of the SVT was terminated in 1942. At the same
time, the milling of scope rails in the receivers of standard SVT rifles was
also discontinued. Other production changes included a new, simpler muzzle
brake design. To supplement the Red Army's shortage of
machine guns, an SVT version capable of full-automatic fire was ordered into
production on 20 May 1942; the first batches reached the troops in July. It
was externally similar to the SVT, but its modified safety also acted as a fire
selector. The AVT featured a slightly stouter stock; surplus AVT stocks were
later used on refurbished SVTs. In service, the AVT proved to be a
disappointment: automatic fire was largely uncontrollable, and the rifles
often suffered breakages under the increased strain. The use of the AVT's
automatic fire mode was subsequently prohibited, and production of the rifle
was relatively brief; none were made after the summer of 1943.
A shorter carbine version was designed in 1940 and was submitted to a
competitive test with a design of Simonov in the same year; neither was
accepted for service. It was reportedly produced in small numbers; but again,
this is somewhat disputed. Later, a prototype version chambered for the new,
shorter 7.62×39mm round was developed, but was not accepted for production.
SVTs outside of the Soviet Union The first country outside the Soviet
Union to employ the SVT was Finland, which captured some 4,000 SVT-38s during
the Winter War, and over 15,000 SVTs during the Continuation War. The SVT saw
extensive use in Finnish hands. Germany and other Axis countries captured
hundreds of thousands of SVTs from the Eastern Front. As the Germans were short
of self-loading rifles themselves, the SVT by the Wehrmacht) saw widespread use
in German hands against their former owners. The Germans issued their own
operating manual for the SVT. Study of the SVT's gas-operated action also aided
in the development of the German Gewehr 43 rifle.
Legacy After the war, SVTs were mostly
withdrawn from service and refurbished in arsenals, then stored. In Soviet
service, firearms like the SKS and the AK-47 as well as the later SVD made the
SVT obsolete, and the rifle was generally out of service by 1955. Only a
few SVTs were exported to Soviet allies and clients. Reportedly, some SVTs were
used by Cuban revolutionaries in the 1950s. The Finnish Army retired the SVT
in 1958, and about 7,500 rifles were sold to the United States civilian
market through firearm importer Interarms. This marked the end of SVTs
in regular service. In the Soviet Union, SVTs were kept in storage until the
1990s, when many rifles were sold abroad, along with several other Russian
surplus military firearms. Currently the SVT is fairly widely available for
collectors and historical enthusiasts, and is highly sought. In Russia, limited
examples for civilian use have been sold as the ОСК-88 with some variations in
stock, barrel length and optics. The rifle's popularity is due to a
combination of the inexpensive nature of its 7.62×54mmR ammunition, favorable
aesthetics, historical significance, and pleasant shooting characteristics.
Despite its relatively brief service career, the SVT was a prolific rifle on
the Eastern Front during World War II, and it had considerable impact on
European battle rifle designs during and immediately after the war. The German
G-43 was influenced by the SVT in its design, as was Simonov's experimental
carbine during the closing stages of the war. The FN FAL and its ancestor FN-49
employ the same locking mechanism and operating principle as the SVT, although
as mentioned above, this is most likely coincidental. As a service rifle, the
SVT had its problems, but so did contemporary semi-automatic rifles made
by other countries. The main reason for the gradual downfall of SVT usage in
combat was not its technical disadvantages; rather, the reason was
that, with the immense, continual demand for rifles in the front lines, Soviet
factories could produce other, simpler designs in far greater quantities in the
same length of time it took to produce the SVT.
Users Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
People's Socialist Republic of Albania People's Republic of Bulgaria
People's Republic of China: Used by People's Liberation Army
Cuba Czechoslovakia
Egypt Finland
German Democratic Republic Nazi Germany
People's Republic of Hungary North Korea
Philippines People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Romania Soviet Union
North Vietnam Yugoslavia
See also M1941 Johnson rifle
M1 Garand FG 42
AVS-36 SKS
List of Russian weaponry Notes
^ a b c d e f g h i j k Modern Firearms article on SVT-40
^ a b Steve Kehaya; Joe Poyer. The SKS Carabine. North Cape Publications, Inc.
p. 10. ISBN 1-882391-14-4. ^ a b Edward Clinton Ezell. Small Arms
of the World: A Basic Manual of Small Arms. Stackpole Books. p. 894. ISBN
0-8117-1687-2. May 1946 Intelligence Bulletin on
Tokarev M1940 gives 2720 ft/s Семен Федосеев, "Самозарядная винтовка
Токарева", Техника и вооружение, June 2005, p. 16, gives 840 m/s
^ The Red Army's Self Loading Rifles: A Brief History Of The Tokarev Rifles
Models of 1938 and 1940. By Vic Thomas Of Michigan Historical Collectables
^ Small Arms of the World by W. H. B. Smith 9th Edition Revised by Joseph E.
Smith 1969 p.583 ^ a b c David Naumovich Bolotin;
[translation: Igor F. Naftul'eff ; edited by John Walter, Heikki
Pohjolainen]. Soviet Small-arms and Ammunition. Hyvinkää: Finnish Arms
Museum Foundation. p. 111. ISBN 9519718419.
^ David Naumovich Bolotin; [translation: Igor F. Naftul'eff ; edited by John
Walter, Heikki Pohjolainen]. Soviet Small-arms and Ammunition. Hyvinkää:
Finnish Arms Museum Foundation. p. 112. ISBN 9519718419.
^ W. Darrin Weaver. Desperate Measures: The Last-Ditch Weapons of the Nazi
Volkssturm. Collector Grade Publications. p. 61. ISBN 0889353727.
External links History and technicalities of the SVT-40
SVT info and pictures at Mosin-Nagant.net, compiled by Vic Thomas
SVT-40 Pictorial СВТ трудная судьба, Kalashnikov
magazine, 2001/6, pp. 50–56