Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov

Soviet weapons designer

Date of Birth: 22-Sep-1894

Place of Birth: Vladimir Governorate

Date of Death: 06-May-1986

Profession: engineer, inventor

Zodiac Sign: Virgo


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About Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov

  • Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov (Russian: ?????? ?????????? ???????; 9 April 1894 – 6 May 1986) was a Russian weapons designer; he is one of the fathers of the modern assault rifle. Mostly known for the Samozaryadnyi karabin sistemi Simonova (Russian: ???????????? ??????? ??????? ????????), 1945 (Self-loading Carbine, Simonov's system, 1945), or SKS carbine, he also pioneered the assault and semi-automatic rifle field in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly under the supervision of both Vladimir Fyodorov and Fedor Tokarev.
  • His early work preceded both the M1 Garand (of 1933), and the later M1 Carbine, AK-47, and M16 series. Born in 1894 in Fedotovo, Simonov began work in a foundry immediately after completing his elementary school studies.
  • By the end of World War I, after completing a basic technician's course of instruction, he began working on a pioneering automatic rifle designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov, the Federov Avtomat.
  • After the Russian Revolution, Simonov continued further at the Moscow Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1924 to work at Russia's giant Tula Arsenal.
  • By 1926 he had become a quality-control inspector at Tula, and by 1927, had been promoted into the Soviet Design and Development Department where he worked directly under Fyodorov.
  • The Simonov AVS-36, which entered service in the 1930s would see service in the early part of World War II, up to about 1940 or so where it was replaced by other semi-automatic designs. During World War II, Simonov designed some firearms of his own; a submachine gun which did not enter production, and a self-loading anti-tank rifle, the 14.5×114mm PTRS, which went on to form the basis — in scaled-down form - of the SKS.
  • An earlier semi-automatic rifle, the AVS-36, was hindered by official insistence on using the powerful 7.62×54mmR, which was at that point standard amongst Russian rifles.
  • Unfortunately, as had been demonstrated with the Fedor Tokarev's SVT-40, the rim of the 7.62×54mmR was detrimental to the rapid, reliable function of a semi-automatic rifle.
  • The design was proven with the 14.5×114mm PTRS-41 ammo.
  • The SKS could have been scaled to fire the 7.62×54mmR.
  • The power just wasn't needed. By 1943, advances in thinking - and confirmed data showed engagements took place between 100 meters to 300 meters — led to the adoption of a shorter, less powerful round, the 7.62×39mm M1943 (also known as "7.62 Soviet" or "7.62 short" to differentiate it from several other rounds in 7.62 mm calibre).
  • Field trials of the new rifle proved the weapon and, in 1944 a pre-production run of the SKS went to the Belorussian Offensive for battlefield trials.
  • After some tweaking, it was officially adopted and designated the 7.62 Samozaryadnyi Karabin Sistemy Simonova Obrazets 1945 g.
  • (translated, "7.62 Self-loading Carbine System Simonov model year 1945") or SKS-45, and chosen as the ideal replacement for the SVT-40.

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