SVT-38
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 1939 (production at Izhmash began in late 1939).
The SVT-38 is a gas-operated weapon with a short-stroke, spring-loaded piston above the barrel and a tilting bolt. Thus it became one of the pioneers of this configuration, which eventually became widely used. There is some dispute about who exactly first developed this operating principle, as the SVT's mechanism (as implemented in 1935 competition prototype) closely resembles Dieudonné Saive's design of 1937; Saive eventually designed the FN FAL, which employs the same operating principle as the SVT.
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, featuring a not readily accessed gas-cylinder cup. It was complex by Soviet standards, and was ill-suited to handling the detrimental effects of firing 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.
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