The Tokarev Model 1927

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

was an experimental firearm developed in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

under the leadership of Fedor Vasilievich Tokarev as part of the Soviet Union's drive to be self-sufficient in armaments. It was a blowback-operated, two trigger weapon which fired a 7.62mm round originally intended as a revolver round. Before it could go into production other manufacturers produced their own submachine guns. In competitive trials a weapon designed by Degtyarev proved superior and further development of the Tokarev was halted.

Origin

Owing to supply problems, in 1924 the Soviet leadership decided to abandon all weapons using foreign ammunition. As a consequence, production of the

Fedorov Avtomat The Fedorov Avtomat (also anglicized as Federov, ) or FA is a select-fire infantry rifle and one of the world's first operational automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and later ...

was halted in 1925 and was withdrawn from service by 1928. In 1925 the Soviet Army commission for weapons decided that submachine guns should be introduced into army service, initially as offensive weapons for low-ranking officers. Consequently, a contest was started the following year for such weapons. Tokarev, who was familiar with Fedorov's work, decided to take up the challenge of producing a suitable substitute weapon that would work with permissible ammunition. This resulted in the first Soviet-made submachine gun using the 7.62×38mmR revolver round, because at the time there was no Soviet automatic pistol round accepted for army use.

Description

The 1927 Tokarev is a blowback-operated weapon, capable of

selective fire Selective may refer to: * Selective school, a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria ** Selective school (New South Wales) See also * Selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial select ...

, which is achieved by using two triggers. The rear trigger fired a single shot, while the front trigger was for fully automatic fire. The butt of the gun has a storage cavity for an additional magazine. The firearm is sighted for either 100 or 200 meters, adjustable by flipping up one of the two peephole sights on the receiver. A

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and ligh ...

prototype was also produced; it has a single trigger, slightly longer barrel, and adjustable sights up to 800 meters, despite using the same weak cartridge; an exemplar of both variants can now be found at the

Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps The Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps (), also known simply as the Artillery Museum, is a state-owned military museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its collections – consisting of Russian military equipmen ...

in Saint Petersburg.

Prototype trials

Only a handful of these submachine guns had been ordered for trial purposes, when in July 1928 the Soviet Army leadership decided that a single new automatic cartridge should be developed for both automatic pistols and submachine guns, to be obtained by modifying the 7.63×25mm Mauser round down to the Soviet machinery standard of 7.62 mm. Tokarev had to adapt his design to this new ammunition. By then the competition had been joined by designs from Degtyarev and Korovin, who designed their weapons directly for the new round. Trials were conducted in July 1930, pitted Tokarev models chambered for both rounds against these other two domestic competitors. The Army commission was rather dissatisfied with all guns presented at this trial. Eventually, in Feb 1931, the army ordered 500 Tokarevs chambered in the revolver round, to be sent to the troops for more extensive trials. The feedback received from the troops was apparently negative. The number of Tokarev submachine guns (chambered in the Nagant round) actually produced and delivered remains uncertain.Михаил Дегтиатёв,
Первый отечественный. Пистолет-пулемёт Токарева под револьверный патрон
// ''Калашников. Оружие, боеприпасы, снаряжение'' (Kalashnikov magazine) 2009/1, pp. 70–73 Between 1932 and 1933 yet more trials were held, with 14 different submachine gun samples from Tokarev, Degtyarev, Korovin, Prilutsk and Kolesnikov. The army commission eliminated the guns of Korovin, Prilutsk and Kolesnikov as unsatisfactory due to their unreliable cycling. Ultimately it was a showdown between Degtyarev and Tokarev's gun, but except for weight, Degtyarev's model proved superior in all other departments: accuracy, muzzle velocity, a lower rate of fire (as desired by the army), ease of handling and reliability. Degtyarev's model was eventually commissioned in 1935 as the

PPD-34 The PPD () is a submachine gun originally designed in 1934 by Vasily Degtyaryov. The PPD had a conventional wooden stock, fired from an open bolt, and was capable of selective fire. It was replaced by the PPSh-41. History Developed in the Sovie ...

References

External links

{{Commons category, Tokarev model 1927
Пистолет-Пулемет Токарева
7.62×38mmR firearms Trial and research firearms of the Soviet Union Submachine guns of the Soviet Union