Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov (; 2 January 1880, Tula – 16 January 1949,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was a Soviet and Russian engineer who specialized in

weapon A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...

s design. He was awarded the title of

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

in 1940.

Biography

He was a factory worker at the Tula Arms Plant.Дегтярёв Василий Алексеевич // Большая Российская Энциклопедия / редколл., гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов. том 8. М., научное издательство "Большая Российская Энциклопедия", 2007. He became married in 1905. Starting in 1918, Vasily Degtyaryov headed the first

Soviet 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 ...

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

s design bureau at Kovrov Arms Factory. In 1927, the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

was equipped with his 7.62 mm

light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridge (firearms), cartridges of the same caliber as the othe ...

DP-27. This design led to the development of the DT tank machine gun (1927) and two

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

machine guns: DA and DA-2 (1928). In 1940 he became a Doctor of Technical Sciences, and

(he received the second such award in its history just two weeks after

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

). He joined the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

in 1941. During the Axis invasion of the USSR in summer 1941 he created the PTRD-41 14.5mm

anti-tank rifle An anti-tank rifle is an anti-materiel rifle designed to penetrate the vehicle armor, armor of armored fighting vehicles, most commonly tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles. The term is usually used for weapons that ca ...

. In 1944 he became Major General of the

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

Artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

Service of the Soviet Union. He designed a belt-fed light machine gun, the RPD, chambered for the 7.62×39mm intermediate cartridge. Vasily Degtyaryov was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1941, 1942, 1944, and 1949 (posthumously). He died on January 16th of 1949 and was later buried in a cemetery in Kovrov.

Inventions

Degtyaryov developed a total 82 types of machine guns,

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 ...

s and

s, 19 of them were officially adopted. *Degtyaryov designed several models of submachine guns, the best of which would be adopted by the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

in 1934 (modernized in 1940) as the ''ППД'' PPD-40 (from ''П''истолет-''п''улемёт ''Д''егтярёва, "Degtyaryov's submachine gun"). *In 1930, Degtyaryov designed a 12.7 mm large-

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...

machine gun, the ''ДК'', or DK (''Д''егтярёва ''К''рупнокалиберный, "Large-caliber Degtyaryov"). In 1938, this machine gun was upgraded by

Georgy Shpagin Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin (; 17 April 1897 – 6 February 1952) was a Soviet weapons designer. He is best-known as the creator of the PPSh-41, a submachine gun that saw widespread use by the Red Army on the Eastern Front. He also worked with fe ...

and renamed ''ДШК'' (

DShK The DShK M1938 (Cyrillic: ДШК, for ) is a Soviet heavy machine gun. The weapon may be vehicle mounted or used on a tripod or wheeled carriage as a heavy infantry machine gun. The DShK's name is derived from its original designer, Vasily Degtya ...

) (''Д''егтярёва ''Ш''пагина ''К''рупнокалиберный, "Large-caliber Shpagin-Degtyaryov"). *In 1939, Degtyaryov designed his

heavy machine gun A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or ...

called ''ДС'', or DS (''Д''егтярёва ''С''танковый "Heavy Degtyaryov"). The DS-39 was issued to the Red Army and used in the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

of 1939–1940. The belt feed mechanism damaged the cartridge cases and the gun was found too complicated and liable to malfunctions and was withdrawn from service.

Honours and awards

* Stalin Prizes; **1942 – 1st class and 2nd class **1946 – 2nd class **1949 – 1st class (posthumous) *

(January 1940) * Three Orders of Lenin (1933, 1940, 1944) *

Order of Suvorov The Order of Suvorov () is a military decoration of the Russian Federation named in honor of Russian Generalissimo Prince Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800). History The Order of Suvorov was originally a Soviet Union, Soviet award established on ...

, 1st class (September 1945) *

, 2nd class (November 1944) *

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

* Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1945)

Commemoration

On the day of the designer’s death, by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, monthly scholarships were established in his name: * one is for graduate students (850 rubles) and one for is students (400 rubles) of the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute; * two are for post-graduate students (850 rubles) and two are for students (400 rubles) of the Tula Mechanical Institute; * five are for excellent students (350 rubles) of the Kovrov College. On October 17, 1954, a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

was erected in Kovrov for Degtyaryov, and a bust and several plaques were installed on the territory of the weapons factory bearing his name. At the memorial for gunsmiths and designers, a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

was made in his likeness. A museum was opened in Degtyaryov's house on January 6, 1978. In addition, a technical school, a secondary school, a kindergarten, a recreation park, the House of Culture of Metal Workers and the former Komsomolskaya Street in Kovrov were named after him. A pioneer camp near the village of Sukhanikha was named after Degtyaryov. In many cities of the former USSR (

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

, Lomonosov,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

) streets carry the name of Degtyaryov. On November 6, 1979, on the occasion of the centennial of the designer's birth, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued a postal

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter (message), letter or Greeting card, card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one o ...

with his image. January 2, 1980 in Kovrov held a special cancellation of these envelopes. On August 18, 2004, the Russian Post also issued an envelope depicting Degtyaryov.

In popular culture

*Degtyaryov appears in the 2020 Russian

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films ...

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

'', played by Valery Barinov.

References

Bibliography

* * *

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Degtyaryov, Vasily Alekseyevich 1880 births 1949 deaths People from Tula, Russia People from Tulsky Uyezd Communist Party of the Soviet Union members First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Second convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Soviet major generals Russian inventors Soviet engineers Firearm designers Weapon designers from the Soviet Union 20th-century Russian engineers Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 1st class Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of the Red Star