Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov (Russian: Владимир Григорьевич Фёдоров) (May 3(15), 1874, Petersburg - September 19, 1966, Moscow) was a Russian/Soviet scientist, weapons designer, founder of the Soviet school of automatic small arms, professor (1940), lieutenant general of corps of military engineers (1943), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1928).

In 1900, Vladimir Fyodorov graduated from Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academy and was transferred to the artillery committee of Chief Artillery Directorate (Главное артиллерийское управление). He designed a number of automatic rifles, such as 7.62 mm (1912), 6.5 mm for cartridge of his own design (1913), and one of the first submachine guns in the world for a 6.5 mm Arisaka rifle cartridge (1916). Automatic weapons designed by Fyodorov were used during the World War I and Russian Civil War.

After the October Revolution, Vladimir Fyodorov was appointed head and technical director (1918-1931) of the first Soviet weapons factory, which produced submachine guns of his design. In 1921, he organized and headed a design bureau at the automatic small arms factory. In 1931-1933, Fyodorov worked as a standardization consultant at a weapons and machinegun trust. He then published a number of works on automatic weapons and was appointed small arms consultant at Narkomat and ministry of arms (1942-1946). In 1946-1953, Fyodorov was a member of the Academy of Artillery Sciences. He was a tutor of Vasily Degtyaryov, Georgi Shpagin, Sergei Simonov and others. Vladimir Fyodorov authored a number of scientific works on history, design, production, and combat use of small firearms. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and numerous medals.