Fedor Tokarev

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Fedor Vasilyevich Tokarev
Fedor Tokarev
Born	14 June 1871 stanitsa Egorlykskaya, Don River Basin
Died	7 June 1968 Moscow

Fedor Vasilievich Tokarev (Russian: Фёдор Васильевич Токарев, sometimes translated as Fyodor Vasilyevich, or Fedor Vasilevich) (1871–1968) was a Russian weapons designer and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1941 to 1950. Outside the former Soviet Union he is best known as the designer of the Tokarev TT-33 semiautomatic handgun and the Tokarev SVT-40 self-loading rifle, both of which were produced in large numbers during World War II (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War). Due to his contributions to Soviet arms design Tokarev received the Hero of Socialist Labor award in 1940.

[edit] Biography

1888 - Admitted to the Military Vocational School at Novocherkassk; age 17

1892 - Graduated as Cossack noncommissioned officer and sent to the 12th Don Cossack Regiment as an armorer-artificer; age 21

1896 - Returned to Novecherkassk as Master Armorer Instructor; age 25. Applied for admittance to the Military Technical School.

1900 - Graduated as a Cossack comissioned officer, age 29, and returned to his old unit, the 12th Don Cossack Regiment as Master Gunsmith.

1910 - Submitted his version of a conversion of the bolt-action Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle to semi-automatic fire, which merited official testing. Age 39

(to be continued).