# Sergei Simonov (firearms designer)

Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov (Russian: Серге́й Гаври́лович Си́монов; 4 October 1894 – 6 May 1986) was a Soviet weapons designer who is considered one of the fathers of the modern assault rifle.
Mostly known for the Samozaryadnyi karabin Simonova (Russian: Самозарядный карабин Симонова), 1945 (self-loading carbine of Simonov, 1945), or SKS carbine, he also pioneered the assault and semi-automatic rifle field in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly under the supervision of both Vladimir Fyodorov and Fedor Tokarev. His early work preceded both the M1 Garand (of 1933), and the later M1 Carbine, AK-47, and M16 series.

## Biography

Born in 1894 in Fedotovo (now Melekhovo), Simonov began work in a foundry immediately after completing his elementary school studies. By the end of World War I, after completing a basic technician's course of instruction, he began working on a pioneering automatic rifle designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov, the Fedorov Avtomat. After the Russian Revolution, Simonov continued further at the Moscow Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1924 to work at Russia's giant Tula Arsenal. By 1926 he had become a quality-control inspector at Tula, and by 1927, had been promoted into the Soviet Design and Development Department where he worked directly under Fyodorov. The Simonov AVS-36, which entered service in the 1930s would see service in the early part of World War II, up to about 1940 or so where it was replaced by other semi-automatic designs.
During World War II, Simonov designed some firearms of his own; a submachine gun which did not enter production, and a self-loading anti-tank rifle, the 14.5×114mm PTRS-41, which went on to form the basis – in scaled-down form – of the SKS. An earlier semi-automatic rifle, the AVS-36, was hindered by official insistence on using the powerful 7.62×54mmR, which was at that point standard amongst Russian rifles. Unfortunately, as had been demonstrated with the Fedor Tokarev's SVT-40, the rim of the 7.62×54mmR was detrimental to the rapid, reliable function of a semi-automatic rifle.
By 1943, advances in thinking – and confirmed data showed engagements took place between 100 meters to 300 meters – led to the adoption of a shorter, less powerful round, the 7.62×39mm M1943 (also known as "7.62 Soviet" or "7.62 short" to differentiate it from several other rounds in 7.62 mm calibre). Field trials of the new rifle proved the weapon and, in 1944 a pre-production run of the SKS went to the Belorussian Offensive for battlefield trials. After some tweaking, it was officially adopted and designated the 7.62 Samozaryadnyi Karabin Sistemy Simonova Obrazets 1945 g. (translated, "7.62 Self-loading Carbine System Simonov model year 1945") or SKS-45, and chosen as the ideal replacement for the SVT-40.
Simonov died in Moscow at the age of 91, and was buried at the Kuntsevo Cemetery.

## Weapons designed

* AG-043
* AKS-53
* AKS-91
* AO-63 assault rifle
* AVS-36
* PTRS-41
* SKS
* SVS-38

## Awards and honors

* Hero of Socialist Labour (20 October 1954)
* Three Orders of Lenin (18 January 1942, 20 October 1954, 4 October 1984)
* Order of the October Revolution (4 October 1974)
* Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class (16 September 1945)
* Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (18 November 1944)
* Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (5 June 1944, 5 October 1979)
* Order of the Red Star (8 June 1939)
* Honoured Inventor of the RSFSR (1964)
* Two Stalin Prizes, 1st class (10 April 1942, for the creation of an anti-tank weapon; 1949, for the creation of the SKS rifle)
* Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
* Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
* Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
* Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
* Medal "Veteran of Labour"