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The Fedorov Avtomat (also anglicized as Federov, p=ɐftɐˈmat ˈfʲɵdərəvə) or FA is a selective fire infantry rifle and one of the world's first operational , designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and later in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A limited number of Fedorov rifles were produced during World War I, but the majority, approximately 3,200, were manufactured at the Degtyaryov Plant in the early 1920s. The weapon saw limited combat in World War I, but was used more substantially in the Russian Civil War and in the Winter War. Some consider it to be an early predecessor or ancestor of the modern assault rifle. (2026). 9780754817581, Lorenz Books. ISBN 9780754817581
Captain V. Fedorov began a prototype of a semi-automatic rifle in 1906, working with future small arms designer Vasily Degtyaryov as his assistant. A model was submitted to the Rifle Commission of the Russian army in 1911, which ordered 150 more rifles for testing. In 1913, Fedorov submitted a prototype automatic rifle with a stripper clip-fed fixed magazine, chambered for his own experimental rimless 6.5 mm cartridge, 6.5mm Fedorov. This new rimless ammunition was more compact than the rimmed Russian 7.62×54mmR, better suited for automatic weapons and produced less recoil but occasionally caused jamming. When fired from an 800 mm barrel, 6.5mm Federov propelled an 8.5 gram pointed jacketed bullet to an initial velocity of 860 m/s with a muzzle energy of 3,140 J versus the 3,550 J muzzle energy of 7.62×54mmR ammunition from a barrel of the same length. 6.5 mm Fedorov rifles were tested late in 1913 with somewhat favorable results.
In the autumn of 1915, Fedorov was posted as a military observer to France, in the Mont-Saint-Éloi sector. Impressed by the ubiquity and firepower of the French Chauchat, he nonetheless criticized its immobility. According to Fedorov's memoirs, it is here he came up with the idea of introducing into Russian service a weapon with firepower intermediate between the rifle and the light machine gun, but with mobility comparable to a rifle. His decision to adapt his semi-automatic rifle design for this purpose was one of wartime expediency. Fedorov set to the task upon his return to Russia in January 1916. He retained the mechanism of his semi-automatic rifle, with the major addition of a selective fire switch. The fixed magazine was replaced by a curved 25-round detachable box magazines. Due to limited trial nature of its production, most of its parts were custom fitted and not interchangeable, including the magazine. Therefore, in practice, each Fedorov Avtomat was issued to the troops with only three magazines, which would be reloaded through the breech via standard 5-round Arisaka stripper clips.
Production of the new cartridge was out of question so it was decided to convert 6.5 mm Fedorov rifles to use the Japanese 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka ammunition which was in abundance, having been purchased from Japan and the United Kingdom along with Arisaka. (About 763,000 Arisaka-type rifles were imported to Russia, along with approximately 400 million cartridges for them; domestic production of the Arisaka cartridge remained insignificant though.) The change of ammunition involved only minimal changes to the rifle, including a chamber insert and a new range scale for the rear sights. The noticeably less powerful Japanese cartridge meant that the muzzle velocity was only about 660 m/s because of constrained barrel length.
A US Army analysis from the early 1950s considered that the Fedorov Avtomat was unreasonably complex to manufacture and that it suffered from rapid overheating of the barrel on automatic fire. Russian tests indicated that the gun could fire about 300 rounds continuously before heat buildup rendered it inoperable. This was still an improvement compared to the Mosin–Nagant M1891 rifles, which would begin to smolder after 100 rounds. The main factor in the increased heat dissipation was the metal shroud over the barrel at the end of the forearm, which acted as a radiator. In terms of accuracy, Russian data indicates that when fired in short bursts the Fedorov Avtomat could reliably hit targets having a profile of 0.6×0.5 m at a distance of 200 m. At 400 m the dispersion increased to 1.1×0.9 m, and at 800 m it was 2.1×1.85 m. Consequently, burst fire was only considered effective up to about 500 m.
In early 1917, the order for Fedorov rifles was limited to 5,000 weapons. However, only about 100 Fedorov Avtomats had been produced before the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, when production was halted. The gun's cost estimated in 1918 was 1,090 rubles; in comparison the cost of a Madsen light machine gun was around 1,730 rubles at that time.
In 1920, Lev Kamenev found the Fedorov Avtomat to be a promising design and authorized a limited production run. The Avtomat was used to equip Red Army units in the sector during the Karelian Uprising, particularly the ski battalion of Toivo Antikainen. Reports from combat experiences with the gun during 1921–1922 were very positive as long as spare parts were available. In 1923, 10,000 copies of a 46-page manual for the gun were printed. Number of copies is given on p. 2.
Despite some noted reliability issues and performance issues, the Fedorov Avtomat was deemed acceptable for Red Army use in a 1924 review. However, due to supply problems, Soviet leaders decided to abandon all weapons using foreign ammunition. As a consequence, production of the Fedorov Avtomat was halted in October 1925. Only 3,200 Fedorovs were manufactured between 1915 and 1925.
At the time of its use, the Fedorov Avtomat was one of only three practical fully automatic rifles in service, the other two being the American M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle and the French Chauchat. Although these alternative rifles were initially intended for mobile assault fire, both models became more or less exclusively used as stationary light machine guns due to their higher weight and caliber. However, the lighter, lower recoil Fedorov Avtomat, which was less than half the weight of the BAR and CSRG, retained a unique niche role as a mobile assault rifle. Despite this pioneering status, the Fedorov Avtomat was not without its flaws, and was notoriously difficult to clean, maintain, and repair.
After 1925, the rifle was withdrawn from service and put in storage; the last unit to give it up was the Moscow Proletariat Red Banner Rifle Division in 1928. During the Winter War, an acute lack of individual automatic weapons led to the reintroduction of the stockpiled Fedorovs into service. They were sent to the Karelian front, mostly to military intelligence units. It is presumed that most of the Fedorov Avtomats were expended or destroyed during that war.
In contemporary Russian terminology, the word "avtomat" (meaning "automate" as a noun rather than "automatic" as an adjective) typically denotes the equivalent of the English-language terminology "assault rifle", such as the Avtomat Kalashnikova for example. This differs from the terminology typically used when referring to automatic full-power cartridge rifles, such as the AVS-36 and AVT-40, which instead use the separate "avtomaticheskaya" term.
Contemporary Occidental writers have struggled to classify the Fedorov Avtomat. Some consider it to be an "early predecessor" or "ancestor" to the modern assault rifle, while others believe that the Fedorov Avtomat was the world's first assault rifle. Some say it is "conforming to the specification of an assault rifle", stating 6,5mm Arisaka goes to the same category as 6.8x43 Remington SPC "in terms of calibre and muzzle energy", while being a service weapon in WWI. If a 9 gram bullet was fired with 654m/s it would calculate to 1924.722 joule off muzzle-energy. Intermediate cartridges usually have between 1250-2500 Joule of kinetic energy.
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