AVS-36: The First Soviet Infantry Battle Rifle 

I would just like to say thank you to the owners of these firearms for allowing Ian to dismantle them for our viewing pleasure.

This gun is brilliant. It was a select fire full powered battle rifle holding 15 rounds - basically the M14 25 years early. It is surprisingly easy to field strip without tools, better than some modern guns. This is truly amazing.

You can see the roots of the sks in that rifle

Is anyone else amazed by how incredibly clever these mechanisms are?

If you knocked hard enough at the wood, you could still hear the "Uraaaaaa" in it.

"The Russians just make crude and simple guns" _[shows them AVS-36]_

"Names you've never heard of, like Resnov." Oohhhh we've all heard of him.

I find it really quite remarkable that even after the complete and total upheaval of the revolution and the following terrifying in-fighting, the brand new Soviet Union did not let grass grow under its feet. Despite whatever you may think about Russian culture and the state of their politics in any given era, you have to admire their ability to get on with pushing the envelope no matter how uncertain and dangerous the present may be.

There was one more interesting feature - its bayonet had a position that allowed it to function as monopod. That was canceled on last period of production, as well as 20 round mags

1936: Lets put a Bolt hold open to our new gun - ok, cool 2018: AK-12 accepted into service - ooh we don't need that

These Russian designs are always interesting, the designers must have paid attention in their physics classes. The axis of the barrel on this rifle looks to be just slightly above the point of contact on the shoulder. The Garand's barrel position was in the more classic position where the barrel length provided the most accurate location for iron sights. Pretty cool.

It is curious to know that Simonov was the apprentice of Fedorov. because this gun actually shows it, both from the outside aesthetically and some of the inner shapes and mechanics too!

This is a work of art in gunsmithing.all of the Geometry involved is just crazy. It's obvious that more things were discovered and then simplified. But they really put a lot of good effort into this weapon. All of the metal dovetailing and machinework is amazing. I can really appreciate this one .

This is a Russian school, which is unique in that each designer adds something different. There is no task to make a commercial profit from the project, there is a goal, to give the army a cheap, convenient, reliable weapon. In the selection process, the final product gets the best items. When developing the Famous SVD rifle (Dragunov Rifle) Simnonov (ABC) also participated in the competition, it was not the best. As a result, he transferred all his achievements and experience to Dragunov. Dragunov developed only sports weapons (accurate but gentle). Ultimately, the Russian army received the best sample that is accurate and works as a "soldier", in the mud and cold. In its unique approach to the problem.

The "extra" flapper locks work as an out battery safety and they also double as an full auto sear, so they are quite essential for this type of locking, striker and sear combo.

I would pay many many moneys for this gun....but... I don't have many many moneys.

The numbers could represent different factories, that produced specific parts. It was a custom in USSR. We had a "Zhiguli" car, that the numbers on the parts were from different factories. You could buy a brand new bicycle, that was made in different republics of the soviet union.

It’s really cool to see many of the elements carried through to the SKS, in this much earlier rifle.

I have a picture of my grandfather with sniper verzion of this rifle

the whole dis and reassembly makes this thing a genius construction.

great info as always

it blows my mind the interesting lives these designers lived. from being an armory extra hand/custodian, to being taken in my famous designers to eventually designing one of the most common weapons on the planet

I love how the trigger system works, it looks so complex disassembled but once you see it working its beautifully simple

Как мало осталось рабочих образцов это винтовки и в таком хорошем состоянии. Спасибо за обзор.

It looks like they took an sks, a mosin, and a tokarev; put them all together and then mixed in a little bit of lhati and a mini14.... Soviet weapons are always such cool looking machines as well. Thank you for the video and the history lesson.

Ian you are such an angel for making these videos, without you a lot of firearms would go, well, forgotten. Very impressive that you upload everyday. I've been watching your videos for years and I think the way you have kept the quality high is very commendable.

2:23 Reznov? Chernov! You walk.

From my semester of Russian I believe its pronounced "See-mon-ov". My Russian history teacher, who's Russian also mentioned him in class pronouncing his name like that.

Reznov? A name we havent heard of? Cutting the jokes this rifle does look interesting

What a fantastic rifle. So much history right there. I’m from the UK, don’t own any guns, I love the history and engineering that is featured in every video that you create. Great work 👍🏼

These detailed teardowns are absolutely fantastic! Seeing the mechanics and learning how different designs all evolved and were informed by each other is seriously fun.

And yet the us took all that time to put a box magazine on the M1.

and btw, this rifles first time saw action in 1939 in USSR-Japan conflict

short video about Stryker fire vs hammer like your short stroke vs long stroke? just an idea. keep up great work.

Not gonna lie for how early this rifle is some of this firearm is brilliant. I love some of the design directions Simonov took and it has some very slick ways of passing hurdles. From that floating seer bar the elevator locking block i love this firearm. Thanks ian again for a fantastic bit of educational engineering history!

"OH! And it didnt hurt that Stalin knew Tokarev, and liked Tokarev." Minor detail lol

I've waited for so long for this piece to appear, thanks Ian! Also, although you were already corrected by folks about pronunciation of "Simonov", i clearly remember that you got it right in some early videos (probably PTRS, don't remember for sure now).

Are you planning on filming the PTRS rifle?

I love these guns, the AVS-36, SVT-38 and SVT40. I own an SVT40 and it is art. It vertically strings shots but I still love it.

That’s a clever but busy locking system. I expect it would give problems with dirt intrusion, but do so safely. The trigger design is also ingenious. There’s a lot going on inside there!

When I still owned a SVT 40 that was a real commitment to clean after a day of shooting....

So the screws a travel limiter, bit like British Prison Officer!

I learned the word “akin” today thx to that amazing channel. It weird how much words are there that not every English native speaker knows. YT is the best English teacher ever.

As simplistic as the Russians like their weapons to be,I could never imagine them trying to MASS produce these rifles right smack in the middle of a war!!! Ian is right about it being a good example of early automatic weapons alright. It's unnecessary busy compared to the simpler weapons we see today. Especially Russian weapons. The "3 lock"locking system is unreal!!!! On the other hand....I wish someone with good milling knowledge would produce quality reproductions of weapons like these,or the G43,etc. There's not enough originals to go around for those of us highly interested in these old kind of guns.

I always love when something is brilliantly simple and too complex at the same time.

СССP on the stock has actualy "SSSR" pronounce: as Soyus Sovyetskih Sotsialisticheskih Respublic (USSR)

NASA : the Saturn 5 rocket is the most complex machine ever made. Sinminov : Hold my vodka...........

My god this thing is complex. Would be a nightmare to disassemble in the field lol. Awesome gun, great video. 👍

Really interesting design with features still found on modern firearms.

Me: _I bet this gun was well liked, it was probably really controllable and a great shooter compared to other semiautomatic rifles in the market at the time like the RSC and the Farquhar-Hill._ Ian at 4:25: "This gun is actually select fire." Me: 😦

This one was great! With these were in 4K. I hope that's an upgrade coming to this channel soon!

I can see why it was quickly replaced. A very expensive rifle to produce.

Looking on the AVS 36 and SVT 40, the "discovery" of AK was just around the corner, the DS Mg became DShk, and DP 27 later became RPD.

That’s a pretty nice looking rifle!

Ingeniously intricate. It's a pleasure watching Ian dismantle things.

Did RU-vid make a new rule about gun prices? I could've sworn that sale prices for auction guns used to be in the description, but I haven't seen a single one lately

I can only imagine how much that rifle will jump in full auto. I imagine most guys kept the gun in semi-automatic for the majority of its service life.

The garand is still the first infantry wepon to be issued to every infantryman. The avs36 and svt38/40 were specialist wepons and never replaced the mosin nagant 1891

Thank you for you job Yan. That's a lot of history knowledge.

Side-note: Svenska Frivilligkåren (SFK) aka Swedish Volunteer Corps whom held the section in northern Finland during the latter parts of the Winter war captured these from the Soviets in the battles of Märkäjärvi/Salla (Lapland). That is the base for the lineage from Simonov AVS-35 / AVS-36 to Automatgevär m/42 (Ljungman AG-42).

Interesting mechanism. I don't know nearly as much about the mechanics of these things as I ought to so I always find these demonstrations useful.

I love this example. The tech that went into this in the 30's is just mazing!

as a sks bro i loved this one, that trigger is crazy complex but simple performing, thanks

@2:24 Reznov... so he lives.

One of the simplest select fire mechanisms. So simple to make, understand and even fix.

Relying on a spring to pull the locking block out of engagement seems like an area that would result in a lot of issues.

Ian: hopefully its Saimonov The designer: my name's Simonov

On stress patterns - they are kinda opposite in English and Russian. I’ve noticed this for both names and adopted words. It is especially noticeable for Latin (a lot of words, especially scientific terms were adopted by both languages from a Latin or “Neolatin”) so when a Russian talks about science in English most of us who are not used to this specific activity are usually mispronouncing Latin terms, slipping into Russian characteristic stress placements. And I know 0 native English speakers who pronounce Russian names correctly at leas half of times and vice versa.

I loved how you used your hands to strip nearly all of that rifle. Then we got to the only screw, and you had to whip out the "specialty tool."

The design of that primary locking block is really interesting. I wonder if they used that in any other rifles?

What a beautiful set of innards this weapon has. Absolutely crazy, love it!

Nice design. I wonder if the toggle locks are as much a fire out of battery device as they are a backup locking mechanism.

This is so awesome. Thank you very much for the video, Ian!

Full auto 7.62x54R... that sounds like fun!

You could put the pins and screws loosely back in their locations, directly after part disassembly, to prevent loss and ready to find on reassembly.

The Soviet's have a really rich history in firearms..as a Military History buff I always remembered them by the "Five Kov's:" Fyodorov, Kalashnikov, Siminov, Tokarev and Makarov. I am proud to say I own at least one of each of the last 4 men's designs!

Nothing against you Ian, you're exceptional man. Extremely knowledgeable and very well spoken on the subjects of your videos. However, if I have to see the ad for iTarget where the guy pronounces it "ertergert" one more time, I'm going to scream!

Thank you for the review rare and in Russia automatic guns! Looking at the disassembly, you understand why the leadership of the red army chose in 1938 SVT-38...

Just noticed you uploaded this on my birthday last year, thank you

The West: "Oh yeah, we were the first to do that!" Russia: "Nyet."

The AVS36: the forgotten middle child between Simonov's light carbine and massive anti-tank rifle.

wow you can really see the similarities to the later SKS

btw See-mow-noff eventually went on to design the famous SKS carbine

I suspect that the locking flaps are more intended to ensure that that the bolt carrier and bolt are all the way forward before the firing pin/striker can actually hit the primer. If everything is not fully forward the bottom locking piece will not be push up into position. I wonder if that gun started out as solely locked by the flaps like on the DP-28 and for some reason they decided an additional locking area was needed.

You didn't point out the selector lock, that square bolt-head underneath the selector lever. Basically it is threaded screw with a square head in a round depression. Normally, the selector lever would be up in the semi-auto position, and the screw would be turned such that it was out beyond the surface of the receiver, blocking movement of the lever down. Squad leaders were issued a metric clock key (the kind you use to wind a clock). Only the squad leader would decide who would have full-automatic enabled and when. Long bursts would damage the weapon, and they only wanted soldiers with good fire discipline using full-auto. Also, on early weapons, that selector lever was only the retaining pin for the receiver cover, and it was not connected to the fire-control group. A separate selector lever was inside the trigger guard in front of the trigger, and essentially looked a lot like the safety, but backwards. There was also a lock for full auto on those older weapons. It was a similar square-head screw through the front of the trigger guard that blocked travel of the selector lever. I think these were all pre-1936, but they were treated as the same weapon, issued right along with the later ones. Also, that retaining pin for the metal hand was redesigned on some weapons so as to block rotation of the three position gas selector. I think shooting sometimes caused it to rotate.

That is ELEGANTLY complicated! Reminds me a bit of the C96 Mauser pistol. Thanks for the vid!

The fully automatic mode was virtually uncontrollable due to the power of it's 7.62 X 54 cartridge. In addition, that cartridge, because of it's sheer length, is problematical in a magazine fed weapon. The Germans passed on the 8 mm Mauser cartridge for STG 44 for this reason, as well as the recoil when in full auto mode. I have fired an M14 offhand in full auto, and it's crazy to handle. So a shorter cartridge is much preferred in a select fire rifle. Thus the 7.62 X 39.

What an incredibly interesting video. You really went into the details with the mechanism.

The flex of the barrel in the subsequent video is quite profound.

Ian, there is no "ai" sound in Russian, so it's not Sai-monov, but See-monov. Also CCCP is not c c c p, it's SSSR which stands for USSR. Great video! I didn't even know such rifle existed. But i'm not really a war fan, i just like watching engineer solutions to firearms.

Always fascinating, informative and entertaining content,Ian.

It's Si-Mo-Nov. Si as in Spanish yes. Mo, as in Monarch. Nov, as in Novel. As far as I'm aware, you're alone in the world in having an AI sound on your I's, so you should probably always just assume that anything with an I in, is pronounced like in Si

2:23 Reznov, I know that guy. We were in Vorkuta together

Wow! this is like the grandfather of fully automatic, quite impressive

Wait after a closer look ,i know why the locking flaps are assymetrical, it's because the right flap is actually an auto sear (to prevent the striker from striking before the bolt locks) That is why it is longer than the left one ,hence why it has a claw like contruction on the back. The flaps are also, Not actuated by the striker, but by a hidden bulge under the bolt carrier that is invisible unless you dissasemble the entire bolt assy,

Wow this is a complicated machine. Shows the genius of the designer. But seems like a lot that could go wrong. Amazing machine

I have seen one last year, almost mint condition, it's a beautifully made rifle and interesting as well.

That is really really cool

Cool! I have been waiting for a video on this one! :D We have a deactivated one, lacking its magazine, in GMHV's collections at Hässleholms Museum in Hässleholm, Sweden. it was most likely brought back as a war trophy from the Finno-Soviet Winter War of 1939-1940 by a Swedish Volunteer Corps soldier from the regiment here in Hässleholm. My grand father did his military service here and served in the Swedish Volunteer Corps during the Winter War aswell.

Thank you for interesting video!