Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov

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

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

After the October Revolution, Vladimir Fyodorov was appointed head and technical director (1918-1931) of the first Soviet weapons plant, which produced submachine guns of his design. In 1921, he organized and headed a design bureau at the automatic small arms factory. In 1922, Fyodorov designed the Fedorov-Shpagina machine gun. 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 a small arms consultant at Narkomat and with the Ministry of Arms (1942-1946). Between 1946 and 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 the history, design, production, and combat use of small firearms.

Honours and awards

 * Hero of Labour
 * Two Orders of Lenin
 * Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class
 * Order of the Red Star