After the First World War sniping became an integral part of army life, forming an essential part of military training for marksmen selected from the ranks. However, in our country serious interest in what a sniper could do had to wait until the end of the twenties, interesting not so much the higher military command but the chiefs of the all-powerful OGPU-NKVD. Close military technical co-operation between the Soviet Union and the Weimar Republic of Germany ensured the delivery of the latest military equipment and weapons to our country during that period together with weapon production technology. At that time too the first factories producing telescopic sights appeared in the USSR. This very fact, combined with the start on improving the basic infantry rifle – the Mosin three line, led to the production of the first Soviet type of sniper rifle in 1927-28 modelled on the dragoon rifle type 1891.
Illustration 2 – Section of the type 1891/30 sniper rifle with VP (view from left) telescopic sight.
Illustration 3 – Securing the VP telescopic sight to the 1891/30 type sniper rifle.
THE NEW sniper variant of the old rifle was fitted with a D III («Dynamo», model 3) 4-magnitude telescopic sight. The first national telescopic sight D III was a copy of the German «Zeiss» sight and was designed for accurate fire at small targets appearing briefly in the marksman's angle of fire. It was an optical image amplification device fitted with an elevation adjuster and lateral deflection recorder. The top part of the eyepiece had a micrometer with range drum and graduation scale from 1 to 10 (through D every 100 m) and on the left it had a horizontal scale lateral deflection drum. The sight device consisted of a vertical hairline with a sharp extremity (the sight stub) and horizontal hairlines placed at right angles to the stub. The upper edge of the horizontal hairlines was level with the sharp end of the stub forming a sight crosshairs. As long as the aiming device and the target image were within the focal plane of the sight lens, the rifle was aimed by lining up the point of the crosshairs with the target image.
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Illustration 4 – Section of sniper rifle type 1891/30 with PU telescopic sight (view from left)
Aimed fire could be carried out with the sniper rifle fitted with a telescopic sight from 100 to 1000 m’s, and a distance of 600 m with an open tangent sight (without removing the telescopic sight). The new weapon fitted with our sights proved to be very efficient. So much so that when firing off a 10-shot ripple fire over a distance of 100 m the dispersion pattern was 3.5 cm, over 200 – 7.5, over 400 – 18.0 and over 600 – 35.0. Sniper rifles had already become part of the armament of the escort guards and border troops of the OGPU-NKVD. The Soviet Armed Forces brought in an analogous weapon two years later – in 1930. Whilst the designers at the design bureau of the Tula ordnance plant were carrying out detailed work on improving the standard weapon, they developed a special sniper rifle, the 1891/30 type 7.62-mm rifle, which differed from the standard model by having a telescopic sight, a high-quality barrel, a bolt cylinder handle bent downwards to facilitate loading, no bayonet, a foresight raised by 1 mm and trigger pressure reduced to 2 – 2.4 kg.
Illustration 5 – Securing the VP telescopic sight to the 1891/30 type sniper rifle.
The basic ballistic features of the sniper rifle (without bayonet) were analogous to those mass-produced rifles, but the purpose-built rifle was more accurate. It was selected from the weapons showing the best firing results and was specially produced with a more finely finished bore surface and reduced tolerances.
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Illustration 6 – Section of the SVT-40 sniper rifle with PU telescopic sight (view from left).
The combat stability of sniper rifles was considerably greater than that of mass-produced products, due to the stock being more carefully adjusted to the breech. The stock was generally made from high quality material – namely walnut wood. Because the sight setting overlapped the cartridge clip slot in the breech, sniper rifles could not be loaded with standard five-round clips. They could only be loaded with one cartridge, which greatly reduced their efficiency in combat.
Illustration 7 – Sniper I. Antonov, a naval rating from the Baltic Fleet, in ambush. During the Great Patriotic War this expert marksman killed more than 300 fascists.
At first, the 4-magnitude sight mark PT of the 1930 model was adopted for the army sniper rifle, but once its defects had become apparent, an improved modification, the VP optical sight model of 193I appeared the following year. But even in the case of this sight Model, our designers could not achieve a completely airtight eyepiece due to a poorly designed dioptric ring. Both the PT and the VP sights, as well as the D III sight were mounted on a bracket designed by A. A. Smirsky. The base of this mounting bracket was firmly secured by a guard with six screws to the front part of the breech, although such a sight arrangement made it difficult to load the weapon. Consequently an improved 4-magnitude type PE sight replaced the VP telescopic sight in 1936-1937. Weighing 0.62 g, it was designed to fire over a range of up to 1400 m. The reliable "Seso" bracket construction with sight fixed to the side greatly influenced the precision of aim during firing, and also allowed the use of an open ramp sight in case of damage during action.
Illustration 8 The PU
The VP
In the nineteen thirties the "Voroshilov marksmen" achieved great prominence throughout the Soviet Union. Training in aimed fire assumed great importance. A large-scale network of indoor ranges developed and young people learned to shoot on numerous courses and in the Osoaviachim schools. The sniper weapon went through its first great baptism of fire during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40, when the excellent qualities of our rifles fitted with the VP, PT and PE sights were demonstrated in combat.
Illustration 9 – The 1891/30-type sniper rifle with PU telescopic sight and the SVT-40 sniper rifle with PU telescopic sight.
The reliance placed by the higher military command before the war on the large-scale use of automatic weapons by the infantry led to the plan started in 1937 to replace the 1891/30 sniper rifle with the 7.62 mm automatic sniper rifle that used the S. G. Simonov (AVS) of 1936. However, the high dispersion factor even during single shot fire resulted in only a small batch of Simonov sniper rifles being produced. Three years later in 1940 the 1891/30 7.62 mm sniper rifle was replaced by the new 7.62 mm self-loading sniper rifle that used the Tokarev (SVT) system. This differed from the basic SVT-40 standard model by not only having a new general-purpose 3.5 magnitude PU telescopic sight (the universal sight), but also by its precision made bore that enhanced its accuracy.
Illustration 10 – The 1891/30 sniper rifle with PU telescopic sight.
The 1891/30 sniper rifle with VP telescopic sight.
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Illustration 11 – 1891/30 sniper rifles with the VP telescopic sight and the SVT-40 sniper rifle with the PU telescopic sight.
The PU sight weighing 0.27 kg was a lot lighter than its predecessors. Fixing the PU sight with a bracket above the breech according to the Tokarev system enabled the rifle to be fired over a range of up to 600 m with an open ramp sight. The great success of the new sniper self-loading SVT rifle compared with the Mosin magazine rifle was its elevated rate of fire – from 25 to 40 aimed shots a minute. The SVT-40 sniper rifles were widely used essentially for shooting at different targets appearing in the field of view for only a short time. However, the hard reality of fighting at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War clearly indicated that the SVT-40 sniper rifle, despite its many fine qualities, was considerably inferior to its predecessor with respect to the main feature regarding this weapon – consistent grouping. At the same time, the SVT sniper rifle had a wide range of other faults. According to front-line soldiers who used this weapon, it was considerably inferior to the 1891/30 rifle when it came to accuracy over a range of more than 200 m. Its pronounced muzzle flash during firing gave away the position of the sniper (caused by the fact that the SVT's barrel was 100 mm shorter than that of the Mosin rifle). When fired the SVT had time lags, which made it impossible for the sniper to fire the second shot at the target. The numerous complaints about the SVT sniper rifles from the front forced the Soviet military command to recall once again the undeservedly forgotten old 1891/30-sniper rifle. The sniper SVT-40 was withdrawn from production in October 1941. However, not all of our warriors were so solidly set against the weapon. For instance, Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the renowned sniper from the 54'" rife regiment of the 25 rifle division, killed 309 fascists with her SVT-40 sniper rifle in the fighting that took place around Odessa and Sebastopol.
Illustration 12 – Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Mrkulov knows that his invisible hat can be found anywhere. Fighting is going on in the marshes – the experienced sniper is camouflaged with sedge and reeds.
At the beginning of 1942 the Izhevsk machine factory restored production of the 1891/30 sniper rifles. But even this rifle had certain shortcomings. First of all, the front-line troops did not like its weight or its inordinate length since working with it for long periods proved to be tiring for the sniper. Its low rate of fire – 10-12 aimed shots a minute – also failed to fully meet the requirements of modern mobile fast moving combat.
Illustration 13 – Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Hero of the Soviet Union, in the forefront of defence.
Its non-adjustable trigger action gave rise to strong complaints since its stiff trigger could not guarantee accurate aiming. The move to more simple technology and cheaper production resulted in stocks, made from birch wood since 1942, often becoming distorted and warped, which never happened to weapons with high-quality walnut stocks. Some snipers commented on the poor quality of the optics, particularly of the PU sights produced in 1943-1944. Furthermore, front-line fighters discovered that when zeroing the rifle, the setting on the micrometer scale for vertical sight corrections did not always correspond to the actual distances and frequent adjustments of the vertical corrections led to horizontal deflection.
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Illustration 14 – Ivan Merkulov shows his young trainee Zolotoy how he should dress "to go hunting"
Attention was drawn to the poor positioning of the PU telescope sight on the rifle. It was noted in particular that the sight was placed far from the eye of the marksman which meant that when the sniper was taking up position to aim he had to move his cheek away from the rifle butt up to 3 cm and stretch his neck (to be able to observe the entire field of view without having lunar-shaped shadows – halo effects - along the edges). Because the marksman's head was in the wrong position his eye would be drawn away from the optical axis of the sight causing him to aim badly.
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Illustration 15 drawn by sniper sergeant Nikolay Sokolov.
Apart from the telescopic sight, field glasses of 6-(8) magnitude and the TR observer tubes for observing the battle area formed part of our snipers' weapons during the war. The experience of war convincingly proved that a sniper, in addition to his basic weapon – The sniper rifle – also needs additional weapons to deal with the enemy in close combat. Many of our snipers going into the field took with them 2-3 hand grenades, pistols, Finnish hunting knives or the 1940-type scout knives. When working in pairs, snipers also took along machine pistols. These weapons were needed by snipers who often had to go beyond the forward edge of the battle area where they could easily stumble upon an ambush or an enemy reconnaissance patrol. The following ammunition was used by Soviet snipers during the Great Patriotic War: 7.62 mm rifle cartridges with light, heavy, armour-piercing (B-30), armour-piercing incendiary (B-32), ranging – adjustment incendiary (PZ) and tracer (T-46) bullets. Cartridges with light and heavy bullets, as a rule, were used for firing at enemy personnel; armour-piercing and armour-piercing incendiary rounds – for destroying machine-gun crews, guns (particularly direct laying guns) and PTR (RPG), and also for firing at the firing ports of firing positions (DOTs) and earth and timber strongholds (DZOTs), stereoscopic telescopes, motor transport and diving aircraft. Incendiary bullet cartridges were used for setting fire to installations, buildings and targets hindering the observation and bombardment of hidden enemy snipers, as well as enemy earth and timber pillboxes. Tracer bullet rounds – for target indication (when advancing). Ranging adjustment (explosive)) bullets used for firing at highly inflammable targets and for correcting fire directed at moving and stationary targets were generally not used by Soviet snipers at all during the war. The individual reserve (first line scale) of rounds depended on the task to be carried out by the sniper and on the type of battle (offensive or defensive). Most of our snipers usually took along 120 rifle cartridges of which 60% were cartridges of light or heavy bullets (usually of one batch), 25% – armour-piercing incendiary rounds and about 15% of incendiary and tracer bullets.
Illustration 16
1. Sniper's dugout. The sniper-fighter fires. The sniper-observer looks for the target after inserting his periscope into a hollowed-out cross.
2. The most vigilant enemy sniper would not spot the marksman hiding at the bottom of this dugout.
3. This rick in which the sniper has concealed himself looks just like any other.
4. When fighting takes place in rocky mountains, the best camouflage for the sniper is – artificial stone.
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