High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda is a Soviet semi-automatic battle rifle, which saw widespread service during and after World War II. The design of the rifle originated in the early 1930s when Fedor Tokarev gave up his attempts to design a recoil-operated self-loading rifle, and concentrated on the gas operating principle. Stalin had a great interest in semi-automatic infantry rifles, and in 1935 a design competition was held. The winning rifle was designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov, and was accepted into service the next year as the AVS-36.