The initial period of the formation of the national school of automatic weapons design on the example of the development of automatic rifles (1904–1926).

The subject of the research is the initial stage of the formation of the national school of automatic weapons design (1904–1926). This period of history is one of the most important in the domestic arms industry. At this time, Russia began the formation of its own, original and independent from direct foreign participation school of automatic weapons design, which flourished during the Soviet period of the country's history and is developing to the present day. This plot is considered on the example of one of the activities of this kind – the work on the creation of early domestic automatic rifles after their official launch in 1908, which are considered as the basis for the subsequent development of the Russian and Soviet schools of design and engineering activities. The complex of methods used included the processing of archival materials, historical and scientific analysis of the fundamental works on the topic and the comparative historical method. The analysis of the place of the initial period of the development of the school of design of automatic weapons has not received any significant coverage in domestic weapons studies. The reason for this state of affairs is the significant fragmentation of archival documentation on this topic and samples of early Russian automatic rifles preserved in various collections, combined with their very approximate, often incorrect attribution. Based on the newly revealed information, the article makes a number of clarifications concerning the activities of the commission for the development of an automatic rifle sample and the GAU as a management body for the creation of new models of small arms. The role of the Sestroretsk Arms Factory as the leading center for the creation of automatic weapons in Russia before 1917 is revealed. For the first time in Russian historiography, the stages of designing automatic rifles are revealed.

rifle, automatic rifle, GAU, Sestroretsk Arms Plant, Fedorov V. G., Roshhepej Ja. U., Ancus I. K., Konovalov V. P., russian design school, history of weapons