The DP was a simple, gas-operated weapon with only six moving parts. Alexeyevich Degtyarev, the task of developing an entirely new light machine gun.ĭegtyarev’s first successful model was the Degtyareva Pulemet (DP), which appeared in 1926. Modifications were made, but the Soviet high command realized that the weapon was still only the extension of an outmoded design.
However, Soviet troops complained that the weapon was still too heavy to meet the requirements for a light machine gun. After extensive testing, the Maxim-Tokarev was finally approved in 1925 as the future light machine gun.
Tokarev came up with the winner, in which he modified the Maxim by replacing the water-cooled sleeve around the barrel with a slotted jacket to produce a light, air-cooled weapon with a rifle butt and pistol grip. Several designers were given the task of coming up with independent designs for the conversion. The Soviets also had many water-cooled Maxims left and the factories to build them, so the initial effort went into developing a lightweight conversion of the Maxim. It had been difficult to get spare parts, and the weapons’ various ammunition calibers placed stress on the logistics system.
A top priority was the development of a light machine gun to replace the Lewis, Hotchkiss, Madsen, and Chauchat left over from World War I. For this reason, Russian machine-gun development and production had to start virtually from scratch after the Russian Revolution. Prior to World War I, the czarist army bought machine guns from other countries and manufactured some under license. The Soviets were latecomers to machine-gun development generally.
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