High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Fedorov Avtomat (Russian: Автомат Фёдорова) was an early assault rifle designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fedorov and produced in Russia in 1916. It was the first practical assault rifle to be adopted, and this concept would later become the basis for the first assault rifle to incorporate a modern layout, the StG 44. A total of 3,200 Fedorov rifles were manufactured between 1915 and 1924 in the city of Kovrov. In 1919, after 500 had been built, production was increased. The weapon saw combat in World War I in 1916, in the Russian Civil War, and later in the Winter War with Finland in 1940, when some were withdrawn from storage and issued to elite units of the Red Army. The Fedorov Avtomat is considered to be an early predecessor to the modern assault rifle, due to its relatively light weight, large detachable magazine, intermediate powered cartridge and selective fire capabilities.