In December the outstanding designer Piotr Serdyukov, who made a revolution in the design of the Russian guns, celebrates his 70th birthday. Since 1969 the designer has been working in the ‘Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering’ (now JSC ‘TSNIITOCHMASH’, owned by the state corporation ‘Rostec’), but the fate of Serdyukov is closely linked with the Caucasus – he was born in Baku, he lived in Armenia, and in the North Caucasus. And although the first samples of weapons on which the designer was working were adopted back in the 1970-1980's, his name in the title appeared only in 2003 for the first time. Today in the bank of Serdyukov there are more than ten types of weapons and special technical means adopted by the armed security forces, including the ‘Vintorez’ and the ‘Vector’, better known as the ‘Gurza’.
- Peter Ivanovich, you are a native of the Caucasus?
- I was born in Baku. My father served in the Transcaucasian district. We moved to Kirovabad and then to Kirovakan (now Vandzor – the third largest city of Armenia) from Baku. My father was a military man – wherever he was dropped, there he served. He drove across the North Caucasus. In Armenia my father finished his service. Then we settled in Stavropol.
- How did you get the idea to design weapons?
- It happened because of my poor English. In 1963 I entered the institute, and then a mandatory exam in a foreign language was required. A comrade suggested the institute where no one cares about foreign languages, the main thing was mathematics and physics – the Physics University in the city of Dolgoprudny. I did not get enough points for there, but a representative from Tula took me with my results into the Tula Polytechnic Institute. So I became a gunsmith.
- One of the main achievements is considered your work on the pistol complex ‘Gurza’ ...
- There are no products with the title ‘Gurza’ . No, it does not appear in any documents. The name is left over from the previous director, the Georgian Khinikadze, who died a few years ago. [Alexander Valer'yanovich Khinikadze headed TSNIITOCHMASH from 1992 to 2000. In the difficult conditions of that period, gunsmiths managed to continue work on the creation of new types of weapons, to organize the production of new types of military and civilian products, to enter the world arms market]. The application came to make a gun for Yemen, Khinikadze came up with this name for it. The security services developed the guns under the code ‘Vector’. Now they go for security services as the SR-1M, and for the army as a self-loading Serdyukov pistol, index - 6P53. There is no name ‘Gurza’. There is no such name, but still it is always mentioned. Once an official document came from the Interior Ministry, where the word ‘Gurza’ was mentioned in the list of samples taken on board.
- Is this gun often used in the arsenal of the security services?
- Yes, but for the army, too, there are purchases, although small at present – the arms factories hardly make weapons for the army.
- Were some principles taken from other types of guns when this gun was created?
- No. The only type of lock that was used is a moving larva. All the rest was settled on according to our own taste, but in such a way as not to leave anything out, like a fuse, slide the delay, which should be off. Everything was automatic: you take the sample in your hand and it is ready for shooting; you pull the trigger, and the gun fires; when you release the trigger, two fuses start working. When the cartridges run out, the shutter stops in the rear position on the slide stop. If an empty cartridge is replaced with one equipped with a bullet cartridge, there will be an automatic loading of the gun. A PCA was more powerful than a Colt for the breakdown stops and action. It can pierce the body armor of the second level of protection.
- How much time did it take you to design it?
- Over a year, but something is always perfected, something is added. Constantly we are going to improve it.
- What are the principles that you set for the basis of the development of designs?
- To make it convenient to use. A person is lost in a stressful situation. It is necessary that he does not think that it is necessary to click on a particular key, but just takes the gun in his hand and shoots.
- Which Western model seems to you to be the most perfect?
- You know, everything is relative. Now the Glock is spreading, in which there is only one fuse, but still it has a slide catch. It works fine at close range, but it doesn't have very good results over long distances. That is, to aim with it at a long distance is pretty difficult. We have provided a sample of its very soft, smooth descent.
- Who in the future will be able to adequately represent the national school of designers of small arms?
- Already today, thanks to the experience of the Soviet school, a serious backlog was created that allows young gunsmiths of ‘TSNIITOCHMASH’ to introduce new models in the near future, of which later generations will be proud.
- What kind of weapon do you think is the favorite?
- It is difficult to say whether murder means ‘favorite’ .
- Do you share the view that everything that could be invented in the field of small arms has already been invented?
- In any case, the process does not stand still. Someone has something to modernize, some means solve this or that problem. While something has advantages, something else loses. So you can work over it.
