Weapons Designer Pyotr Goryunov

Obverse

in the centre there is a relief image of the National Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and over it a semicircular inscription along the rim: "РОССИЙСКАЯ ФЕДЕРАЦИЯ" (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) framed by doubled rhombuses on both sides, under the emblem, in three lines, there is an inscription: "БАНК РОССИИ" (BANK OF RUSSIA), the coin’s par value "25 РУБЛЕЙ" (25 RUBLES), and the year of issue "2020 г." (2020), and on the right there is a mint trade mark.

Reverse

a relief image of the SG-43 heavy machine gun and the inscription‘СГ-43’ (SG-43) on the right; along the rim there are the inscriptions ‘ОРУЖИЕ ВЕЛИКОЙ ПОБЕДЫ’ (WEAPONS OF THE GREAT VICTORY) at the top and ‘П.М. ГОРЮНОВ’ (PYOTR GORYUNOV) at the bottom.

Authors

Designers: E.V. Kramskaya (obverse), O.G. Shepel (reverse).
Sculptors: A.A. Dolgopolova (obverse), A.V. Gnidin (reverse).
Mint: Moscow Mint (ММД).
Edge: 180 corrugations.

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Pyotr Maximovich Goryunov (1902–1943) was a Soviet weapons designer, who developed the 7.62 mm Goryunov heavy machine gun, 1943 design (SG-43), which entered service in 1943.

When the Great Patriotic War began, the development of a new medium machine gun became a pressing issue. The new firearm had to be lighter than the reliable and powerful, but too heavy, Maxim machine gun. After competitive tests, Goryunov’s SG-43 machine gun was chosen.

The SG-43 beat out all competitors, including the DS-43 machine gun, created by the leading Soviet weapons designer Vasily Degtyaryov, in such aspects as construction simplicity, accuracy of fire, durability of parts and reliability of operation. The SG-43 was accepted into service with the wheeled Degtyaryov mount and was quickly commissioned for mass production due to its significantly simplified manufacturing technology. Much lower weight with nearly the same accuracy of fire, compared to Maxim machine gun, paved the way to success of Goryunov firearm in assault operations of Soviet troops during the final period of the war.