Tanya Desislavova Yaneva
Tanya Desislavova Yaneva | |
|---|---|
 Daneva in 1960 | |
| Born | 12 March, 1928 |
| Died | 6 September, 1968 Zorad, Galania |
| Nationality | Syaran |
| Occupation | Gunsmith, machinist |
| Known for | Designer of the P-53 assault rifle |
Tanya Desislavova Yaneva (12 March, 1928 - 6 September, 1968) was a Syaran gunsmith and machinist best known for designing the P-53 assault rifle, which was adopted by the Republic of Syara as the standard issue service rifle of the Armed Forces of the Syaran Republic in 1953. The P-53 has served as the basis of Syaran assault rifle designs since its adoption.
Born in Vyerzhany in 1928, Yaneva's father served in the Siduri War. Listening to her father's experience in the war, coupled with the proliferation of Common Axis soldiers carrying automatic weapons during the Occupation of Syara, led her to look into designing a new rifle for service in the Syaran military. Having heard her father and his former comrades complain of the difficult conditions they had found while fighting in Quenmin, Mansuriyyah, and Tennai, Yavena devised the need for a rifle that would be highly reliable in even the most adverse conditions, easy to use, simple to clean, while still being capable of being mass produced and affordable. With her father's assistance she began tinkering with the large surplus of spare weapons that had been left in the aftermath of the war, and in 1951 presented her first prototype to the Syaran army with the help of her father's war time connections.
After some adjustments the Syaran Army agreed to adopt the rifle, designating it the P-53. The rifle proved popular with Syaran soldiers and it quickly entered mass production, becoming a ubiquitous symbol of Syara's post-war development. Yaneva became closely associated with the rifle for the remainder of her life, so much so that it is still often referred to today as Tanya's Rifle. Daneva continued to work with the Syaran military in designing small arms, but in the 1960s used her payments she had received to began her own automobile maintenance business, occasionally working as a gunsmith and machinist on the side. She produced a number of off-road small wheeled vehicles during this time, though remained predominantly known for the P-53. She died in 1968 in an auto-accident and was buried in a state-sponsored ceremony.