The AVS-36 (Russian: Автоматическая винтовка Симонова образца 1936 года (АВС-36); Avtomaticheskaya vintovka Simonova obraztsa 1936 goda (AVS-36); "Automatic rifle Simonov model 1936 (AVS-36)") was a Soviet automatic rifle which saw service in the early years of World War II.

The American public became aware of it when it was covered in the August 1942 issue of the American Infantry Journal, in an article by John Garrett Underhill Jr.[5] Once in service, it quickly became apparent that the AVS was not a satisfactory design; the operating mechanism was overcomplicated, and the problem was made worse by the rifle's construction which let dirt get inside the weapon.

In 1939 a politicized dispute erupted within the Soviet elite as to which design, that of Simonov or that of Tokarev, should prevail.

[5] The new weapon would be tested during the Spanish Civil War when small numbers were shipped to Republican forces.

Some of the problems were caused by incorrect maintenance; many rifles went into combat without having been cleaned of their storage grease, which then "froze" solid.

Simonov would later design an anti-tank rifle, the PTRS-41, and the SKS carbine, which employed simpler tilting bolt operation.

A sniper version was produced in small amounts with a PE (Pritsel YEdinay, e.g. "Unified Sight") 4x variable-power optical scope in an offset side-mounted bracket on the left side.