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Finland's standard light machine gun going into the Winter War was the LS26, a gun which did not succeed in field use. It was complex and cumbersome, and Finnish troops quickly replaced it with captured Russian DP27 LMGs. Part of the problem of the LS26 was it's recoiloperated design. Finnish military authorities specified a recoiloperated mechanism for their LMG in light of the success of the recoiloperated heavy Maxim guns in Finnish service. Gas operation was quickly recognized as a superior system for light machine guns, but too late to stop adoption of the LS26.

In the early 1930s, Aimo Lahti did design a gasoperated LMG, heavily influenced by the Czech ZB26 system. A handful of prototypes were made by VKT, looking for both Finnish military acceptance and international sales. The gun was made in several calibers, most notably 7.62x54R for Finland and 7.92x57mm Mauser for export. However, bureaucratic issues prevented its consideration by the Finnish Army, and the timing was too late for exports. The L34 was significantly lighter and simpler than the LS26, and it was performed quite well in Finnish trials which did not happen until the 1950s. By that time, the Finnish military was looking for an intermediatecaliber beltfed gun, and the L34 was not suitable regardless of its performance.

Many thanks to Sako for providing me access to film this L34 from their reference collection!

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