“The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people”

[yokel]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/07/ap_ak47anniversary_070706/

AK47s designer remembers 60 years of rifle
By Mansur Mirovalev - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 6, 2007 15:16:39 EDT

MOSCOW — Sixty years after the AK47 went into production, designer Mikhail Kalashnikov says he doesn’t stay awake at night worrying about the bloodshed wrought by the world’s most popular assault rifle.

“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” Kalashnikov said Friday at a ceremony marking the birth of the rifle, whose initials stand for “Avtomat Kalashnikov.”

It was before he started designing the gun that he slept badly, worried about the superior weapons that Nazi soldiers were using with grisly effectiveness against the Red Army in World War II. He saw them at close range himself, while fighting on the front lines.

While hospitalized with wounds after a Nazi shell hit his tank in the 1941 battle of Bryansk, Kalashnikov designed an automatic rifle combining the best features of the American M1 and the German StG44.
“Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer,” said Kalashnikov, frail but sharp at age 87. “I always wanted to construct agricultural machinery.”

Since production began, more than 100 million AK47s have been made — either at the home factory in the central Russian city of Izhevsk, under license in dozens of other countries, or illegally. Sergei Chemezov, director of the Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, said nearly a million a year are produced without license.

The AK47 has been a mainstay in wars, coups, terrorist attacks, robberies and other mayhem. Its popularity comes from being rugged and easy to maintain, though its accuracy is not high.

It proved ideal and extremely reliable for warfare in jungle or desert — easily assembled and able to keep firing in sandy or wet conditions that would jam a U.S.-made M16.

“During the Vietnam War, American soldiers would throw away their M16s to grab AK47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers,” Kalashnikov said. “I hear American soldiers in Iraq use it quite often.”
The simplicity and reliability of the AK47 made it a favorite of rebel movements worldwide — it even features on the Mozambique flag. Keen to support anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa, the Soviets furnished the rifle, sometimes for free, to pro-Soviet regimes or insurgents.

In 2005, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who styles himself as a leader of the fight against imperialism, ordered 100,000 for his army.
“The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people,” President Vladimir Putin said in a statement read to Kalashnikov at the ceremony in the Central Russian Army Museum.

Kalashnikov is still active and prolific — he tours the world as a consultant, helping strike new arms deals, and has penned several books on his life, about arms and about youth education.
“After the collapse of the great and mighty Soviet Union, so much crap has been imposed on us, especially on the younger generation,” he said. “I wrote six books to help them find their way in life.”
He said he is proud of his bronze bust installed in his native village of Kurya in the Siberian region of Altai. He said newlyweds bring flowers to the bust after their wedding ceremonies.
“They whisper ‘Uncle Misha, wish us happiness and healthy kids,’ ” he said. “What other gun designer can boast of that?”

 

[Onmilo]

Yeah, sigh.
It was communist era politicians who gave these rifles away or sold them six to a case with accessories for $600.00 American.
No wonder they became so prolific.

One might say the same thing about French made anti-tank and anti-shipping missles and American and french combat jets too,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Frog48]

“During the Vietnam War, American soldiers would throw away their M16s to grab AK47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers,” Kalashnikov said. “I hear American soldiers in Iraq use it quite often.”

Maybe isolated instances, but not in any large numbers.

I've never liked Kalashnikov... he perpetuates myths, to toot his own horn.

 

[KrankyKraut]

Creative genius? Nothing against the great Russian people, who have produced quite a number of creative and artistic geniuses, but I wouldn't count Mr. Kalashnikov among them. Not with the AK-47 design being merely an improved Stg-44. They even look like similar...

 

[Hoppy590]

but I wouldn't count Mr. Kalashnikov among them. Not with the AK-47 design being merely an improved Stg-44. They even look like similar...

ok. i never like to do this. but im just gunna blindly ignore your opinions.

while they may look the same, and may both be described as "long stroke gas piston" guns. they both utilize seperate bolt systems. and if anything the STG44's bolt system can be said to have derived fromt he Siminov system ( who im sure is probibly derived from another design)

the STG44 while revolutionar, had little effect on Kalashnikovs design. if i remember correctly Kalashnikov started his design work while recovering from a combat injury. his first designs were rejected during the war ( before the stg44 was out) and he finaly got approval after the war

 

[KrankyKraut]

Hoppy, I guess it's always good to "blindly ignore" peoples' opinions. Makes you intellectually credible. It's one thing to blindly ignore my opinions (not that you really know them). It's another to blindly ignore the article. It even says he based his design on the Stg-44 (and the M1). But I guess it's simply easier to ignore other people's opinions when they don't fit yours and not bother to read the available evidence.

 

[Hoppy590]

thats why i said i hate to do it. article can and are WRONG. often times authors take common legends and look no further into it than that. and just because some ones proffession may seem credible. take thier words with a grain of salt. iv had 1/2 hour long arguements with US Marines that assure me a AK47 will function perfectly fine with 5.56 amm and AR mags.

 

[eliphalet]

“The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people”

Spoken like a true comrade, that has a stroke of genius.

I would tend to credit it to one man as communism doesn't seem to do much to promote individual creativity.

 

[Aaryq]

I do have to praise Mr. Kalashnikov. His design left a permanent mark on modern battle rifles as a whole. When it comes to reliability, the AK is the boss. Everyone else improves their rifles to try to meet Mr Kalashnikov's design (correct me, don't flame me if I'm wrong). He may be a man made FOR THE UNION, but that's okay. Tomato, Tomato (if I was speaking it'd make more sense).

The only thing I didn't like about the article is this:

The AK47 has been a mainstay in wars, coups, terrorist attacks, robberies and other mayhem. Its popularity comes from being rugged and easy to maintain, though its accuracy is not high.

Everyone needs to look at the facts. How many armed robbers use an Kalashnikov designed rifle in their robberies. How many crazies who start chaos and mayhem use an AK?

Once again, if anything I said here is incorrect, please don't flame me, just tell me I'm wrong.

 

[earplug]

When talking about the AK47 and what and where its been and done, you have to look on A global scale. Not just the USA.
Sorta like comparing A 30/06 with A .303.

 

[Gewehr98]

There's always more to a story than meets the eye.

even says he based his design on the Stg-44 (and the M1).

And the Remington (Browning) Model 8, lest we forget.

I subscribe to the theory that the Avtomat Kalashnikov is indeed a product of creative genius. It was quick and cheap to manufacture, easy to equip Warsaw Pact nations and 3rd World countries with, exceptionally reliable with an absolute minimum of maintenance, and more than accurate enough to engage man-sized targets at the useful range of the cartridge it was designed for.

The late Eugene Stoner could only wish...

(And yes, I have and shoot several examples of both AR and AK rifles in my stable, I'm not playing one off the other)

 

[benEzra]

The AK is not a crude design, but a very elegant one, from an engineering standpoint. The way the long-stroke action compensates for variations in ammo quality without needing an adjustable gas port. The way the safety lever covers the ejection port. The strength and reliability of the magazines and feeding system. The twisted-wire springs for redundancy. There really isn't much on the rifle that is easily damaged or lost.

The amazing thing about the AK to me is that Mr. Kalashnikov was able to design a system that would be highly functional, supremely reliable, AND yet be very straightforward to manufacture. Compare the parts count to that of an AR-15 (particularly the number of small parts), and the machine work required to make both.

The AK is very much a product of the lessons of Stalingrad. It is simple enough that manufacture can be decentralized, it can be produced in large volumes, it is reliable in terrible conditions, and it is easy to maintain in the field with little or no support equipment or supplies. Yes, that entailed some ergonomic compromises, but it works, and works well.

I think it is a testament to the soundness of the design that despite its ergonomic shortcomings, it is still in active use as a front-line infantry rifle (as the AK-74) and it still stacks up pretty well against many more modern designs.

Yes, he looked around at other designs and appropriated aspects of them into the AK-47 (the Garand's trigger mechanism, for example). In hindsight, it's easy to say that it didn't take genius to copy the features of other guns. But it DID take great insight to figure out which design aspects would work and which wouldn't. The result was a blend of the most durable/reliable/easy to manufacture features from all of the other guns, synthesized into one new system.

I think in that respect, it's a bit like Glocks. Most of the features of the Glock aren't new; what was innovative was the combining of all those features into a new synthesis that worked extremely well.

 

[max popenker]

But it DID take great insight to figure out which design aspects would work and which wouldn't.

The question is, whose hindsight it was?
There were many people who put enormous effort into development of AK. For example, before adoption many predicted that the rifle would be actually called AKZ - Avtomat Kalashnikova-Zaitseva, as the engineer Zaitsev was responsible for many key features of AK, including long-stroke gas piston system. Also, it is believed that Kalashnikov got direct support from evaluating team during trials (he was initially assigned to proving ground where trials took place, and only latter transferred to Kovrov plant)

My half-educated opinion is that Kalashnikov was a very "politically correct" face - what could be a more "Communist-style" than a poor sergeant outclassing experienced arms designers some of whom started their experience during Imperial times?
There are many gray areas in the history of Soviet small arms (and other arms as well) and in my research I'm only touching some of them...

 

[SSN Vet]

funny thing is....

to hear Kalashnikov himself tell how his real life ambition was to design farm implements.....

Check out the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.....you can spend a month of Sundays looking at the "evolution" of farm implements alone.....and like firearms, these often "borrowed" ideas from the competition.

Given Henry Ford's involvement in setting the Russian's up for industrial mass production in the '30s, and Kalashnikov's interest in farm implements, perhaps the parentage of the AK-47 can be loosely traced back to ol' Henry himself!

 

[RubenZ]

and it is easy to maintain in the field with little or no support equipment or supplies.

So is the AR. 2 pins to seperate upper from Lower and you can pretty much clean or fix anything that may be wrong with the gun. You don't need tools as well.

I think sometimes the AK's reliability is greatly exaggerated.

 

[Hoppy590]

but the AR requires solvents, and oils, cleaning patches, pipe cleaners... dailey
while a bottle of solvent doesnt seem like a big deal to give one soldier. it is a big deal to give a million soldiers traped in a Stalingrad type seige.

its not that its more reliable in optimum conditions. its more reliable in poor conditions, with minimal maintance.

 

[3rdpig]

but the AR requires solvents, and oils, cleaning patches, pipe cleaners... dailey

The above statement is false....and I'm betting you either know or suspect it's false, or you've never owned or shot a properly built AR and are just repeating what you've heard from other AK owners. Wise up.

 

[benEzra]

So is the AR. 2 pins to seperate upper from Lower and you can pretty much clean or fix anything that may be wrong with the gun. You don't need tools as well.

I think sometimes the AK's reliability is greatly exaggerated.

An AK will run fine unlubed and gritty. Won't be good for it in the long run, but it will cycle, even with a moderate amount of mud in the receiver.

I don't have firsthand experience on this, but I have heard multiple people say that an AR will run dirty, but it won't run unlubed and dirty.

 

[Hoppy590]

The above statement is false....and I'm betting you either know or suspect it's false, or you've never owned or shot a properly built AR and are just repeating what you've heard from other AK owners. Wise up.

your saying the AR does not need to be properly maintained to work? "dailey" ya maybe thats a stretch. and the pipecleaners i suppose could be skipped. but every gun needs to be cleaned and maintained. the differance between the AR and AK is the level of standards.

 

[DaWgInAcAr]

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c302/dawginacar/ak47.jpg

Heres a little review I found on another forum I go to, fonts a little small but it gives some pretty cool history.

 

[Slater]

Gene Stoner made a lot more money from his designs than Kalashnikov did

Heck, if Kalashnikov had made a dollar for every AK built he'd have a bucket of cash.

 

[Gewehr98]

Yup.

Gene Stoner made a lot more money from his designs than Kalashnikov did

And he's also worm food these days. The money does him a lot of good now.

Wise up.

Yeah. Sure. Gotcha. As if my high dollar pre-'94 ban Colt Competition HBAR doesn't choke up in 200-300 rounds, and the M16 variants I was issued over a 20 year military career didn't require some TLC to keep functioning in the sandbox. If we weren't busy with our real jobs, we were cleaning our rifles in our tents.

I wonder if the Combat Arms Training & Maintenance instructors ever lose their voices from repeating "Clean your rifle, clean your rifle, clean your rifle"?

I'm no longer married to the Stoner gun, thank goodness.

My Colt stays nice and clean in the safe, and comes out only to punch paper and prairie dogs. I've got a new pre-'94 Oly Arms lower sitting in the file cabinet, but I will only build it into a complete rifle when I find the gas piston upper I want.

My Kalashnikov sits loaded by the bedside for the things that go "bump" in the night.

"Wise up", indeed.

 

[Slater]

"And he's also worm food these days. The money does him a lot of good now."

As near as I can tell, that fate awaits us all (even Bill Gates).

 

[Gewehr98]

I agree.

That's why I'm spending my kids' inheritance as we speak.

(Although at least one of my more famous rifles is going with me on my dirt nap when the time comes)

 

[Cosmoline]

It really is a fantastic design, and does what it was designed to do better than any other rifle I know of. It's a perfect example of the proverb "the best is the enemy of good enough." Our AR's and Garands are a good deal more complex, because America's proverb is "the best is never good enough."