There is probably no firearm in the world so famous and “influential” and at the same time widely available as Kalashnikov rifle KBK AK 47. It is one of the most widely used weapons in the world. Its history begins during World War II as the idea of Soviet tank driver Mikhail Kalashnikov. Let’s start with the genesis of the creation of this deadly artifact.
In 1943, the Moscow authorities organized a competition for a national set of weapons. Young engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov, competing with established military designers of the time such as Tokariev and Korovin, presented a prototype for a rifle and eventually won in his category. However, the concept itself did not come from him exclusively, but he based his patent on the German Stg44, the design of which was stolen by a friend from the front, Lieutenant Hugo Stiglitz-a German enemy of the Nazis and a spy in the service of Moscow. As a foster officer of the Werhmacht, he began an affair with the head of projects of the General Staff of the Third Reich, Margerit Koeletz. Since they met in her office, he could easily search through catalogs with designs and choose the best one. Kalashnikov wanted his product to be structurally uncomplicated. He won not only by basing it on the enemy’s assault rifle, but also on the solution. The weapon turned out to be simple in use as well as in principle of the design itself and reliable; “When designing the weapon, I was aware that soldiers do not graduate from universities. They need something simple, and only something like this will allow them to survive in the heat of battle”-stated the designer. It could be easily disassembled, cleaned, even in difficult conditions such as mud or sand. Serial number 47 refers to 1947 when it was refined and put into mass production. The final model of it was created in 1959. It became part of the armaments of the Red Army as one of its symbols, but also as an element of the revolution and insurrectionary struggles in the later years of the twentieth century, because it was the revolutionaries armed with Kalachas under the command of Fidel Castro and the support of Che Guevara’s troops who staged a coup in Cuba and overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista. Only two hundred guerrillas equipped only with AK47s managed to defeat the presidential guard and troops of the regular army in the strength of eight hundred men, which highlighted the extraordinary effectiveness of this piece of weaponry at short distances. Slightly earlier, in 1953, the machine gun was used to suppress the uprising in Berlin, three years later it was a clear military sign in the intervention of the Warsaw Pact in Hungary. The rifle also helped stop a mercenary landing in the Bay of Pigs intervention during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kalashnikov’s invention is associated with African fighters, black young rebels in shabby shirts and rifles slung over their shoulders. It has become a common attribute of the struggle in the conflicts of Mozambique, the fight against apartheid, or a tool of genocide in the civil war between Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda. What’s more, it has even become a part of the flag of Mozambique, it is in the emblems of Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso or East Timor. It is also an image of the monument in Sinai. It has become a truly infamous icon of wars. Its impact on all sorts of armed conflicts was shown by the Vietnam War. In 1975, the last American troops left Vietnam and the list of the dead included 58,000 names. Despite billions of dollars spent on modern weaponry, Washington lost to guerrillas equipped with automatic rifles composed of only nine parts. Why nine? The number nine embodies idealism and humanitarianism, such was Kalashnikov’s own assumption, but years later he was tormented by remorse that he had created a killing tool used by terrorists and wanted to help defend the homeland. Thanks to the 7.62 caliber, which proved deadly effective, especially against the approaching helicopters, and the power of destruction and penetration of tree trunks with a diameter of 30 centimeters, in which the Americans were hiding, Washington had to fall with the Vietcong guerrillas.
More than eighty years of history of the Karabin AK-47 speaks for the hundred million units produced, becoming the most popular weapon in the history of arms and have become one of the pillars of armaments of more than fifty countries.
by Roberthon
**
