Translated material
Kalashnikov, machine gun and man
The famous AK-47 turns 60 years old
Yesterday, the Russian government at its meeting celebrated not only the victory of Sochi as the capital of the 2014 Winter Olympics, but also two high-profile and at the same time inconspicuous dates: the 60th anniversary of the first model of the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle and the 200th anniversary of the Izhevsk plant , which produces Kalash rifles. and other small arms. On this occasion, the international conference “60 years on the firing line” was held at the federal state enterprise Rosoboronexport.The first production model of the AK-47 was delivered to the headquarters of the state arms dealer on Stromynka Street in Moscow. The head of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces, Alexander Nikonov, told Vremya Novostey that they have a copy of the AK that Mikhail Kalashnikov showed to Stalin, as well as a “crooked” machine gun that can shoot from around a corner.
On the occasion of the anniversary, without exaggeration, the symbol of Russia, a Kalashnikov standard was made. On the traditional red cloth, on one side it was written: “Kalashnikov is the pride, honor and glory of Russia,” and on the other, a silhouette of the famous weapon against the background of the rings of a shooting target. Mikhail Timofeevich received yesterday a certificate of honorary worker of Rosoboronexport, signs number one “60 years of AK” and “200 years of Izhmash”. In general, more than four dozen high-level greetings and telegrams came to the machine and the person. The head of Rosprom, Boris Aleshin, read out the main message - the greeting from the President of Russia. The astronauts from the ISS read out their greetings to the hero of the day. “Only a weapon like the AK can guarantee us peace,” Fedor Yurchikhin said from orbit.
The author of the anniversary assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, is today awarded all the regalia imaginable: twice Hero of Socialist Labor, lieutenant general, president of the Union of Gunsmiths of Russia, advisor to the general director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport. He is the author of six books, a member of the Russian Writers' Union. And he started with the rank of senior sergeant. There is a photograph from 1948 where Senior Sergeant Kalashnikov explains something to seven senior officers: talent is higher than rank. In this not very high rank, he received the Stalin Prize in 1949, when the machine gun was adopted by the Soviet army. It was equal to 150 thousand rubles, and the Pobeda car, which had just entered the “market” at that time, cost only 16 thousand.
After the three-line Mosin, the Kalashnikov assault rifle is the most reliable Russian weapon. Yesterday at a conference, one of the AK testers said: they froze and heated the machine gun, wiped off all the oil from it, and then covered the parts with dust, but the AK fired accurately. They also carried out the following experiment: the parts of ten Kalashnikov assault rifles were mixed in disarray, then assembled from the first ones that came to hand, and a combat-ready assault rifle was obtained. As a rule, this does not work with other brands of weapons. But even today, the brilliant designer at international arms exhibitions, as he admits, does not stand at his stand, but looks at “what others have done there.”
After the conference, he admitted reluctantly: there were people at exhibitions who knelt before him as before a weapons guru. Kalashnikov and his weapons really have the ability to conquer. The Americans said that they would never pick up Russian weapons. However, soldiers in Iraq, without permission from their superiors, abandoned their M-16 rifles and took up AKs. The military attache of Armenia Arakel Martykyan originally expressed his attitude towards Kalashnikov: he called the AK a unit of quality in small arms.
The Kalashnikov family, descended from the AK-47, is growing to this day: in different calibers, with a folding stock, with a night vision sight and an under-barrel grenade launcher, and now chambered for NATO and the most common cartridges in the world. A whole family of Kalashnikov machine guns has grown. Today, 108 countries around the world either buy or produce AKs. According to export applications, until 2025 the Kalashnikov assault rifle will have no equal.
There were also non-ceremonial speeches at the anniversary. Today, nine out of ten Kalashnikov assault rifles are manufactured illegally . “Often at exhibitions I see my weapons with other people’s marks, and this makes me sad,” the designer complained. The license agreements issued to 18 states, mainly the Warsaw Pact, by the Soviet Union, expired in the 80s and 90s of the last century. However, today 35 foreign companies are registered that sell counterfeit Kalashnikovs. Even in the USA, in the state of Nevada, there is a plant built allegedly under a license from the Bulgarian Arsenal plant, which has long expired.
The quality of the fakes corresponds to their price: two times cheaper than a good knife. But the saddest thing is that illegal immigrants, trying to avoid patent liability, make changes to the design. The quality of the “left” machine, already low, deteriorates even more. In addition, tens of thousands of unaccounted for guns actually fall into the hands of terrorists. Not long ago, Rosoboronexport blocked the supply of Polish AKs to Iraq.
According to the Rosoboronexport security department, about a million AKs are sold around the world every year. In total, more than 100 million machines have already been produced. Russia annually loses about $2 billion on counterfeit AKs.
The AK has been adopted by more than 50 armies around the world. The Minister of Defense of Mozambique in the Soviet years used to say to Kalashnikov: “Thanks to you, we got freedom.” In every Mozambican village, there were a dozen curly-haired and dark-skinned boys running around, to whom their parents gave the name Kalash. At yesterday's conference, the military attaché of Mozambique confirmed that the tradition remains. To which Mikhail Timofeevich responded: “It’s nice for the designer to hear, especially if you don’t have to pay alimony for it.”
The Kalashnikov assault rifle has many competitors, but no one has surpassed it, and the AK will hold the palm for a long time. It combined seemingly incompatible properties: both a museum sample (more than 30 samples were transferred to the Kremlin Armory) and a working weapon. “It’s more difficult to do something simple than something complex,” says Mikhail Timofeevich once again.