Pic.4-1
Mikhail Kalashnikov went to station Matai - he wanted to continue his design work in Matai depot. He turned for assistance to his fellow colleagues and to the station executives, and personnel of railway technical section helped him (in their spare time - often by night) to realize his design in the depot shops.
In three months Kalashnikov produced a working design (we do not have this version of AK in the museum, it's kept in St. Petersburg Artillery Museum). That version was fire tested directly in the depot and then Mikhail Kalashnikov brought the gun to the city of Alma-Ata, to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.
The designer was sent then to Samarkand, where Artillery Academy of Red Army had been moved as a protective measure, to Professor Blagonravov, the Chair of Infantry Weapons - you can see Blagonravov photo here.
Blagonravov's recommendation letter reads: "...despite the fact that the specimen does not meet recommended specifications, the author's exceptional ability to solve complicated technical issues, excessive energy, painstaking efforts put into the work and originality of some technical ideas suggested convinced us that he's a person of natural mechanical gift. We recommend Kalashnikov for a technical course that would qualify him as an armorer once he had completed his basic training... " Dated July 1942
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