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» Introduction » 2: Kalashnikov's family » 6: AK-74 / AK-100 / Saiga » 10: A study of Kalashnikov Vodka
» 1a: About The Kalashnikov Museum » 3: Kalashnikov: years 1933 - 1942 » 7: The Hall of Fame: Part I » 11: What's coming in the next version
» 1b: Izhevsk, Kalashnikov's homecity » 4: Kalashnikov's design career begins » 8: The Hall of Fame: Part II » Copyright
» 1c: Entering the Kalashnikov Museum » 5: The AK-47 is born » 9: The 2nd hall of the exhibition    Back to main page of ak47-guide.com

The Kalashnikov Museum Virtual Tour: Part 4 - Kalashnikov's weapon design career begins


Pic.4-1


Museum of Kalashnikov. In three months Kalashnikov produced a working design 
	

Pic.4-2 Professor Blagonravov.

Mikhail Kalashnikov brought the gun to the city of Alma-Ata
 
Pic.4-3 Blagonravov's recommendation letter on regard of Kalashnikov and his weapon

 

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

 

Kalashnikov went further and brought the gun to the Main Artillery Administration. As a result, Mikhail was sent to the small arms proving ground at Shurovskoy (nearby town of Kolomna). Shurovskoy proving ground was a "gun designer's paradise" - plenty of machine tools, excellent metal shops, large museum of small arms.


 Certificate of Main Artillery Administration assures what Sr. Sergeant Kalashnikov is authorized to make working specimen of a model approved by MAA.
 Pic.4-4 Certificate of Main Artillery Administration assures what Sr. Sergeant Kalashnikov is authorized to make working specimen of a model approved by MAA. All respected parties are instructed to provide practical and all other necessary assistance. March 12 1943


Identity card verifies what Mikhail Kalashnikov is assigned to carry out special task as inventor. June 26 1944
 Pic.4-5 Identity card verifies what Mikhail Kalashnikov is assigned to carry out special task as inventor. June 26 1944


 Interim identity card issued by Ministry for Defense Invention Dept. verifies what Sr. Sergeant Kalashnikov since October 20 1944 is assigned to the Invention Dept. to carry out his invention. Dated September 6 1947.
 Pic.4-6 Interim identity card issued by Ministry for Defense Invention Dept. verifies what Sr. Sergeant Kalashnikov since October 20 1944 is assigned to the Invention Dept. to carry out his invention. Dated September 6 1947.  

 


Pic.4-7 

Museum of Kalashnikov. Display with The Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44, MP 44/43) (Sturmgewehr stands for Assault Rifle in German).


Kalashnikov Weapons Museum. AVS (automatic rifle of Simonov), M1 Garand, and MP-40

 
Kalashnikov Weapons Museum. Pic.4-9 The Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44, MP 44/43) and MP 40










Kalashnikov Museum. Pic.4-10  PPS43 submachinegun (pistolet-pulemet Sudayeva, 1943)
Pic.4-8 AVS (automatic rifle of Simonov), M1 Garand, and MP-40.
Pic.4-9 The Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44, MP 44/43) and MP 40
Pic.4-10 PPS43 submachinegun (pistolet-pulemet Sudayeva, 1943)

Take a look on this showcase - it features some small arms of 1940s. For example, M1 Garand rifle adopted by US Army, AVS (automatic rifle of Simonov), and so called Schmeisser - that is mp-38/mp-40 submachine gun adopted by Wehrmacht (Nazi Germany armed forces).

In fact, Schmeisser it is not - renowned gun designer Hugo Schmeisser did not took participation in the mp-38 project, but he designed a less known assault rifle, also featured in this showcase - The Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44, MP 44/43) (Sturmgewehr stands for "Assault Rifle" in German). StGw44 was adopted by Nazi SS forces and armor forces in late 1944.


Of interest is the fact that American also relied on a self taught inventor, John Garand who developed the M1 30 caliber semi-automatic rifle used by U.S. Troops in World War II and Korea.

Another similarity with AK-47 is M1 legendary reliability. As Korea vets admit: "As for the durability of the original M1's, they not only survived but functioned without failure in conditions ranging from 120 degree, high humidity jungles all the way down to minus 20 degrees at the Chosin Reservoir, Korea. You could almost run over an M1 rifle with an M1 tank and have it keep working. Damn things are tough as nails".

At Shurovskoy Kalashnikov submitted a design for consideration, but Artillery Commission turned it down, and in 1943 PPS43 submachinegun (pistolet-pulemet Sudayeva, 1943) was adopted by Red Army.

One of its main advantages was simplicity - it could be produced in any metal shops. More to this - by the end of WWII Germany, due to its ongoing hardships, completely copied the PPS43 design and adopted it for its own troops.

 


Pic.4-11 Left to right: SVT-40, RPD-44 (light machine gun by Degtyrev),
SKS-45 (Self-loading carbine by Simonov)
Bottom: Submachine gun by Degtyarev, with bipod.
Above it: Assault rifle by Sudayev, 1944 (prototype).



Museum of Kalashnikov. Left to right: SVT-40, RPD-44 (light machine gun by Degtyrev),SKS-45 (Self-loading carbine by Simonov)Bottom: Submachine gun by Degtyarev, with bipod.Above it: Assault rifle by Sudayev, 1944 (prototype).

There was yet another Soviet rifle which was highly prized capture by Nazi troops - it's SVT-40 (samozaryadnaya vintovka Tokareva) self-loading carbine designed by Fedor Tokarev and being manufactured between 1941 and 1945 (featured in the next showcase, first on the left).

Many SVT-40 rifles were sent back to Germany for further study and contributed to the development of Germany's semi-automatic rifles. There are many pictures in books of Nazi troops on the eastern front carrying the SVT-40 (or the German nomenclature of SIG.259r).

There were many reasons for this fact:
1) captured ammo was abundant,
2) the SVT-40 rifles were very accurate,
3) very reliable in properly trained hands, and
4) provided a higher rate of fire than the German Kar 98k rifle.

It was an irony that the Red Army gave the German Army some of their best weapons of the war.

In Red Army the SVT-40 did not meet with high success. This is attributed to the complexity of functionality in comparison to the typical Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle.

In the Red Army, there was also the added problem that men were often thrust into combat with little training, especially in the niceties of weapon maintenance. The SVT was a complicated machine, ill-suited to be used by conscript recruits.

A few fully automatic weapons were produced, but proved too troublesome for further development. Still no doubt SVT-40, among other works of Soviet Small Arms designers, laid ground for AK-47 to emerge.

Speaking of other small arms being considered highly prized captures by parties involved in military conflicts...

In his interview Kalashnikov once mentioned what among many letters he receives by means of his Internet site there are sometimes messages from US Vietnam war veterans who tell him that they had so much trouble with the US-made M-16 rifle jamming up that they would often recover the AK-47s from killed Viet Cong and NVA, and use these instead.

Our editor also confirms the fact - he heard about that from his ex--brother in law, who was there.

However, history repeats itself.. At the Museum there is a documentary on the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-1940. In that film the narrator bitterly commented on Russian troops having no small automatic weapons - like Finns who had the "Suomi" KP/-31 submachinegun. Actually, there was a small automatic weapon developed in Russia in mid 1930s which looked almost exactly as "Suomi" gun, but just prior to Russo-Finnish war it was called off Red Army - the reason was unclear. Russian soldiers had to fight against Finns with old fashioned and heavy rifles.

According to Finnish author P. T. Kekkonen: "At other times one gunner and a couple of magazine-filling assistants struggled against a full infantry company - 200 Russians - killing almost half of their troop and wounding many others. Some Finnish writers of war and remembrance novels say they have given too small numbers of Killed In Action enemy soldiers in their books because "nobody can believe my eye-witness' claim that one submachine gunner can slaughter eighty-five enemy soldiers during a skirmish lasting less than thirty minutes".

So Russian soldiers got no choice but to use captured "Suomi" guns, too, which they were getting from Finnish war casualties.

For obvious reasons, reports of Americans using AK-47s in Vietnam and Russians using Suomi guns in Finland were not widely publicized.

 

Pic.4-12


Museum of Kalashnikov. In 1942 at Shurovskoy proving ground Kalashnikov's designer career begins.

In 1942 at Shurovskoy proving ground Kalashnikov's designer career begins.

It was also at Shurovskoy that Kalashnikov first came into contact with such famous Soviet small arms designers as Degtyarev, Simonov, and Sudayev.

Take a look on this showcase, there are photos of Kalashnikov with Soviet small arms designers: Bolotin (stands next to Kalashnikov), Simonov (left) and Shpitalny (right).

Photos of: Right, 1) Tokarev (famous designer of TT pistol and SVT rifle), 2) Degtyarev - outstanding Soviet gun designer, author of submachinegun PPD, light machinegune RPD and antitank rifle PTRD. 3) Simonov - author of self-loading carbine SKS-45 and antitank rifle PTRS.

Pic.4-13 Submachine gun by Degtyarev, with bipod.
Above it: Assault rifle by Sudayev, 1944 (prototype).



 Kalashnikov Weapons Museum. Submachine gun by Degtyarev, with bipod.
Above it: Assault rifle by Sudayev, 1944 (prototype).