Pic.5-7
Pic.5-8 The order of USSR Ministry for Defense to establish design bureau centered on technological aspects of AK-47 mass production. April 30th 1949.
Pic.5-9 Top secret: Plan of AK-47 mass production arrangements (Nov. 1948)
In early 1948 the young designer arrived to Izhevsk (the isolated and secret center of the Soviet weapons industry) and brought to Motozavod factory complete AK-47 documentation.
By Summer of 1948 the pilot batch of AK-47 is manufactured and by the end of 1948 AK-47 successfully went through the field trials. In 1949 the assault rifle, designated "Kalashnikov 7.62mm assault rifle, make 1947 (AK)" was adopted by the Soviet Army and Kalashnikov (turning merely 30) has been honored with the Stalin Prize for Industrial Work.
For your information: USSR just has began to produce first "Pobeda" (Victory) cars - exorbitantly priced and nearly impossible to get in possession by an average citizen.
Stalin Prize lump sum was sufficient to buy 10 (ten) Pobedas - and Kalashnikov got one for himself. Much of what was left of the sum he distributed among his relatives (as Kalashnikov nephew Victor Ovchinnikov recalls). Mikhail Kalashnikov once wrote: "There were hardly 3 Pobedas in Izhevsk by that time, and a very few cars of other makes. One could park his Pobeda anyplace - just right in a middle of a street if you wish to, traffic was inexistent".
Pic.5-10 Kalashnikov's Stalin Prize
certificate
Pic.5-11 Close-up of the showcase:
Kalashnikov with his colleagues at
a party
Pic.5-12 Close-up of the showcase:
artifacts of the epoch
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