Besides the M16/M4/AR-15 series, the most famous, or “infamous,” depending on whom you ask, and iconic military rifle of modern times is the Avtomat Kalashnikova, i.e. the AK-47 7.62x39mm assault rifle. 

Some might say “infamous,” due to 

(1) its malignment by anti-gun politicians and media pundits

(2) the fact that it was invented in a Communist country and used by a variety of anti-Western adversaries (Communist and radical Islamists alike, nation-state armies, state-sponsored guerrilla groups, and non-state terrorist groups alike).  

Love it or hate it, the AK-47 is no doubt one of the most important and historically significant firearms ever made. Indeed, based upon its sheer ubiquity, a whopping over seventy-five million specimens 

in circulation, produced by nearly one hundred nations, it could be reasonably argued that the AK-47 is the greatest small arm ever.  

Where It Began: Tovarish General-Lieutenant Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov 

As is true of many Soviet-era weapons systems, from the Pistolet Makarova (Makarov Pistol) to the Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) series of fighter planes, the Avtomat Kalashnikova is named for its designer.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was born in the eastern Russian district of Altai Krai in November of 1919, in the thick of the Russian Civil War, and showed mechanical aptitude in general and with firearms in particular at an early age. Conscripted into the Red Army in 1938 at the age of nineteen, he started his military career as a tank engineer but was soon recognized by his superior for his military aptitude, so they soon made him a tank commander, enabling young Mihail to see action fighting in T-34s in the Battles of Brody and Bryansk in 1941. 

He was wounded in action, and his time spent in the hospital recuperating from his shoulder wound set the stage for his famous invention. In the future General’s own words “I was in the hospital, and a soldier in the bed beside me asked, ‘Why do our soldiers have only one rifle for two or three of our men when the Germans have automatics?’ So I designed one. I was a soldier, and I created a machine gun for a soldier. It was called an Avtomat Kalashnikova, the automatic weapon of Kalashnikov—AK—and it carried the date of its first manufacture, 1947…I aimed to create armaments to protect the borders of my motherland. It is not my fault that the Kalashnikov became very well-known in the world; and that it was used in many troubled places. I think the policies of these countries are to blame, not the designers. Man is born to protect his family, his children, his wife.” 

Tovarish Kalashnikov intended the weapon to be easy to produce, easy to use (one that was so caveman simple that a minimally educated Russian farm boy freshly conscripted into the army could easily be rained upon), and incredibly durable and reliable under the harshest and most unforgiving battlefield conditions. And he succeeded in those endeavors.  

Proving Her Mettle: the Kalashnikov Rifle in Combat  

The rest was history. The AK-47 soon became the deadly tangible symbol of revolution—Palestinian, Angolan, Vietnamese, Algerian, Afghan, Hezbollah, the Warsaw Pact, and so forth. American GIs first ran afoul of the AK-47 during the Vietnam War; as Blake Franco wrote for the The National Interest, “American soldiers saw its effectiveness firsthand, as farmers armed with the rifle proved a tenacious foe…The reach of the AK and weapons inspired by it would go on to provide the fuel for much of the violent encounters of the Cold War.” 

The Spawn of a Legend: AK Offshoots and Variants 

As an additional testament to the long-lasting legacy and impact, the baseline AK-47 inspired a myriad of variants and offshoots, such as the AKM, the 5.45x39mm AK-74, the AK-12, the Saiga 12-gauge shotgun…and even the Israeli Galil.  

Personal Experiences with the AK 

My first time firing an AK-platform rifle was back in 1992 at age sixteen when I fired a semiauto-only Norinco Sporter Hunter variant that I rented at Los Angeles Gun Club in downtown L.A. Fast-forward to 2017, and I was issued a true full-auto AK-47 in 2017 during my most recent private military contracting stint in Iraq.  

And speaking of 2017, that was the year I finally became an AK owner. 

Whilst on Christmas vacation from that Iraq stint, I purchased a Romanian-made Century Arms WASR-10 for roughly $800.00. Since then, I’ve only fired maybe 750 rounds through her, as I don’t do nearly as much rifle shooting as I do handgun shooting, but in that span, she’s displayed the flawless reliability that AKs are renowned for, and reasonably good accuracy as far as AKs go (even the most hardcore AK fans will readily admit the M16/M4/AR-15 is the more accurate platform). I’ve only been able to test-fire her at a max distance of fifty yards thus far, using PMC Bronze 123-grain full metal jacket (FMJ) ammo, but I intend to give ‘her a 100-yard evaluation when the opportunity arises. 

Compared with the M-16A2 that I was issued in my U.S. Air Force Security Forces (HOOAH!) days, I appreciate the reliability of the AK (my POS M-16 could barely go a full twenty-round magazine without jamming, even though I cleaned & lubed the damn thing properly), and even more especially I appreciated the simplicity of the Kalashnikov when it came to fieldstripping and reassembly; no godawful small parts to deal with, unlike the M16 fieldstrip.  

Na zdaruvya (“To your health/Cheers”), Mikhail Kalashnikov! 

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for the National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).

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