Star newspaper, September 20, 1957.
95. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 63.
96. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty, chapter 9.
97. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 62.
98. Ibid., p. 63.
99. Ezell, Small Arms World Report, December 1992, p. 7.
100. Bolotin, Soviet Small Arms and Ammunition, p. 70.
101. Bolotin’s book was both accurate and authoritative enough, in Kalashnikov’s view, that he cited it in his own memoirs, although not on the subject of Zaitsev’s design contributions to the final AK-47 prototype.
102. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty. Chapter 9 includes excerpts from a letter by Zaitsev. The book was published by the Russian Ministry of Defense and serves as both an official chronicle of the tests and a fuller account than Kalashnikov provided. Only five hundred copies were printed, and its circulation was tightly limited.
103. Pravda.Ru, a Russian news site, published its version on August 2, 2003, thirteen years after Lyuty died.
104. Vlasyuk, Zerkalo Nedeli.
105. Personal communication to author from Maksim R. Popenker.
106. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 65.
107. Small Arms World Report, December 1992, pp. 7–8.
108. Kalashnikov, From a Stranger’s Doorstep, pp. 225–26.
109. In 1989, according to the transcript of their interview, Kalashnikov told Ezell he met Degtyarev during his early work at NIPSMVO, when Kalashnikov was still “a single country bumpkin.” Small Arms World Report, December 1992, p. 6.
110. Zhukov, Second Birth, pp. 146–47.
111. Ronald F. Bellamy and Russ Zajtchuk, “Chapter 3: The Evolution of Wound Ballistics: A Brief History,” Textbook of Military Medicine, Part 1: Warfare, Weaponry and the Casualty Conventional Warfare: Ballistic, Blast and Burn Injuries (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Surgeon General, United States Army, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1989), pp. 83–106.
112. Sergeyev, Tekhnika i Vooruzheniye, p. 27.
113. Robert H. Clagett, Jr, “How the Infantry Tests a Rifle,” American Rifleman, October 1953, pp. 27–30. Clagett, a major, was a test officer for Army Field Forces No. 3 at Fort Benning, Georgia.
114. G. E. Hendricks, “Test Results Report on AK-47,” November 7, 1962, Report No. DPS-800, to U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, and “Trial Report Soviet Machine Carbine 7.62mm Kalashnikov (AK),” August 1958, from the G-2 to the Netherlands General Staff. The Dutch report is on file at the Leger museum in Delft.
115. Small Arms World Report, December 1992, p. 7.
116. Kalashnikov, From a Stranger’s Doorstep, p. 231.
117. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 66.
118. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty, chapter 9. Kalashnikov has written that tests ended on January 10.
119. Novikov, from Volksarmee.
6. The Breakout: The Mass Production, Distribution, and Early Use of the AK-47
1. A. A. Grechko, The Armed Forces of the Soviet State: A Soviet View (Moscow: Ministry of Defense of the U.S.S.R., 1975). Translated and published by the U.S. Air Force, pp. 6–7.
2. Such reasoning has anchored popular assessments of the Kalashnikov line. The conventional wisdom runs like this: The AK-47 is an excellent and almost failsafe assault rifle, therefore it is ubiquitous. This is insufficient.
3. This sentiment informs Russian pride in Russian firearms to this day. Russia cannot point to a wide range of industrial successes. Against this background, the AK-47 and its related arms are Russian products that actually work.
4. Kalashnikov, From a Stranger’s Doorstep, p. 234.
5. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 70.
6. Val Shilin and Charlie Cutshaw, Legends and Reality of the AK: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the History, Design, and Impact of the Kalashnikov Family of Weapons (Boulder, Co.: Paladin Press, 2000), p. 28. There is no question that Kalashnikov, by mid-1948, began work here. But sources other than Kalashnikov point to a roundabout route, and say he first worked in Tula and Kovrov, but was unsatisfied with his professional life at both places, perhaps because of competition with other designers. (Bulkin, Simonov, and Tokarev worked at Tula, Degtyarev in Kovrov.)
7. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty, Chapter 10.
8. Ibid.
9. Shilin and Cutshaw, Legends and Reality of the AK, p. 28.
10. Kalashnikov, From a Stranger’s Doorstep, pp. 247–51. The dates here shift in Kalashnikov’s multiple tellings; he said the meeting was in 1944, when Kalashnikov was working at Kovrov. But in 1944 Kalashnikov was not yet working on the AK-47, and was not yet assigned to Kovrov.
11. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 74.
12. This work fell to Valery Kharkov. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty, Chapter 12.
13. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty, Chapter 11, translation by Michael Schwirtz. Other changes were driven by economic concerns, including substituting expensive materials used on the prototypes with less expensive materials better suited for cost-conscious mass production. A few changes were minor: The screw fixtures in the stock and near the barrel were replaced with stronger fittings. The accessory panel at the butt plate, which provided access inside the stock for storing small items, such as rifle-cleaning materials, was changed to be similar to that of a carbine designed by Evgeny Dragunov, another Soviet armorer. One change was to an accessory: Because it could fire automatically, the AK-47 built up more heat than most of the rifles and carbines that preceded it. A steel clip was added to the shoulder strap to prevent it from burning where it came into contact with the barrel.
14. For data on its imprecision, see the ballistic studies performed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, including G. E. Hendricks, “Test Results on AK-47 Rifle,” published on November 7, 1962, and filed as Report #DPS-800.
15. Dmitri Shirayev, “Who Invented the Automatic Kalashnikov?” Soldat Udachi (Soldier of Fortune), Moscow, September 2000, pp. 30–34.
16. Personal communication to author in July 2009 from Norbert Moczarski, a German biographer of Schmeisser. Almost twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, Schmeisser’s activities at the time of the AK- 47’s development remain shrouded. There is no question of his presence in Izhevsk during the 1950s. But the Soviet archives have not been opened to allow an examination of how Schmeisser passed his time there and the reasons he had been sent to such a place. His biographers in Germany remain unsure what role, if any, he played in the development of the Kalashnikov prototypes, the fine-tuning and mass production of the AK-47 design, and the tooling of the Izhmash assembly line.
17. The first view was put forth by Russian Life magazine. Shirayev’s quotation is from a personal communication to the author.
18. Shilin and Cutshaw, Legends and Reality of the AK, p. 29.
19. The heavier AK-47 that resulted from it probably reduced recoil, too.
20. Shilin and Cutshaw, Legends and Reality of the AK. Shilin does not provide his source.
21. Malimon, Otechestvenniye Avtomaty, Chapter 12.
22. After the monetary reform in 1947, the typical urban worker in the Soviet Union received a salary of five
