Oh come on, as one former 0302 to another, the statement the U.S. didn't have a hand in the disbursement of the Ak-47, and couldn't have done anything about it is a bit of a stretch.

Very bluntly, the U.S. is no saint when it comes to the proliferation of the Kalashnikov line of small arms. Of course in order to maintain official deniability of any overt U.S. involvement in historic conflicts stretching from the Congo, to our own Southern Hemisphere in Latin America, and of late, the loss of thousands of AK assault rifles shipped into Iraq, we find the AK-47 quite handy.

-the RPG? A companion article on that would have been interesting, and it is another result of practical, reliable, cheap Soviet manufacturing which has destabilized the world.

Anyways, the AK has been and will always be a highly practical weapon, simply because of its low production cost and reliability. I like the story of AKs from the 50s... If the Soviets could have figured how how to make the Lada even half as reliable as that, perhaps their government wouldn't have tumbled.

I'd like to point out that the rifle slung over the Congolese child soldier's shoulder on page 4 is a Vz. 58, not a Kalashnikov.

Thanks for the correction, Sam. C.J. Chivers writes:

"Sam, you're right, and your correction goes to one of enduring and likley indelible problems with many conversations about the Kalashnikov line. All sorts of people -- soldiers, anti-gun activists, journalists, and many of the combatants who carry the rifles -- call them AK-47s. And rarely are they actually AK47s. Usually they are derivitaves, a family of descendant firearms, licensed and unlicensed, Eastern bloc and otherwise, that were based on the AK-47's basic design. The most common of these are the AKM derivatives, one of which is shown in the yellow image that opens this Q&A and is embedded with the headline. The acronym AK-47 once defined a very specific rifle, which had a very specific period of production. Today the acronym is a short-hand, and an imprecise shorthand, for a large class of weapons. And then there is the vz. 58. The Czech vz. 58 is not a Kalashnikov at all, though at a distance it is often mistaken for one, if only because it has a Kalashnikov-like profile. It is much less common than the real item, but it routinely manages to show up in photographs from war zones, where it is labeled an AK-47. In this case, the photo agency that provided the image had the caption wrong. Foreign Policy has removed the photograph. Thank you for pointing this out. And this provides a chance to talk about another error related to the vz58. Through good intentions mixed with ignorance, thousands of vz. 58s were handed out by the U.S. military in Afghanistan a few years ago, which told the Afghans they were 'AK-47s.' They have since mostly been recalled. I'll have a sepearate post about this mix-up soon on The New York Times' At War blog. Thank you again. We are grateful for your close read."

It would be hard to imagine an article in this magazine about landmines in Angola under a headline "From the USA with Blood".

...to call the M14, "flawed"?

I understand the context; and yes, at the time it was the wrong weapon for the job. But design wise, being nothing but an extension of the Garand M1, it has a heritage of excellence. Yes, it has no business being fired on full auto; and in that sense I guess it is flawed, and that the M1 itself was the actual superior weapon (according to Patton: ""the greatest single battle implement ever devised by man") But just because it wasn't the weapon needed for the wars of the second half of the 20th century doesn't take away from its engineering quality and elegance. One might as well call the m16/m4 'flawed' because of its known limitations (the DI system), but we will judge it as a 'success' simply because its been in service so long. It is notable that even though the m14 was the shortest-lived service rifle in US history, its something like the second or third-longest weapon to be in continuous service in the military (given that its still used by a number of designated marksmen & the SEALS) next to maybe the 1911 or M2 browning.

You know what, forget it. I'm totally just nitpicking. I just happen to think the m14 is sexy. :) Don't pick on her!

Isn't the ultimate achievement of the AK simply that its freaking *cheap* and simple? The irony being that the emblematic tool of socialist revolutions was actually a triumph of industrial design and mass production that would have made Henry Ford proud. That said, i personally find it unbelievably ugly. And I've also never understood why so few designers put the charging handle on the *left* side instead of the right, given that most of the population is right-handed (it demands taking your hand off the grip, or doing off-sided manipulation). Its an ergonomic brain-fart. (then again, the m16 is even more stupid in that respect, and I've never understood why no one ever complained about having to rack your rifle right into your own face) Apparently only H&K seem to think that ergos matter. Those crafty Germans... they gave the world the Sturmgewehr, and all we collectively did was make it cheaper and uglier.

... Is there some specific effort to find Obama look-alikes and show them pumping AKs in the air like... you, know... a Kenyan terrorist-sympathizer or something? Or is it complete serendipity?

I think the caption to the first photo could begin, "While attending a democratic party fundraiser..."

"""The automatic Kalashnikov, his namesake, resulted not from one man's epiphany, but from design convergence in a massive, state-directed pursuit""""

And the Ford first car, his namesake, also resulted from the efforts of thousands of people, and also wasn't the result of any "epiphany".

Only in the US it is not called "stolen" ideas. It us called "improvement", progress, new design....

First, english is my second language and therefore I'm not so good in it.
Second: how can a former marine can be neutral and objective judging the AK as an enemy weapon. You have forgotten AK was in hands of Viet-Nam NLF, Viet Cong for you; decolonization of ex-portoguese territories in Africa and also with cuban troops also in Africa. It has not been a weapon only in the hands of "bandidos".

Mr. Chivers, this is fascinating material and I'm glad you've written this book. For a long time now I've been wishing someone would write a book about Udmurtia, which along with being a Finn-Ugric speaking semi-autonomous republic, also had the most heavily defense-oriented industry among all the oblasts, krais, and republics of the RSFSR. Votkinsk has an ICBM building plant and Glazov has the main Russian uranium processing plant in addition to Izhmash and other organizations in Izhevsk. What I want to ask you, is how did the design of the AK-47 take shape? Was it a totally Soviet story, with Kalashnikov himself and his subordinates responding to demands by the Red Army for a new type of battlefield weapon that would suit the massive warfare and barely-trained soldiers of the WWII Eastern Front? Or was there a real understanding that these weapons might be used in other types of combat, and would be well-suited to those types of combat (e.g. not jamming in a jungle). And even if that wasn't the case for the original design, is there any sense that the design improvements incorporated feedback from Soviet third world client states? Or was it purely a Soviet-driven story.

My question is not as sophisticated as the one above. But on the chance that you're taking questions.

I've only fired one version of an AK, I don't remember the nomenclature, but it was described by the OPFOR in the familiarization class as a carbine version of an AK-47. It had the handguard fixed directly to the barrel, as in what I take to be the older versions (distinct from from the one in the late Soviet photo with the creator or "creator" with the offset, ventilated handguard). The OPFOR used oven mits to fire them, since as we quickly learned, the handguards heated up past handling very quickly on auto. Then you could only aim by holding on to the locked magazine, which was too close to the pistol grip, with the recoil, to give much accuracy. In the photo essay, I see ones with the same handguards and an extra pistol grip on the barrel. So many variations. Guessing that there's something to do with the design of the innards and/ or the manufacturing process that makes them all AKs. I understand the bare basic mechanics of a gas-operated assault rifle but not what makes them all specifically AKs.

Sorry about my ignorance.

C. J. Chivers talks with Foreign Policy about the Kalashnikov, the world's real weapon of mass destruction. Mr. Chivers, this is fascinating material and I'm glad you've written this book. For a long time now I've been wishing someone would write a book about Udmurtia, which along with being a Finn-Ugric speaking semi-autonomous republic, also had the most heavily defense-oriented industry among all the oblasts, krais, and republics of the RSFSR. "C. J. Chivers: The United States is not responsible for the Kalashnikov's mass production or stockpiling, and during the Cold War it could have done nothing to stop these things from occurring appleton wi florist delivery. Later, while it certainly would have been helpful, in the security sense, if it had done more to contain the spread of weapons and ammunition that have rushed out of post-Cold War stockpiles, it might be useful to ask this question of China and Russia -- the two main Kalashnikov producers, who have shown little interest in undoing the effects of their exported rifles. That said, there are many ways to contain the ongoing proliferation, and rather than pursue them with any real determination, the United States has instead become the largest known purchaser of Kalashnikovs, which it has reissued in Iraq and Afghanistan with scant accountability. One thing about the AK-47 story is that almost no one looks good in it. " The United States was not involved in the mass production and stockpiling of the Eastern bloc's signature shoulder-fired arm. It has been active -- nay, very active -- in Kalashnikov distribution. It remains so to this day.