The truth about the creation of the Kalashnikov assault rifle and the German Stg-44 assault rifle

History of the AK-47

The fighting during the Great Patriotic War showed that the Soviet army was lagging behind in small arms. It became clear that it was necessary to develop and implement a more advanced type of machine.

At this time, the Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh) was actively used. It felt bulky and awkward to use. It did not allow hitting targets at a distance of over 250 meters.

In 1943, at a meeting of the Technical Council, the advanced models of small arms of that time were analyzed. As a result, a decision was made to develop new models of Soviet weapons. Based on it, work was carried out and in 1943 they created the Sudaev assault rifle (AS), which became the predecessor of the AK 47. An experimental batch was sent to the front for testing in 1944. The new product did not work reliably enough and had significant weight. However, modifications were impossible due to the death of the designer (A. S. Sudaev).

After this, a competition was announced among the country's gunsmiths. The first sample of the AK was shown to the commission in 1946. This model was rejected. In the next, 1947 code, the designer provided a revised version. He partially did not meet the conditions of the competition, but nevertheless deserved to win it.

For the development, the designer was awarded the Stalin Prize. The machine began to be produced on a mass scale. It entered service in 1949. The first use in armed conflict occurred in Hungary in 1956. Since then, this machine gun has been used in the Soviet army on an ongoing basis.

Features of this model

AK-47 has the following advantages:

1. It has the simplest design compared to other brands of automatic weapons.
2. The Kalashnikov assault rifle is very reliable.
3. It is comfortable to carry and use.
4. Trouble-free operation in any climate and weather conditions.
5. It is able to work in polluted conditions.

However, it has the following disadvantages:

1. The cartridge is not powerful enough compared to a rifle cartridge.
2. Relatively low bullet speed and high dispersion when shooting.
3. Strong recoil that creates shaking when firing in long bursts.
4. Loud work.

Now the machine continues to develop. At the same time, work is underway to eliminate these shortcomings.

Schmeisser under escort

“In 1945-1946. There was a big competition on this topic in the USSR,” continues Popenker. — When Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov began developing his weapon in 1946, he had many competitors. He then worked at plant No. 2 in the city of Kovrov. In the 1947 competition, the Kalashnikov assault rifle defeated another model from Kovrov, the Dementiev assault rifle, and a product from Tula by designer Bulkin. Both “rivals” simply fell apart during the tests. Since the Kalashnikov weapons were objectively better, the decision was made to produce the first batch of AKs. The choice of site fell on a motorcycle plant in Izhevsk.

In 1948, having essentially ready-made weapons in his hands, M. T. Kalashnikov with a group of engineers and military personnel left for Izhevsk. There, since 1946, only at Machine-Building Plant No. 74, a group of German gunsmiths worked. Among them was Schmeisser. According to the reports of the Soviet "authorities", he was the least useful of the group of 15 people. While other engineers, for example the creators of one of the best machine guns of World War II, the MG 42, willingly collaborated with the plant administration, Schmeisser defiantly “refused.” He did not agree to any complex work, citing the fact that he did not have a special engineering education. Well, in the last war years, Schmeisser actually worked in administrative positions, but Sturmgever was still his brainchild. Most likely, because of his convictions, Schmeisser simply did not want to cooperate with the winners.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Izhevsk, work was in full swing on the production of 1,500 Kalashnikov assault rifles for military testing. At that time, Kalashnikov and Schmeisser almost certainly did not meet in person. Both worked in sensitive facilities, and the German was also under guard. Theoretically, they could have crossed paths later, in 1949. Then the AK-47 was adopted and Kalashnikov and his comrades were transferred to Izhmash. After that, somewhere in the corridors or in the factory canteen, two gunsmiths could theoretically meet face to face.”

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The history of the STG-44 - a German assault rifle similar to the AK-47

When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, it was announced that the army needed new weapons. To wage an offensive war it is necessary that German weapons be better than those of other countries. At the end of the thirties, the Wehrmacht Army Weapons Department set the task of developing an assault rifle. It was supposed to combine the features of a repeating rifle and a submachine gun.

As a result, the MP-43 submachine gun with an intermediate cartridge of 7.92 mm was created. It was more powerful than a pistol, but weaker than a rifle. The development was led by the hereditary German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser. In fact, we were talking about an assault rifle; it was called a submachine gun in order not to irritate Hitler.

The contract for the creation of a new type of weapon was concluded simultaneously with two companies. The second was "Walter". Both prototypes were produced in small quantities and were tested simultaneously.

The first baptism of fire of the MP-43 occurred on the Eastern Front in 1942-1943. The introduction of this model made it possible to strengthen the combat power of German troops. The new model made it possible to conduct targeted fire at a distance of up to 400 meters.

This weapon (the version created by Schmeisser) pleased the Minister of Armaments Speer. It was easy to disassemble. The recoil force was half that of the then popular Mauser-98k. The following were noted as disadvantages:

1. High weight, which was 5.22 kg.
2. The strong muzzle flame unmasked the shooter and did not allow him to fire covertly.

Despite these shortcomings, German soldiers and officers recognized the effectiveness of these weapons. It was accepted for mass production, but the following requirements were put forward to the designer:

1. Introduce the use of the Walter trigger system, as one that guaranteed higher hit accuracy when conducting single fire.
2. Make changes to the sear design.
3. Install a different type of fuse.
4. Make the gas tube shorter.
5. Make changes to the design of the bolt and bolt frame.
6. Make some other changes as well.

In 1943, Hitler received many flattering reviews about this weapon. As a result, a decision was made to mass produce it.

In April 1944, Adolf Hitler renamed the weapon the MP-44. At the same time, the discussion was only about changing the name, since no design changes were made. In November of the same year, a second name occurred - the assault rifle was called Stg-44. First of all, weapons were supplied to the elite units of the Wehrmacht.

Over the entire period of its existence, 450 thousand units were produced. This weapon became the first type of automatic weapon to go into mass production.

After the war, the use of the assault rifle did not cease. It was used by the barracks police of the GDR from 1950 to 1965. Production was established in Argentina under the name CAM 1.

Stg-44

During the use of the Stg-44 assault rifle, the following problems appeared:

1. There was no possibility of attaching a grenade launcher to the barrel.
2. Problems could arise when installing optical sights.
3. For shooting, shortened problems were used, which were in short supply throughout the war.

Until 1944, these weapons were found at the front only in small quantities. They began to use it en masse only at the final stage of the war. Therefore, it did not have a decisive influence on the course of the war.

Yes and no

When the fashion for criticizing everything Soviet in society passed, it turned out to be possible to understand this issue without anger and partiality. Maxim Popenker , a weapons expert and author of the book “The History of the Machine Gun in the USSR and Russia,” shared his conclusions with AiF :

“For that matter, another German weapon, the MaschinenKarabiner MKb 42 from Haenel, left a mark on the history of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. It was designed by gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser as part of a competition to create an automatic weapon chambered for the 7.92 mm intermediate cartridge. Let us recall that intermediate ammunition is a cartridge more powerful than a pistol cartridge, which was used in most submachine guns during the Second World War, but weaker than a rifle cartridge.

In 1943, this machine gun, sent for military testing, fell into the hands of the Red Army. In the USSR, they studied the weapon and considered that its concept deserved attention and that we needed something the same, only our own and of better quality. At the same time, neither the intermediate cartridge itself nor the machine gun for it were invented in Germany. Both arose in the USA and France at the end of the First World War. Later, similar work was carried out in the USSR, but it did not come to practical application. The merit of the Germans is that they were the first in the world to adopt the “intermediate cartridge-weapon” complex.

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Thus, back in 1943, we decided to create our own intermediate cartridge, which would be better than the German one in terms of direct shot range. Moreover, in the USSR it had a slightly different caliber: 7.62 mm. At the same time, a weapon complex was created. That is, while Schmeisser was still working on his Sturmgever in the city of Suhl in Thuringia under Allied bombs, the first machine guns (AS-44 Sudayev ) and machine guns (RPD-44 Degtyarev ) chambered for an intermediate cartridge were created in the USSR.”

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Did the AK-47 have a German prototype?

The history of weapons development contains many blank spots. Often, in order to understand what happened, desire alone is not enough. To form an informed opinion, you need to be well versed in technical issues and know history.

If you look at the Ak-47 and Stg-44, it is easy to notice that at first glance they are very similar. This gave rise to conspiracy theories that in fact the Soviet weapons designer Kalashnikov took the design of a German assault rifle as a basis. There are a large number of both supporters and opponents of this idea.

Work on the creation of the AK-47 was carried out in Izhevsk. 50 copies of Stg-44 were brought to this city for study. In addition to them, a large amount of technical documentation was brought. The total number of its pages exceeds 10,000. The production of the German version was banned immediately after the end of the war, and at that time Hugo Schmeiser and his family were transported to Izhevsk as a consultant. The creation of the famous Soviet machine gun was completed after these events.

The stated facts indicate that the judgment that Kalashnikov took advantage of research into the design features of the Stg-44 and consultations with Hugo Schmeisser may have its basis. However, it is important to note. That weapons development is an area in which any state does everything possible to accelerate its development. The development of automatic small arms is no exception.

In particular, when developing the Stg-44, Hugo Schmeisser took advantage of the developments, which in the twenties of the last century released the ZH-29 self-loading rifle.

The truth about the creation of the Kalashnikov assault rifle and the German Stg-44 assault rifle

About the AK-47 in general
The Kalashnikov assault rifle, or as it is more often called AK-47, is known all over the world. From its creation in 1947 until it entered service with the USSR Army in 1949, this machine gun was a mandatory participant in all armed conflicts on our planet. For many African tribes, this machine gun has become something more than just a weapon; quite often its image can be found on the national flags of the countries of the continent. Such popularity of the AK is quite understandable; this machine gun is recognized as the most durable and lethal weapon in its class. Despite its power, it is so unpretentious that it copes well not only with the sands and dust of Africa and Eastern countries, but also with the swamps and jungles of Vietnam. Due to its simplicity, the production cost of this machine is low, which determines such production volumes. The wide distribution of the AK-47 also occurred due to the fact that the modern army, for the most part, has been re-equipped with a modified AK-74 for quite some time, but at the same time, decommissioned AK-47s are still in excellent condition and continue to work. And of course, there will always be people who will gladly make money on weapons that have been decommissioned, but are still quite usable. Now the armament of the army of the Russian Federation, and most of the CIS countries, uses various modifications of the AK-47, ranging from small, police AKSU to RPK machine guns.

RPK machine gun (Kalashnikov light machine gun)

AKSU (Kalashnikov Automatic Folding Short)

Was there a copy

There are many secrets and questions surrounding the creation of this excellent weapon, but the main one is that Kalashnikov did not invent his own machine gun, but simply copied the weapon from the German Stg-44 assault rifle. This rifle was invented by the famous German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser back in 1942. Rumors of plagiarism are also fueled by the fact that after the war, more than 50 samples of the Stg-44 rifle were taken to the city of Izhevsk, where the AK-47 was actually created, for technical disassembly. In addition to the rifles themselves, more than 10,000 pages of technical documentation about the Stg-44 were sent to the plant. Of course, after this, evil tongues began to say that Kalashnikov simply slightly changed the Stg-44 and released his AK-47 assault rifle. It is known for certain that after the occupation of the city of Suhl by Allied troops, the production of weapons in Germany was prohibited, and a little later, in 1946, Hugo Schmeisser and his family were offered to go to the Ural factories that produced weapons as a consultant. It is also known that the German lived for some time in Izhevsk and it was after this that the creation of the legend was completed - the AK-47.

If we draw such conclusions, then all the weapons in the world are copied from each other. By and large, the AK-47 assault rifle and the German Stg-44 assault rifle have similarities only in appearance and in the trigger mechanism. But in this matter, Kalashnikov cannot be accused of stealing the idea of ​​this mechanism from Hugo Schmeisser, since the German himself borrowed it from, who developed the first self-loading rifles ZH-29 back in the 20s.

Self-loading rifle ZH-29

If you look closely at the middle part of the rifle, a similar design can be seen in any modern machine gun, but for some reason it never occurs to anyone to say that all modern weapons are copied from this self-loading rifle.

Kalashnikov could indeed have taken a German rifle as the basis for creating his machine gun, but the AK-47 is an original invention that is completely different from the German model not only in its tactical and technical characteristics, but also in its internal structure. Almost all the parts and important components in the AK-47 are completely different from the STG-44. Moreover, even the principle of disassembling these automatic rifles is completely different. The difference is visible everywhere, from the locking mechanism, the rotary lock on the AK-47 and the skew on the STG-44; The fire mode translators for STG and AK are completely different; the trigger principle of operation, despite its similarity, also has different practical implementation. If you consider each part of the machines separately, you will not find anything in common with each other.

STG-44 and AK

If we talk about ammunition for these machine guns, then they have an external resemblance, however, like many other ammunition in the world. This is not surprising, because this bullet shape is recognized as the most successful in terms of all ballistic characteristics. Further, if we talk about the caliber, the AK-47, as you know, uses a 7.62x39 mm caliber cartridge. The STG-44 used the 7.92x33 cartridge. A similar caliber can also be explained quite easily, because before the creation of weapons of this type, the main weapons were various rifles with a caliber of 7.62.

Cartridges for AK and STG-44

If we talk about “plagiarism,” then Kalashnikov could most likely liken his assault rifle to another Russian-made weapon - the Tula Bulkin assault rifle or TKB-415, which, unfortunately, was never fully developed and did not go into serial production, despite a good design and technical characteristics. Unfortunately for those who like to accuse M. Kalashnikov of plagiarism, the AK-47 and TKB-415 also have nothing in common except their appearance.

Bulkin assault rifle TKB-415

Bottom line

In conclusion, it must be said that in the AK-47 there are indeed many elements copied from weapons of various types, but this was not done in order to deliberately copy weapons, but in order to collect all the best that was developed in the field of automatic weapons of that time . It was thanks to his ability to evaluate and choose the best that Kalashnikov managed to create such a magnificent weapon, which has been used by countries around the world for more than 50 years and does not become obsolete. It should also be noted that if Kalashnikov copied the STG-44 rifle from Germany, why then the production of this weapon was not continued, because the STG-44 can only be found in private collections or museums, and the Kalashnikov assault rifle not only continued to exist, but also continues constantly modified, each time turning into an increasingly formidable weapon.

Comparison of AK-47 and STG-44

The final answer to the question of borrowing can be obtained by comparing the designs of these two types of weapons. Kalashnikov could and had every right to use solutions created by other gunsmiths in the design he created. However, we are not talking about copying someone else's design.

The AK-47 assault rifle has significant design differences with those in the German assault rifle. They have different tactical and technical data. Moreover, even the analysis of these weapons occurs differently. The ammunition has general similarities, but there are a number of differences. They resemble each other in shape, but similar cartridges are used in other types of automatic weapons around the world.

Plagiarism or not

It is quite possible that the Soviet weapons designer, in search of technical solutions, studied the German assault rifle or other types of automatic weapons. But original technical solutions were used in the design of the machine. The design of both types of weapons is very different. So there are no objective grounds to talk about plagiarism. Although this does not deny the fact that Kalashnikov actively studied the world's best small arms at that time, including the Stg-44.

Another argument in favor of the Soviet designer is that after the Second World War, the use of the Stg-44 assault rifle almost completely ceased, and the AK-47 is used more and more. If this rifle is really good, then it should have gained more popularity, and not just remained in private collections.