How The AK-47 Became The Most Iconic Gun In History

And led to decades of bloodshed

(The AK-47 on the former coat of arms of Burkina Faso — Public domain)

The Automatic Kalashnikov 1947 (AK-47) was an intermediate rifle designed in 1947. The rifle was designed to combat the inefficiencies in gun technology that were encountered by Russian soldiers on the Eastern Front. Legend has it that its inventor, Mikhail Kalashnikov, had little to no experience in gunsmithing. This is one of the reasons why the AK-47 looks so different from traditional firearms. From its rise as an obscure new design in the aftermath of World War II, the AK-47 rapidly became the most iconic and recognizable firearm in the modern world.

But how did that happen? The firearm industry is massive. There are dozens of different guns, from handguns to submachine guns and long rifles. Experts and hobbyists can discuss and wax poetic about dozens of different variants in the firearm space. How did this one particular gun rise above the rest to take the world by storm?

Standard Army Issue

The beginning of the AK-47’s rise to fame began in 1949 when Kalashnikov won the contract to supply the Soviet armed forces with rifles. From 1949 onward, the AK-47 was the standard issue rifle for military forces throughout the Soviet bloc. Within a decade, soldiers serving everywhere from the Russian Far East to Poland…