KILLING TOOLS, AND OBJECTS WITH MANY MEANINGS, AND REACTIONS
After its introduction, the AK-47 crept into national and insurgent propaganda alike, and can be seen in statuary, symbols, banners, and posters from Central America to North Korea. The caption reads of this poster was typical of its form: “Imperialism and all anti-revolutionists are paper tigers.” The weapon has similarly been appropriated as a mark of martial credibility and determination by dictators, criminals, rascals, and jihadists, a malleable icon that can convey whatever those who carry it wish to convey.
In 1962 and 1963, the U.S. Army held classified tests examining the weapon’s lethality against that of American rifles. With cadavers procured in secret from India and with live goats, testers at Aberdeen Proving Ground fired into defatted and decapitated human heads that had been filled with gelatinous pseudobrains. The tests—hurried, macabre, free from peer review or public scrutiny, and ultimately useless—were a milestone of strange Cold War “science.” An embarrassed army covered them up for nearly fifty years. The effects of a bullet fired by an early American assault rifle passing through a human head were recorded, on a high-speed camera. The so-called terminal effects of an AK-47 round were displayed on another panel, after a tester fired into the skull. (Photos from “Wound-Ballistics Assessment of M-14, AR-15 and Soviet AK Rifles,” U.S. Army, 1964)
Sometimes, choosing not to display a Kalashnikov can have meaning, too. A member of Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, the Palestinian terrorist group, brandished an M-4 in an interview with the author in 2002. Carrying a rifle used by Israel signified defiance or fighting skill—to acquire its enemies’ rifles, the group depends on corruption or battlefield capture. Displaying the enemies’ guns is a common propaganda device, used the world over. (Photo by Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)
Among those who use them, assault rifles can be intensely personal objects or symbols with many meanings. In 2009, an Afghan National Army soldier in Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, decorated his Kalashnikov with unveiled images of women—a seeming rebuke to the Taliban. (Photo by Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)
EVERYMANS’S GUN
By the time the Kalashnikov line had entered its second half-century of service, it was firmly entrenched as a primary tool of violence in destabilized lands. The Soviet Union had fallen, the Warsaw Pact had dissolved. The armories and stockpiles were loose, and the weapon was so common in the field that it was scarcely remarked upon. Its effects were easy to find, and chilling. A wounded Taliban fighter, captured by the Northern Alliance in late 2001, on the approach to Kabul. The man was dragged from hiding onto a dirt road, and executed in a frenzy. What the Kalashnikov era has often looked like, in a way rarely documented by camera. The rifle is still used in crackdowns, too. (Photos by Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)
Karzan Mahmoud, at far right of bottom row. A bodyguard for a Kurdish prime minister in Northern Iraq, Mahmoud was shot repeatedly by assassins with Kalashnikovs not long after this photograph was taken in 2002. The doctors documented twenty-three bullet wounds in his shattered frame. Mahmoud survived. Later, he wondered whether Mikhail Kalashnikov feared for his soul. (Photo courtesy of Karzan Mahmoud)
For a near decade after going to war against the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001, the United States has become a busy distributor of the assault rifles of the former Eastern bloc. Here, a swiftly formed unit of the Afghan National Auxiliary Police in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, 2007, armed with a fresh batch of Kalashnikovs. These units were later disbanded, often without recovering the weapons, the whereabouts of which are unknown. (Photo by Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY’S RIFLE
Since their inception, Kalashnikov assault rifles have displayed remarkable durability in harsh conditions. Above, an original Soviet AK-47, manufactured in Izhevsk in 1954. The rifle was still in service in Afghanistan, now in the hands of an Afghan soldier, in 2008. (Photo by C. J. Chivers)
The Kalashnikov, centerpiece of the former Eastern bloc’s suite of small arms, remains the predominant infantry rifle in use today worldwide. Here, an Afghan patrol in 2007 with arms provided by the United States, approaching a village on a raid with a platoon of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division. There is little reason not to expect the Kalashnikov line, and the consequences of its wide distribuition, to persist for many decades more. (Photo by Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)
INDEX
A
ABC, 352, 397
Aberdeen Proving Ground, 256, 440n
automatic rifles tested at, 284–89
Abu Klea, battle at, 78–81, 83
Afghans, Afghanistan, 380–81
and AK and AK-type rifle production and distribution, 11, 361–62, 378n, 381, 411–12, 413n
and purchase prices of AK rifles, 381, 383, 386
Soviet withdrawal from, 380–81
wars in, 10–11, 13, 21, 100, 361–62, 378n, 381, 383, 386, 412, 413n
Afif, Luttif, 338–39, 351
Ager, Wilson, 35, 420n
AGILE, Project, 281–82, 288–89, 303, 306, 324–25, 439n
Air Force, U.S., 272, 275, 378n
AR-15 and, 279–80, 292
AK-46 (Avtomat Kalashnikova-46), 192
AK-47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova-47), AK-type assault rifles:
accuracy of, 200, 205–6, 228, 243, 309, 378n
availability of, 10, 227–28, 381–83, 386–87
caching of, 11, 377–79, 412
casualties inflicted by, 13–14, 21, 148, 227, 240–41, 340, 347–48, 351, 354, 358, 387–94, 396–98, 401, 405, 408
ceremonial uses of, 11
collapsible, 209, 228, 250, 382–83
as concealable, 8, 227–28
correcting flaws in, 204–9, 242, 308, 432–33n
cultural status of, 359
deceptions on, 20
design and development of, 3–9, 11–12, 15–16, 19, 21, 108n, 144–56, 158–60, 185–209, 223, 228, 242–43, 251, 257–59, 269–70, 275, 280, 292, 294–95, 308–9, 341, 345, 353, 360, 377–78, 402–3, 406–8, 413, 419n, 432–33n, 436n, 444n
destruction of, 413
durability of, 10, 16, 187, 198, 200, 205, 259
early uses of, 202, 204, 219–21, 223–27, 236–37, 239–42, 258–59
as family heirloom, 10–11
family of arms based on, 242–45, 24–48, 401
finances of, 205, 208, 381–83, 386–87
flexibility of, 228
legacy of, 21
limitations and weaknesses of, 21
myths on, 7–8, 17, 149–50, 153, 188, 190, 194–95, 220, 429n
naming of, 4
nicknames of, 207, 372
phasing out of, 208, 242
physical appearance of, 3, 9, 11, 148, 186, 188, 192–93, 309
pilfering and illegal transfers of, 340, 366–67, 369–71, 411
in political assassinations, 10, 388–97
popularity and fame of, 5, 7, 9–10, 228, 400–401, 404–5
precursors of, 155–56, 186, 192, 390
production and distribution of, 3–18, 20–21, 142, 145, 152, 185–86, 190, 192, 194–95, 200–210, 214–17, 219–20, 223, 227–28, 236, 242, 245–51, 256–59, 265–68, 270, 272–73, 294–95, 308–10, 313, 317, 324, 332, 335–36, 338–46, 349–54, 356–59, 361–65, 367, 377–82, 386–87, 390–91, 399, 401–2, 406–13, 419n, 432n–34n, 435n–36n, 442n, 444n
propaganda on, 9, 17–19, 211n
prototypes of, 4, 152, 186–94, 197, 199–200, 201, 204–5, 249, 432n–33n
publicity on, 211n
reliability of, 5–7, 15–16, 145, 197, 200, 206, 307–9, 335–36, 415
reputation of, 5, 188
secrecy about, 20, 211n, 256, 402
in secret contest, 4, 144–48, 150–54, 160–61, 188–89, 191–92, 195n, 197, 199–200, 205, 207, 345
size and weight of, 8, 145, 187, 197, 199, 209, 227–28, 243
in song lyrics, 384–85
; specialness of, 197–98
sporting rifles based on, 399
stockpiling of, 5, 9, 12–13, 340–44, 354, 356–58
symbolism of, 11, 14–15, 154, 225–27, 237, 239–42, 341, 383–85
technical manual for, 256, 402
tests and demonstrations of, 3, 146, 187–92, 194, 197, 199–200, 204–5, 242, 256–57, 274, 283–90, 294–95, 308, 360
training on, 11, 359–60, 378, 380, 387, 404–5, 409–10
ubiquity of, 4–14, 17, 20, 201–2, 214, 361, 380–82, 408, 410, 432n
in violence against civilians, 14, 219–20, 223, 338–41, 346–48, 350–52, 357–58, 365, 387, 406n
AK-74 (Avtomat Kalashnikova-74), 16, 444n
ammunition of, 353, 366, 383
design and development of, 353
purchase prices of, 383
AKM (Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanny), 15–16, 242–43, 269
collapsible, 382
cultural status of, 359
design of, 360
illegal transfers of, 369
knock-offs of, 385–86
production and distribution of, 242, 345, 350, 353
purchase prices of, 382, 386
training on, 359–60, 387
AKS, 15–16
AKSU-74 (Krinkov), 383
Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, 384
Albania, 214
and AK and AK-type rifle production and distribution, 12, 218n, 250, 343, 367
break with Soviet Union of, 342–43
fall of communism in, 365, 367
weapons pilfering in, 367–68
weapons stockpiling in, 342–43, 367–68
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, 84
Alero, Francis, 377–78
Alexander II, Czar of Russia, 40, 48
Algeria, Algiers, 248, 338, 349
Al Jazeera, 15
al Khalil, Ibrahim, 98
Allende, Salvador, 383–84
Alma-Ata, 181–82, 184, 220
al Qaeda, 11, 380, 396
al-Wazir, Khalil “Abu Jihad,” 350
AMD, 16
American Rifleman, 298
Amin, Idi, 9, 225, 356, 358, 374
ammunition, 92–95, 107, 160–70, 251–58, 275–83, 368–69, 373, 433n–35n
of AK and AK-type rifles, 3–4, 16, 19–20, 145, 161, 185, 192, 196–99, 205–7, 215, 217, 227, 249, 251, 257–58, 265, 288, 309, 340, 349, 353, 362, 364–66, 369, 371, 378–79, 382–83, 393–95, 402, 411, 429n, 442n, 444n
of AR-10, 275–76
of AR-15, 276–82, 285n, 286, 288, 291
of automatic and assault rifles, 138–39, 155, 160–67, 169–70, 184–85, 195–97, 253
in Civil War, 33–34, 36
construction of, 196
experiments on, 229–33, 235, 252–53, 284–85, 287, 391, 435n, 438n–39n
of Gardner gun, 68, 81
of Gatling gun, 29, 31–32, 36, 38, 40–42, 46, 50, 52, 67, 88, 90, 92–93, 95
illegal transfers of, 366–71
Kurz rounds, 161–63, 165–67, 199, 255
of Lewis gun, 138
of M1, 253–54
of M-14, 256, 273, 276, 288
of M-16, 20, 269, 271, 294, 297–99, 301–2, 304, 307, 310–11, 316–17, 322, 324–27, 334, 353, 415, 444n
M35 rounds, 162–63, 166
M1943 rounds, see M1943 rounds
of machine guns, 27, 65, 110–11, 136–37, 227
of Maschinenkarabiner 42, 164
of Mauser rifle, 94, 162–63
of Maxim gun, 68–69, 75–77, 82–84, 87, 105, 113–14, 122
of mitrailleur, 43
of Mosin-Nagant rifle, 169
musket balls, 27, 33
muzzle velocity and, 167, 198, 252–53, 284, 291, 293, 383
NATO’s standardization of, 255–57, 275, 436n, 444n
of PK, 243
and reducing power and strength of cartridges, 162–63, 165–67
Remington rounds, 276
SCHV, 276–77, 353, 438n
Soviet standardization of, 204, 214–15
of Springfield rifle, 60, 166–67, 169–70
of sturmgewehr, 165, 249
of submachine guns, 139, 165, 168–69, 181, 228–29, 233–35
of Union Repeating Gun, 35–36
in Vietnam, 264–65, 271, 285n
of Vollmer rifle, 162, 166
Anderson, Arthur, 123–29
in combat, 127–29, 132, 135
training of, 123–27
Andropov, Yuri, 407
Ankertex OY, 249
Annan, Kofi A., 381
Ansar al-Islam, 396
Ap Sieu Quan, 263–68, 316–18, 321, 335
AR-5, 275
AR-10, 275–77, 353
AR-15, 276–93, 353
ammunition of, 276–82, 285n, 286, 288, 291
casualties inflicted by, 282–83
design and development of, 276–77, 290–92, 295, 298–99
physical appearance of, 277
promotion and sale of, 277–81, 283, 441n
prototypes of, 331–32
reliability of, 283, 289–90, 438n
size and weight of, 277, 283
testing of, 273–74, 278–91, 438n
U.S. Army and, 276–77, 281–92, 296, 303, 306, 324–25, 438n–39n
in Vietnam, 270–71, 280–83, 285n
see also M-16
Arafat, Yasir, 9, 225
Argentina, 40, 364n
ArmaLite, 274–78, 298–99, 438n
AR-10 of, 275–76
AR-15 of, 276–78, 292, 296, 298, 331–32, 356, 438n
Armenia, 12, 365, 408
Armistice, 137
Armstrong, 89
Army, Confederate, 33–37
ammunition of, 33–34
casualties in, 35
Gatling gun production and, 30
Requa gun used by, 28, 36
Army, Soviet, 16, 154–61, 255–56,
AK-47 tests and, 200, 205
AK-74 and, 353
and AK and AK-type rifle design and development, 12–13, 144, 146–49, 152, 154–56, 158–60, 185–86, 189, 191, 197, 353
and AK and AK-type rifle production and distribution, 4, 201–4, 206, 208, 216–17, 242, 250, 256, 342
atomic bomb development and, 4
family of arms built around AK-47 for, 242–43
Hungarian revolution and, 218–20, 222–24, 237–39, 348
Kalashnikov’s career in, 4, 147, 174–85, 188, 191, 206, 209–10, 224, 226, 359, 400, 403, 406
and pilfering and illegal-arms transfers, 366–68
Prague Spring and, 348
rifle cartridges of, 161, 165–70
in Soviet-Afghan War, 10
submachine guns and, 168–69, 180–82, 184–85, 187–88, 199, 249, 357
tanks of, 159, 174–78, 218–19, 224, 238, 241
Tokarev’s gun for, 199
weapons stockpiled by, 342–44
in World War II, 155–57, 159, 174–81, 214, 280, 436n
ammunition of, 33–34
casualties in, 35
Gatling gun and, 30–32, 36–37, 94
standardizing weapons of, 32–33, 419n
Union Repeating Guns purchased by, 36
Army, U.S., 328
AR-10 and, 276
AR-15 and, 276–77, 281–92, 296, 303, 306, 324–25, 438n
arms-design failures of, 251, 253–55, 257–58, 269–70
criminal negligence charges against, 326
Gatling gun and, 39–41, 90–95, 97
in Indian wars, 39, 58–64, 93
intelligence on AK-47 gathered by, 256–57
M-14 used by, 256, 272–73, 295, 303, 310
M-16 and, 263, 292, 297–306, 316, 319–21, 325–26, 330, 332–34
Maxim gun tests and, 83–84, 88, 112
propaganda used by, 320–21
Russo-Japanese War and, 117
in search of suitabl
e automatic rifle, 20, 253–54, 256, 270, 272–76, 283–94, 360, 438n
in Spanish-American War, 90, 93–95, 117, 252, 424n
SPIW project of, 272, 290, 296
on tactical uses of machine guns, 111, 117–18
in Vietnam, 263, 294, 296, 298–307, 316, 320–21, 330, 333–34
Arsenal, 399
Artemovsk arsenal, 343–44, 354
AS-44, 155–56
tests of, 187–88, 192
Asbury Park Evening Press, 313
Ashanti War, 47–48, 54, 56, 78
asymmetric war, 14
atomic bomb, 21, 144
development of, 4, 148
Soviet nuclear programs and, 1–5, 148, 407–8
Soviet testing of, 1–3
Attleboro, Operation, 302
Auma, Alice, 373–77, 379
Austria, 109, 239
automatic and assault rifles, 137–40
ammunition of, 138–39, 155, 160–67, 169–70, 184–85, 195–97
destruction of, 411–13
of Fedorov, 138, 165–68, 193
gas operation in, 108, 145, 188, 190, 196, 198, 242, 257, 275, 294
of Germany, 138–40, 162–65, 187, 199, 207–8, 253–54, 257
ideal traits for, 197–98
Maxim’s sketches for, 75, 137, 423n
of NATO, 256–58, 296, 364
of Schmeisser, 139, 163–65, 207–8, 254
of Sudayev, 155–56, 187–88, 192
U.S. laws on, 14–15, 18, 236
U.S. search for suitable, 6–7, 20, 253–54, 256, 270, 272–76, 280, 283–94, 360, 438n, 442n
of Vollmer, 162, 166
in World War I, 138–40, 163, 167, 267
in World War II, 155, 163–66, 253–54, 280, 295
see also submachine guns; specific automatic and assault rifles
Auto-Ordnance Corporation, 139, 233–34, 236, 279
ÁVH (Hungarian State Security Police), 222, 227, 239–40
Avramenko, Andrei, 360
Avtomat Kalashnikova-46 (AK-46), 192
Avtomat Kalashnikova-47 see AK-47, AK-type assault rifles
Avtomat Kalashnikova-74 see AK-74
Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanny, see AKM
Azerbaijan, 365, 382, 408
B
Badri, Shaykh Babikr, 99
Baggara, 101–2