page_title: Vz. 52 rifle
section_title: Decommissioning
hierarchical_section_title: Vz. 52 rifle / Decommissioning
caption_attribution_description: English: Guards outside Prague Castle, Czech Republic
context_page_description: The vz. 52 rifle is a self-loading rifle developed shortly after the Second World War in Czechoslovakia. Its full name is 7,62mm samonabíjecí puška vzor 52. Vz. 52 is an abbreviation for vzor 52, meaning "model 52". It fires the unique 7.62×45mm cartridge. It is considered both reliable and accurate. The first 5000 vz. 52 rifles were made by Považské strojárne in Považská Bystrica, but due to production difficulties, its manufacture was taken over by Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod.
context_section_description: All of the vz. 52 series were quickly replaced in Czechoslovak service by the vz. 58, but the earlier rifles found their way to Soviet allies during the Cold War, and have seen service in Grenada, Somalia, Cuba and Afghanistan and many of those were passed on to guerrillas. At least 12,000 of Cuba's vz. 52s were emptied from that country's reserve stocks and donated to Angola as military aid during the Cuban intervention in Angola.
  The Czech Castle guard uses chrome-finished, deactivated vz. 52 rifles with darkened wood stocks as ceremonial weapons.
caption: Prague Castle Guard carrying the vz. 52
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