AK-47 Automatic Rifle
notes: label: Description
content: Physical Description
label: Description
content: Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifle, marked with "66" in a triangle.
label: Description
content: General History
label: Description
content: The AK-47 was designed by Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov. Kalashnikov was drafted into the Soviet Army in 1938; while serving as a tank driver-mechanic, he became interested in the operation of firearms. After being seriously wounded in 1941, he was given six months of leave, and spent that time designing a submachine gun with his machinist friend Zhenya Kravchenko. In 1946 Kalashnikov sent the Main Artillery Commission in Moscow his drawings for a new gas-operated rifle based on the M43 cartridge. The committee gave him the go ahead to create a prototype. From 1946 to 1948 work progressed on the Kalashnikov rifle. In 1949 one of his rifles, the Avtomat Kalashnikova Obrazets 1947, was accepted by the Soviet Army and quickly dubbed the AK-47.
place: label: place made
content: China
topic: label: Subject
content: Firearms
label: related event
content: Vietnam War
label: related event
content: Postwar United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: See more items in
content: ThinkFinity
label: Exhibition
content: Price of Freedom
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.74476M
label: catalog number
content: 74476M
label: accession number
content: 292533
objectType: label: Object Name
content: rifle
label: Object Name
content: rifle, automatic
label: Other Terms
content: Mgsb; rifle, automatic; Firearms; Center Fire; 7.62 Mm; Rifled
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 1/2 in x 34 1/4 in x 3 in; 26.67 cm x 86.995 cm x 7.62 cm