Chance
09-22-2017, 01:47 PM
The sculptor seems to have a better grasp of history than the Russians do. :rolleyes: From BBC News (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41367394?):
A monument to a Russian creator of the world famous AK-47 assault rifle unveiled in Moscow is to be changed because a weapon depicted on the statue is actually a German-designed firearm.
Mikhail Kalashnikov's monument was opened this week to great fanfare by government officials and members of the Russian Orthodox Church.
But arms experts say a drawing on the base of the statue shows the StG 44 rifle used by the Nazis during WWII.
They say this will be now corrected.
....
The story that [the AK-47] was the brainchild of the lowly Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov made great Soviet propaganda, but the origins of the design remain a mystery.
The first automatic weapon of this kind - the Sturmgewehr 44 - was developed by the Germans during the latter part of World War Two. It was well known to the Russians who also benefited from the expertise of captured scientists like Hugo Schmeisser, the man who designed the Sturmgewehr.
Developed at a time of extraordinary Stalinist secrecy we will probably never know. Many people may have had critical inputs into the weapon's design but it is by the Kalashnikov name that it will always be known.
A monument to a Russian creator of the world famous AK-47 assault rifle unveiled in Moscow is to be changed because a weapon depicted on the statue is actually a German-designed firearm.
Mikhail Kalashnikov's monument was opened this week to great fanfare by government officials and members of the Russian Orthodox Church.
But arms experts say a drawing on the base of the statue shows the StG 44 rifle used by the Nazis during WWII.
They say this will be now corrected.
....
The story that [the AK-47] was the brainchild of the lowly Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov made great Soviet propaganda, but the origins of the design remain a mystery.
The first automatic weapon of this kind - the Sturmgewehr 44 - was developed by the Germans during the latter part of World War Two. It was well known to the Russians who also benefited from the expertise of captured scientists like Hugo Schmeisser, the man who designed the Sturmgewehr.
Developed at a time of extraordinary Stalinist secrecy we will probably never know. Many people may have had critical inputs into the weapon's design but it is by the Kalashnikov name that it will always be known.