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Browse: Home / Russian Military

Is AK-47 a direct copy of the STG44?

Question by Ozzie: I often hear many say that the AK-47 was a direct copy of the STG44, what truth is there to…?
…this?
Really, what would a tank operator know about mechanisms needed for a gun especially the best assault rifle of all time. Do these two guns operate on the same basic concept and just simply a copy of a german design, or is the AK-47 truely a remarkable unique masterpiece by kalashnikov?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Sharona
and people can make them in villages in places like Waziristan, remarkably easily thanks to the relative simplicity of the mechanism: just a glorified breech block and firing pin, really. I have seen a village blacksmith in Bangladesh make some pretty good engine parts for trucks. Perhaps not as good as the originals, but good enough.

Re; the Kalashnikov, Soviet technology was always based on elegant simplicity, in many ways: the solid fuel rocket boosters, for example, are much cheaper and simpler than the hugely complex and expensive liquid oxygen of NASA. The Socialist System, not having a profit motive, would opt for this way of doing things, also World War Two’s management concept of ‘Second Best Today’ would also have had an impact of the way they did things. Russian computer programmers were once much in demand as they wrote shorter programmes than their US and European counterparts, as Russian machines had smaller memories and they weren’t paid by the hour-or the yard-just a flat salary.

There is a philosophical issue here too. It is possible that two entirely separate people can come up with identical ideas, at roughly the same time in history, as the precursors or preconditions for those ideas exist in both places at the same time. They can be identical but not connected. All the world’s engineers were walking towards heavier-than-air flight at the same time, for example. Inventions and genius comes in waves, as in Renaissance Florence producing dozens of fabulous artists all at once.

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Comments ( 2 )

  1. popular says

    The AK-47 is not a direct copy or clone of the STG-44.

    For starters, they fire a different cartridge. The AK-47 is chambered in 7.62x39mm, and the STG-44 in 7.92x33mm. Further, Kalishnikov (the creator of the AK-47) used the locking lug design of the M1 Garand and the trigger and safety group designed by John M. Browning. Finally, the AK action is a rotating bolt and the STG is a tilting bolt. So, there are clearly some differences.

    That said, it seems pretty clear that Kalishnikov heavily borrowed from the STG-44. The two main pieces of evidence:

    1) The overall design and form of the weapon is very, very similar. In fact, people who don't know much about guns often mistake a STG-44 for an AK-47.

    2) Hugo Schmeisser, the man who designed by the STG-44, was captured by the Russians in 1945 and forced to work on weapon design for them. Schmeisser was not allowed to go home until 1952. Those seven years Schmeisser was working in the USSR match up pretty neatly with the development of the AK-47.

    Kalishnikov (who is still alive), denies to this day that he copied the STG-44. And in a literal sense, he is correct. There are significant differences. On the other hand, the similarities are obvious even to someone who knows little about guns.

    My personal view: Kalishnikov should get credit for significantly improving on the German STG-44. But would he have invented the AK-47 if the Germans hadn't invented the STG-44? I doubt it.

    Reply
    • max says

      One important addition here is that Schmeisser – while in Russia – worked at the SAME factory in Izhevsk as Kalashnikov.

      Reply

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