Kalashnikov's Automatic Pistol

Kalashnikov Concern, the Russian small arms manufacturer which formed from the former Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, as part of an ongoing series looking at rare and interesting Russian firearms have released a video showing off a rare example of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s automatic pistol developed in the late 1940s. 

Kalashnikov developed the pistol in response to a request made by the Red Army for a new automatic pistol to issue as a personal defence weapon. Kalashnikov’s pistol was later beaten by Igor Stechkin’s entry into the trials, the APS.

In the late 1940s the Red Army began a programme to adopt two new pistols: a compact officers sidearm and a larger automatic pistol for personal defence. The larger pistol would be issued to artillery and mortar crews as well as tank, vehicle and aircraft personnel where carrying an SKS or a new AK-47 would have been a hindrance.

Both of the new pistols were to fire the new Soviet 9x18mm pistol cartridge. A design by Nikolay Makarov was selected as the new compact pistol while several designs were tested for the larger automatic pistol. Both Kalashnikov and Stechkin submitted pistols with Stechkin’s eventually winning out.

Kalashnikov Concern’s video shows off an APK marked serial number #1. Like the APS, the pistol has a wooden holster stock. Initial prototypes fed from an 18-round magazine but in 1951, improvements were made to the pistol adding a new rear sight and increasing the magazine capacity to 20 rounds. Kalashnikov is said to have developed the pistol just after the AK was selected and did not have enough time to refine the new sidearm.

Unloaded the APK weighed 1.25kg (2.75lb) and 1.7kg (3.7lb) with its wooden holster – only slightly heavier than the APS. Kalashnikov’s pistol used a blowback action with a fixed barrel. It had a single action trigger had a three position selector with: safe/decocked, semi-automatic and full-automatic. It had an extremely high rate of fire and unlike the APS did not have a rate of fire reducer. Only a few prototype APKs were made and Stechkin’s APS was adopted in 1951. 

The APS and the suppressed variant, the APB, were both used during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. While Kalashnikov’s pistol design was unsuccessful he continued development of the AK as well as other Russian smalls arms such as the RPK and the PK. 

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

The inventor of the ubiquitous AK-assault rifle family, Mikhail Kalashnikov, in a revealing letter to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church seeking answers to some moral and spiritual questions that apparently plagued him for many years before his death late last month.

The Patriarch apparently replied, saying:

Taken from a copy of the letter published in Russia's Izvestia newspaper. (Source)

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47 who died today, talking about the experience of designing his World famous rifle.

Source

Historical Trivia: How Much Did The CIA Pay For their First AK74?

According to Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf, bureau chief of Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency in Afghanistan, The CIA paid $5,000 for the first AK74 captured in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Introduced in 1974 the AK74 was a response to the success of the US' M16 which fired the relatively small intermediate 5.56mm NATO round. When compared to the AK47's 7.62×39mm the 5.56mm round was much more controllable in automatic fire.  The Soviets began trials for a new more accurate rifle which could fire a smaller round in the late 1960s, one of the designs put forward was the TKB-022 by Korobov however a rifle developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov's team at the Izhevsk arms factory won out.  It was introduced in 1974 and by the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 it was the standard issue arm for Soviet forces.

The AK74 was much lighter than the AK47/M, weighing almost half that of the AKM. The lighter ammunition also allowed the average soldier to carry double the amount of ammunition he would have with an AK47 or AKM.

As the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan was the first time the AK74 had been used en masse in combat it was the first real opportunity the CIA had of acquiring one of the new rifles.  As the CIA became involved in the Mujahideen's resistance against the Soviets they were finally able to acquire the new AK, paying the princely sum of $5,000 for it.

Chinese Type 56 Assault Rifle

The long standing relationship between Soviet Russia and Communist China dates back to World War Two. After the war when the Communists gained power the relationship continued and during the 1950s and early 1960s Soviet Russia followed Nikita Khrushchev’s foreign policy of sharing Russian military technology and expertise with like minded allies within the Communist Block. This led to the proliferation of the most famous rifle ever made, the AK-47. The blueprints for the AK-47 were given to China in the mid 1950s who then produced their own version, the Type 56 Assault Rifle.

Khrushchev's arms proliferation policy lead to dozens of Communist and pro-Communist countries being given the means to produce their own AKs.  From The East German Republic to Egypt to North Korea dozens of indigenous AK clones were produced.  China had also produced their own version of the SKS, confusingly named Type 56 Carbine.  The 56 Carbine like the original SKS also had a fixed folding bayonet this was a feature the Chinese were fond of and carried over into their AK clone. China in turn also followed a policy of sharing military technology, in the mid 1960s they began to supply North Vietnam and the Viet Cong with the Type 56. By 1966 the average a Vietnamese soldier would be issued with a Type 56 and roughly 300 to 400 rounds of ammunition. The Type 56 proved to be a significant tactical leveller, giving otherwise poorly equipped guerrilla forces a very capable weapon with a rate of fire often higher than their South Vietnamese and US adversaries.

North Vietnam at the time had no indigenous weapons manufacturing industry to speak of, the supply of AK-47s , AKMs and Type 56s were entirely external and is a perfect example of the proliferation and percolation of arms by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Arguably the automatic weapon put an end to Western Colonialism, no longer were small expeditionary forces equipped with modern weapons, far outstripping any weapons indigenous peoples may have had, able to control and subdue vast tracts of land in Africa and Asia. With automatic weapons and guerrilla techniques the field was levelled, the war in Vietnam can be described as what is now called ‘asymmetric warfare’ in that a sophisticated Western military is matched by a poorly equipped non-conventional force. Arguably the Type 56 and other AKs gave the North Vietnamese the means to defeat the world's most powerful military power. 

Like all Kalashnikovs, be it Russian made or foreign clones, the Type 56 has been found all over the world and used in countless conflicts either through official transfers of arms from the Chinese government or more commonly through illegal arms trading. Along with the AKM it is one of the most commonly found 7.62x39mm rifles.The Type 56 has been found not only in Vietnam but in Liberia, Uganda, Syria, Afghanistan (through US & Pakistani deals during the Soviet Invasion), North Korea - who in turn have given rifles to Filipino rebels.  The Type 56 has also been built under license in half a dozen countries including Albania, Bangladesh and Sudan. By the late 1980s the Chinese People's Liberation Army had begun to move away from the Type 56 in favour of newer indigenous designs like the Type 95.

  Sources:

Mikhail Kalashnikov Hospitalised 

The 93 year old Small arms designer has reportedly been hospitalized at a military clinic in Moscow.  The designer oversaw development of the world's most recognisable rifle 65 years ago, over 100 million have since been built.   He was airlifted from his home in Izhevsk to a Moscow hospital last week with a suspected blood clot.    

Kalashnikov is reported to be conscious, in a serious but stable condition. 

Source