Kalashnikov rifle  

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A Kalashnikov rifle is any one of a series of automatic rifles based on the original design of Mikhail Kalashnikov. They are officially known in Russian as "Avtomat Kalashnikova" , but are widely known as Kalashnikovs, AKs, or in Russian slang, as a "Kalash". They were originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, primarily by Izhmash, but these rifles and their variants are now manufactured in many other countries.

In popular culture

In the movie Lord of War, the character Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer played by Nicolas Cage, mentions the Kalashnikov: "Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal, nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova.... more commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the world's most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple, 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy, even a child can use it - and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars."




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Kalashnikov rifle" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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