When the AK-47 was “just a submachine gun”

when you absolutely, positively gotta categorise every piece of military equipment in history #military #history #ww2 #sovietunion #coldwar #militaryhistory

[holdencaulfield]

And now it is basically the default weapon for every armed militia in the world.

[PootisPenserPow]

Fun fact about the pps43, it was being produced in Stalingrad during the Battle of Stalingrad, meaning that guns were rolling off the line and going like 300yds to the frontline

[dpdfpdffgp]

Kalashnikov has the haircut of Mao Zedong and looks like that one actor

[LucTroung]

Isn’t ak a bit big for a tank crew to use inside the tank

[Zajuts]

When people talk about the proliferation of machine carbines in the Soviet Army during WWII, they often mention special companies and battalions armed only with PPSh-41/PPS-43s. From 1944 on, every single rifle company had 1 of its 3 platoons armed with machine carbines only. This was in addition to the full SMG company in each rifle regiment(2 in Guards units).

[ivankalash]

First picture: soviet in 80s with an AKs-74u "krinkov"

Second picture: soviet troops with AK-S (type 2?) (not AKM-S)

3rd picture: mikhail

4th picture: mikhail with type 2 AK

5th picture: soviet with ppsh-41

6th picture: soviet with pps-43

Other two between are self explanatory

Last picture: yugoslav troops with the yugo variant of SKS with rifle grenade muzzle attachment

[RacingLunaticAlt]

Lmao

Want a rifle?
AK
Want a SMG?
AK no stock
Want a sniper?
AK with big barrel
Want a LmG?
AK with drum mag

[shekss]

It isn’t a submachine gun, nor did anyone consider it to be one, but it was initially planned to replace and fulfill the same role as them albeit with greater accuracy. Production improved and eventually it was just easier to produce only AKs and make it the standard firearm.

[tballstaedt]

I'm not sure this guy knows his shit.

[ucnguyenminh]

As a Vietnamese i can confirm they call ak is submachine gun

[tobyhawkes]

This is historical revisionism, The inventor of the Kalashnikov made the gun after speaking in depth about the shortcomings of other service weapons with his comrades.

The Kalashnikov was intended to be a service rifle from the start

[lunchpin]

Also, based on the plan of using milled parts, it was much more expensive to produce than the SKS

[XPBY-Catalina]

Never knew that Pedro Pascal served in the Soviet military...

[macobuzi]

The terms "Assault Rifle" is heavily debated and some countries doesn't even recognize it. For example in VN where mainly get supplied by the Soviets in the Cold War, we still call AKM or Chinese Type-56 as "súng tiểu liên" means submachine gun.

[borzagar]

That on the picture was the yugoslav peoples army with the zastava sks, they also had zastava m70 which was an ak but very improved😊

[MrDmitriRavenoff]

The SKS is a solid weapon in its own right. I love mine, but in combat I'd rather have the AK.

[FreiherrvonRosendamm]

The idea in 1945 was to have a small Arms System in 7.62x39.
The AS 44 Assault Rifle for Elite Troops, the SKS as standart Issue, a bolt action carbine also in 7.62x39 for Artillery men drivers echelon units etc, and an LMG in the same calibre with a detachable barrell for elite and average infantry.

The AS 44 didnt work out because the Designer of this Assault Rifle (Sudayev, PPS 43 Designer) had died of an heart attack in july 1945, it was to heavy and too complicated for mass production.

The Rpd didnt fully work out because the glorious soviets were not able to Design a detachable barrell, plus the machine gun was not as reliable as the soviets had hoped.

So the Soviets obviously dropped the 7.62x39 bolt action carbine.

The Soviets thought if they had already designed the SKS and RPD they just might aswell go ahead and produce them to start replacing the SVT and Mosin Nagant Rifles.

Only then did Stalin order Kalashnikov to design an Assault Rifle and the idea of using it as an SMG came up.

[dguy]

a gun associated with America having been invented by the Soviets really is a plot twist

[zackeryrogers]

Militaries of that time used semi-auto service rifles as was per standard of that time period. It wasn’t until later in the 60s or so when you would see automatic weapons veo regularly given to standard infantry

[Hull-m]

First guy is literally me




(Soveit Ryan Gosling jumpscare)