The AK-47 was designed by Soviet weapons engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov in the mid-1940s, with the final pattern completed in 1947 and adopted by the Soviet Army in 1949.

Quick Scoop

  • The name “AK-47” stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 (Kalashnikov’s automatic rifle, model 1947), directly referencing its designer and the year the design was finalized.
  • Kalashnikov began working on automatic weapon designs after being wounded as a Red Army tank crewman during World War II and hearing soldiers complain that German forces had superior automatic weapons.
  • While Soviet design bureaus and military committees refined and tested prototypes, Kalashnikov is officially credited as the principal creator of the AK-47 family of rifles.

A Bit of Background

  • Mikhail Kalashnikov was born in 1919 in Kurya, in what is now Russia, and rose from a peasant family background to become a celebrated Soviet weapons designer and later a lieutenant general.
  • The AK-47 was adopted as the standard service rifle of the Soviet Army in 1949 and went on to become one of the most widely produced and recognized rifles in the world.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.