The picture shows Mikhail Kalashnikov with the colleagues when celebrating his sixtieth anniversary in the city of Izhevsk in 1969. In the centre is Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, on the right is Alexander Alekseevich Zaitsev, on the left is Nikolai Mikhailovich Afanasiev.
Alexander Alekseevich Zaitsev is a Soviet designer of weapons. He got his core education in the Kovrov mechanical college. After the war in 1946 he began working at the Kovrov small arms and machine guns plant as a designer. In 1967 The Kovrov Mechanical Plant founded a special design bureau and employed Alexander Zaitsev as its head.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Afanasiev is a famous designer of small arms, an honoured inventor of the RSFSR. He was educated in the agriculture mechanization college. During the Great Patriotic War in 1943 he developed a safety catch to prevent double loading of a mortar. Many decades later this device is still used in modern mortars. The OTse-02 Kiparis submachine gun designed by him is operational in the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.
In the autumn of 1946 Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov was sent to the K.O.Kirkizh plant in Kovrov. At that time this enterprise was one of the leading manufacturers of automatic weapons in the USSR. Here the first experimental models of the Kalashnikov assault rifle were made and transferred for trials on a test range. The team of designers assigned to assist Mikhail Kalashnikov in the implementation of the project was led by Alexander Zaitsev.
Mikhail Kalashnikov recalled that Zaitsev was recommended to him as a young specialist for processing technical documentation and making samples. They quickly found a common language since both of them were young and enthusiastic about their cause. When Mikhail and Alexander were working on the first samples, they were ready to stay at the plant round the clock.
Secretly from the management they decided to change the layout of the whole assault rifle under the pretext of a need for various modifications. Owing to this they managed to simplify the weapon’s design and to enhance its reliability under various operational conditions. Working day and night at the drawing-board and designing new details the designers managed to meet the deadline and implement what they had in mind.
Trials on the test range were held in June 1947. During the trials various samples were presented, but the best results were shown by the AK-47. Due to this Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov was awarded with the Stalin prize of the first degree.
Alexander Alekseevich Zaitsev is a Soviet designer of weapons. He got his core education in the Kovrov mechanical college. After the war in 1946 he began working at the Kovrov small arms and machine guns plant as a designer. In 1967 The Kovrov Mechanical Plant founded a special design bureau and employed Alexander Zaitsev as its head.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Afanasiev is a famous designer of small arms, an honoured inventor of the RSFSR. He was educated in the agriculture mechanization college. During the Great Patriotic War in 1943 he developed a safety catch to prevent double loading of a mortar. Many decades later this device is still used in modern mortars. The OTse-02 Kiparis submachine gun designed by him is operational in the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.
In the autumn of 1946 Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov was sent to the K.O.Kirkizh plant in Kovrov. At that time this enterprise was one of the leading manufacturers of automatic weapons in the USSR. Here the first experimental models of the Kalashnikov assault rifle were made and transferred for trials on a test range. The team of designers assigned to assist Mikhail Kalashnikov in the implementation of the project was led by Alexander Zaitsev.
Mikhail Kalashnikov recalled that Zaitsev was recommended to him as a young specialist for processing technical documentation and making samples. They quickly found a common language since both of them were young and enthusiastic about their cause. When Mikhail and Alexander were working on the first samples, they were ready to stay at the plant round the clock.
Secretly from the management they decided to change the layout of the whole assault rifle under the pretext of a need for various modifications. Owing to this they managed to simplify the weapon’s design and to enhance its reliability under various operational conditions. Working day and night at the drawing-board and designing new details the designers managed to meet the deadline and implement what they had in mind.
Trials on the test range were held in June 1947. During the trials various samples were presented, but the best results were shown by the AK-47. Due to this Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov was awarded with the Stalin prize of the first degree.
