The Legendary AK-47 Just Received the Tribute It Deserves

[DemolitionMan]

By Jared Keller

Before his death in 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov was a Russian lieutenant general and the military engineer behind the legendary AK-47. But as of Sept. 19, Kalashnikov is now a 30-foot bronze statue, brandishing a shiny replica of his ubiquitous assault rifle over the streets of central Moscow.

The looming effigy is less a tribute to Kalashnikov than to the uniquely reliable killing machine he developed, according to a Guardian dispatch from the monument unveiling. Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky declared that the AK-47 “is Russia’s cultural brand”; ''

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-legendary-ak-47-just-received-the-tribute-it-deserves-22412

[DemolitionMan]

You can get it dirty and needs a minimum of care and it still fully functional.

[TomSea]

They are changing the rifle on the statue because the artist accidentally gave him a Nazi rifle.

Nazi gun removed from statue of AK-47 founder Mikhail Kalashnikov in Moscow
dw.com
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/nazi-gun-removed-from-statue-of-ak-47-founder-mikhail-kalashnikov-in-moscow/ar-AAsmMmb

[DemolitionMan]

They are changing the rifle on the statue because the artist accidentally gave him a Nazi rifle.

During World War II, the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle used by German forces made a deep impression on their Soviet counterparts.The select-fire rifle was chambered for a new intermediate cartridge, the 7.92×33mm Kurz, and combined the firepower of a submachine gun with the range and accuracy of a rifle.In July 1943, an earlier model of the Sturmgewehr was demonstrated before the People's Commissariat of Arms of the USSR. The Soviets were impressed with the weapon and immediately set about developing an intermediate caliber fully automatic rifle of their own to replace the PPSh-41 submachine guns and outdated Mosin–Nagant bolt-action rifles that armed most of the Soviet Army.