MB Civic

By Larry Kahaner | Sunday, November 26, 2006 | The Washington Post

A totally fascinating brief history of the AK-47 – not just a gun, but a symbol, and the weapon of choice around the world. Many revelations worth learning about. Among the best of the many goodies here: how and why it was invented; efforts by the Red Army to keep it secret from the West (first distributed with a sack to cover its shape, Red Army infantrymen were ordered to pick up their spent cartridge cases to prevent them falling into the hands of the CIA); Saddam Hussein buiding a mosque with minarets built in the shape of A-47 barrels. The essay is basically a capsule version of the writer’s recently published book on the same subject (which I hope to see reviewed here by one of us): “AK-47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War” (Wiley)…BS

Here is the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400788.html