In 2019, the great Russian arms designer Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov turns 100. This designer has gone down in history forever thanks to its machine gun, which is known all over the world today and is one of the symbols of modern automatic weapons. At the same time, it would be naive to believe that the well-known designer worked on only one automaton and its derivatives. At different times, the designer created both submachine guns and sniper rifles. One of his little-known developments for the general public was an automatic pistol, which participated in the competition at the same time as the Stechkin pistol, which was eventually adopted by the Soviet Army.
Today, the very idea of adopting an automatic pistol that could fire in bursts is perceived by many experts as erroneous. However, in the middle of the 20th century, before and after World War II, a lot of attention was paid to such developments, especially abroad. Mainly, foreign designers worked on automatic pistols and submachine guns for the common 9x19 mm Parabellum cartridge. At the same time, in the Soviet Union, this topic was bypassed for quite a long time, although the issue of arming the crews of tanks, various armored combat vehicles and self-propelled artillery units with small arms could not be solved at the expense of an assault rifle, which was created under a more powerful intermediate cartridge, as it could not be it was also solved at the expense of the Makarov pistol. The machine guns did not suit the military in terms of their dimensions, and the PM in most cases was recognized as an insufficiently effective weapon on the battlefield.
Already at the end of 1945, the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army prepared tactical and technical requirements for new pistols and cartridges for them. The preparation of performance characteristics for new products went with the generalization of the vast experience that was accumulated during the Second World War. So a new pistol cartridge of 9 mm caliber with an 18 mm long sleeve was created by B. V. Semin in OKB-44 (today the famous TsNIITOCHMASH) exactly in accordance with the instructions of the GAU. The first batch of cartridges was transferred for testing in 1947. If we talk about pistols, the army expected to receive two models of short-barreled weapons that were fundamentally different from each other. The first pistol was supposed to have a small mass (no more than 700 grams) and dimensions, it was supposed to become a personal self-defense weapon for officers of the Soviet Army. The second pistol was planned to be made a "personal self-defense weapon" for officers who were supposed to be in the zone of direct contact with the enemy and could come into fire contact with enemy infantry.
Kalashnikov automatic pistol 1950
Today we know that the compact pistol, which was adopted by the Soviet Army in 1951, turned out to be the now famous Makarov pistol (PM), but for the role of a "large automatic pistol", which entered service not only for Soviet officers, but also for crews military equipment and artillery crews - the Stechkin automatic pistol, no less famous today APS, has become. At the same time, the fact that the competitors of the Stechkin pistol, at the time of its adoption into service, were other models of automatic pistols chambered for the same 9x18 mm cartridge, among which were the models proposed by Kalashnikov and Voevodin, remains in the shadows.
The Kalashnikov automatic pistol, model 1950, used an automatic blowback scheme. The return spring was located around the fixed barrel of the pistol, the trigger firing mechanism of the model was non-self-cocking, the safety-translator of the fire modes located on the left side made it possible to fire the pistol both with single shots and with bursts. The standard magazine was supposed to hold 18 cartridges of 9x18 mm caliber. A special groove was located on the back of the handle, which was intended for attaching a wooden holster-butt. The weight of the pistol without cartridges was 1.25 kg, with the holster the weapon weighed already 1.7 kg.
According to the test results, the model was modernized several times. By 1951, the Kalashnikov automatic pistol received a new magazine, designed for 20 rounds, as well as a new sight and a changed location of the fuse translator. Despite these changes in the competitive struggle, the model lost to the pistol proposed for the competition by Stechkin. For this reason, the Kalashnikov automatic pistol of the 1950 model remained forever in history only in the form of a few manufactured prototypes.
Cartridges 9x18 PM
It was really difficult for the Kalashnikov pistol to compete with the APS, perhaps this model did not even reach the stage of field tests. The reason was that during the period of the creation of the pistol, testing and adoption of the automatic pistol Stechkin, Mikhail Timofeevich was busy working on his main topic - the machine gun and machine gun, concentrating on the development, first of all, of long-barreled models of firearms. In this area, Kalashnikov managed to achieve well-known achievements and significant successes. At the same time, the Kalashnikov automatic pistol, being presented in several versions, has forever remained history. One of these pistols is now in St. Petersburg in the funds of the Military-Historical Museum of Artillery and Engineering Troops and Signal Corps.
Tankers, gunners, pilots received a Stechkin pistol. APS, which was also equipped with a wooden butt holster, could fire single shots and bursts. At the same time, the military operation of the pistol revealed a number of shortcomings, which included the large dimensions of the weapon, the inconvenience of wearing a massive holster-butt, the impracticality of conducting automatic fire. The handle of the Stechkin automatic pistol with a small angle of inclination required some time from the soldiers and officers to get used to and was not suitable for "instinctive" offhand shooting. The military considered this weapon to be excessively large and uncomfortable in everyday wear, especially in peacetime. The cherry on the cake was that, together with the APS, it was necessary to carry 4 fully equipped spare magazines (20 rounds in each) in pouches, which further burdened the servicemen.
Already in 1958, the APS was discontinued, and in the early 60s of the last century, most of these pistols moved to warehouse storage, although in service with some categories of servicemen, in particular machine gunners (Kalashnikov machine gun) and grenade launchers (RPG-7), this pistol remained in service until the early 1980s. At the same time, regardless of whose pistol: Kalashnikov or Stechkin was adopted, they had other common disadvantages, for example, the chosen cartridge. The ballistic characteristics of the 9x18 mm cartridge could not provide a high initial bullet flight speed, and therefore a good flat trajectory. In addition, the 9-mm bullet had insufficient penetrating effect, and against targets using personal protective equipment, for example, body armor, such a cartridge was ineffective in principle. Among other things, there was a great danger of ricochets in the room.
Kalashnikov automatic pistol 1950
It is no coincidence that in the mid-1970s the "Modern" competition was launched in the Soviet Union, the main task of which was the creation and adoption of not new automatic pistols, but small-sized automatic rifles chambered for the standard cartridge 5, 45x39 mm. The weapon that replaced the APS pistol in the Soviet Army was called AKS-74U and was developed by Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov. This model was a shortened version of the AKS-74 assault rifle. So the spiral of history made another circle.
A 1950 Kalashnikov automatic pistol, all photos: kalashnikov.media
