It is no secret that today there are many people in the world who are initially anti-Russian. Without any reasons. Simply because "everyone says so." They cite a lot of real, and often invented by someone, facts in support of their words. And even the obvious things "turn" upside down easily.
Recently I talked to one pan. Once a completely adequate person, an officer in the Polish army. Educated in one of the military schools of the USSR. But … old age, I guess. Or the duration of our, Russian, “getting up from our knees”. The memory of the USSR and Russia is eroding from the heads of Western inhabitants. Replaced by what the local media say.
We didn't talk about politics. It's too late to re-educate each other. And why? I have "imperial thinking", he is a "common European". But the past still connected. Life, life today and the past. You can't get away from him.
Therefore, somehow imperceptibly, the conversation turned to weapons and our latest developments. Honestly, I have rarely heard so much "near-truth" about us. Moreover, this "near-truth" was supported by quotations from Western, more often American, military experts, beautifully designed comparative tables, construction diagrams. Even the fact that the authors of these "documents" honestly write "according to my (our) assumptions" does not bother in any way. Well, they cannot openly say - "according to information from intelligence officer X". Or (which is often more honest) - from social networks.
So, the conversation turned to Soviet patrons. Those very unitary models of 1943. 7, 62x39 mm. To be honest, I am not a great expert in cartridges. More practitioner than theorist. And as a practitioner, I respect this patron.
"The patron is the strength of the nation"! Not bad? And then, a fool, I thought that the strength of the nation was in something else. "The force of a bullet is the physical equivalent of the force of a weapon." "Your cartridge is the weakest of all …" "Your cartridge has 1991 J. And the American has 2844 J." Well, and so on.
That's when the "expert", especially, by the way, who wore epaulettes, starts juggling with numbers taken from the devil knows where, you start to think about it. Well, it would be fine if Pan Jarek spent his entire service in the Foreign Legion, or somewhere else. But no, in the very same army of the People's Republic of Poland, which ran through all adult life with AK, and saw M-14 only in militants on the TV screen.
Well, God bless him, everyone makes fun of old age in their own way. But what is allowed to an office vegetable is somehow unforgivable for the major.
As far as I remember, the armor penetration of our "small cartridge" (5, 45x39 mm) is higher than the Mosin rifle. At a certain distance and mainly due to the more modern bullet. And already about the "normal" caliber generally keep quiet.
Where the patron of the mosinka is calmly doing his job, the "emo" just weeps. Maybe because at the time of Mosin, they didn't really know about joules?
I didn't really need these joules and other "smart words". But the fact that our AK, without straining, pierces a steel helmet at a distance of almost a kilometer is a fact. The vaunted 6B1 bulletproof vests, a bullet with a steel core "sews" 600 meters. Even armor steel (7 mm), however, if you shoot at a right angle, is likely to penetrate half and half meters from 300 …
I remember the testing of snow parapets from my lieutenant times. More than half a meter of well-packed snow - through and through. And this is from 500 meters. Even brick walls were punched from a decent distance (100 meters). Unless, of course, the wall is "half brick" (12-15 centimeters).
A weak cartridge for them … And not weak from a mosinka wall and knocked into a brick.
This conversation prompted me to think about Soviet weapons as such. Why is it popular? Why long-obsolete samples are still used today in many armies of the world. Why are they produced by many countries around the world?
I remember the first acquaintance with the American M-16A1. Beautiful. But we disassembled it, but we cannot assemble it. Details as in a children's designer. And try to clean it "in the field" … There was not even a gas piston there. This means that it heats up like a radiator of a heating battery. In short, rubbish. Even if it is beautiful. Not a weapon for combat. I understand the Americans in Vietnam who took our AKs.
Soviet weapons have always been designed according to several basic principles. And these principles were dictated by the war. Not the interests of manufacturers, not the capabilities of designers. And the war! And this is not even the merit of the Soviet system. This is a historical fact for Russia.
Russian weapons should be simple, reliable and massive. Production, if necessary, should be deployed as soon as possible on the existing industrial areas. This is one of the victory conditions.
The most famous examples of the Great Patriotic War. PPSh-41 and PPS. If we compare the German machines and ours? The technological beauty of the "Germans" and our somewhat rude-looking. In some moments we gave way. But in the main - the ability of the weapon to withstand all the "hardships of military service" such as dirt, frost, snow, rain and others - they won. Not to mention the mass production. And the soldier, who had never seen such a weapon, in two or three days handled it as if it were a family.
And the fact that these submachine guns were collected mainly by children's hands is an important aspect. Yes, of course, the German professionals of the machine tool and the front press never saw it, that's a fact. And the fact that in our country we had to use the hands of children is a regrettable fact.
Are foreign assault rifles and rifles better? Then why did the German snipers gladly use the Tokarev rifle? And not so long ago in the Donbass "Svetochka", which had been lying in salt caves for 70 years, was the most valuable acquisition for a militia.
Is it because she, too, is not aware of modern developments and joules? And through the helmets-armor quite persuaded the ukrobaytsov to brainwash about the frailty of life and the meaning of being in the Donbass?
By the way, the same can be said about the best tank of the Second World War - the T-34. Everyone knows that the tank is good. But few know that it is also easy to manufacture. Of the 102 thousand tanks that were produced during the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, 70 thousand are T-34. 70 thousand!
The reader and my Polish interlocutor will be interested. The Germans produced 485 famous "Tigers" during the same period. And medium "Panthers" - only 4800 pieces. It is difficult, very difficult to resist such a mass scale. And simplicity. Once I already mentioned the famous film "War is like a war …" Remember the episode with the thrust? "We'll reach the first damaged tank. I'll take it off and put it on." And the same "Tiger" could not be repaired "in the field".
Then the interlocutor perked up. Here! Filled the Germans with corpses! They burned your tanks so hard that they had to be released in thousands!
Aha, and about your Polish we are silent? About Czech, French, Belgian? So keep quiet. And in general, in which Charter is it spelled out that one Soviet tank should have been displayed for one German tank? Moreover, the Germans used our tanks with joy. And they even tried to copy.
We talk and write a lot today about new types of weapons, about breakthroughs in this area. This is the correct approach. Moreover, it seems to me that Russian designers have retained one important "Soviet" feature of weapons. Remember the Russian "Calibers", the range of which was limited to hundreds of kilometers? Who took these weapons seriously? Here is the "Tomahawk" - yes. And suddenly … thousands of kilometers of flight and a perfect hit on the target. Nate in borscht, as they say.
In general, Russian weapons today, just like the Soviet ones until recently, may be inferior in some design developments. Even in some technical specifications. But destined for war. I recalled a recent incident in Ukraine. When 4 thousand AK assault rifles were "Europeanized". The beauty that killed the weapon. It turned out that not all that glitters is gold.
Our tanks do not have the same comfort as Western ones. Automatic boxes have been added to our cars recently. Our assault rifles and machine guns do not look as menacing as foreign ones. However, in battles in different parts of the world, our weapons have shown exactly what these weapons are. An old RPG-7 successfully sets everything and everyone on fire. An even older AK beats all the "descendants" like a young one. And the ancient DShK today is a thunderstorm not only of field fortifications, but of armored vehicles.
Politics, which today has become the cornerstone of human relations, has clouded the brains of many of our former allies. And "science", or rather "pseudoscience", finds an explanation for this. It is fashionable today to perceive Russia as a "bearish corner" of the planet. Europeans, Americans, "all progressive humanity" and others forget: there are no bear corners. There are countries that do not live like others. Whose traditions are different. The way of life is different. But the fact that they are, that they have survived in this world of unification and standardization, deserves respect.
And such independence is always under threat. Someone always wants to make it look like everywhere else. It just won't work. Very troublesome. Including thanks to our weapons designers and our design school. So, my Polish interlocutor … And we will make cartridges, if we need it. We will make what we need. We, not you …
