The legendary AK-47

Designed by a young engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was the Great Patriotic tanker, AK-47 became a cult symbol of the arms and military operations around the world. Work on the AK-47 began in the last year of World War II (1945). After the war in 1946, the AK-46 was presented for official military trials. In 1947 the fixed-stock version was introduced into service with select units of the Soviet Army. An early development of the design was the AKS-47 (S—Skladnoy or "folding"), which was equipped with an underfolding metal shoulder stock. In 1949, the AK-47 was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact.

Prague, 1968

Soldiers of the Soviet Union, armed with automatic weapons, during the Prague Spring – military action in socialist Czechoslovakia, during which Soviet troops suppressed Czechoslovakian reform attempts. (Josef Koudelka / Magnum)

Zagros Mountains, northern Iraq, 1979

Kurdish girl in northern Iraq, using automatic gun, to protect her family from Iraqi troops.(Alex Bowie / Getty)

Brook Wounded Knee, South Dakota, USA, 1973

A member of the American-Indian tribe waving an AK-47 during the massacre at Wounded Knee creek, which was the last major armed clash between the Dakota Sioux Indians and the U.S. Army, and one of the last battles of the Indian wars. (Bettmann / Corbis)

Abadan, Iran, 1980

Western Cambodia, 1981

The girl from the detachment of the Khmer Rouge, poses with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the jungle. In the late 1970′s the actions of the radical Marxist movement has killed more than 1.5 million Cambodians. (Alex Bowie / Getty)

Bucharest, Romania, 1989

Ironically, this member of the anti-communist movement also uses the AK-47 to catch members of the secret police during the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu – Romania’s communist dictator. (Christophe Simon / AFP / Getty)

Solentiname, Nicaragua, 1984

Woman and child during a training exercise conducted by local socialist defense forces for counter-revolutionary combats, acting with the support of the U.S., which tried to overthrow the leftist government. (Larry Towell / Magnum)

Kabul, 1992

A Shiite Muslim guards a checkpoint in Kabul. (Steve McCurry / Magnum)

Izhevsk, Russia, 2002

Sales of pirated copies, some of which are cheaper  for a quarter of the original price, jeopardizes the work of Russian arms manufacturers. At a factory in Izhevsk (pictured) in 1991, worked 12 000 people, and today -  there are only 7,000. Analysts estimate that revenue from global sales of these machines range from 70 to 105 million dollars. (Oleg Nikishin / Getty)

Hamer village, Ethiopia, 2009

Basra, Iraq, 2004

An armed member of the Army Muqtada al-Sadr, Mahdi protects the central Sunni mosque during the Friday prayer. (Abbas / Magnum)

Bar Qambar Khel, Pakistan, 2008

Pakistani Taliban jumping from a truck near the border with Afghanistan. The leader of Taliban Mullah Mohammed Omar once called U.S. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to a duel with the AK-47. U.S. again began to ship the counterfeit machines for the Afghan war, this time for the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. (Lynsey Addario / VII Network)

Dhushamareb, Somalia, 2009

Sufi Muslim in religious studies. Usually peaceful and tolerant Sufis in Somalia had only recently taken up arms to defend themselves from attacks by the Islamist group al-Shabab, who want to seize power in the southern areas of the country. (Michael Kamber / Polaris)

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