
There were three versions of the rifle, each slightly different from each other. The AK-46's design had a certain resemblance to the mechanisms of the M1 Garand, specifically action with a short stroke of the gas piston located above the barrel and a rotating bolt. The rifle commission rejected this design in the second round of their tests, but Kalashnikov would radically revise his design and create the prototype "AK-47". The AK-46 (exact designation uncertain) is the common name for an experimental assault rifle by Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov on the basis of a self-loading carbine he developed in 1944, whose design would evolve into the AK-47. 2.6 Converted AKM Pistol / "Krinkov" / "AKMSU".The AK-47 and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors: For later modernized Soviet/Russian Kalashnikov variants, see the AK-74, AK-100 series, and AK-12 pages. For 7.62x39mm Kalashnikov variants with distinctive designs used by other countries, please see their respective pages. Note: This page specifically focuses on 7.62x39mm Soviet/Russian variants of the Kalashnikov rifle, as well as their near-identical copies manufactured by other countries. Multiple Communist Bloc countries manufactured copies of the AK-47 (and the AKM), some of which would go on to spawn derivative rifle families with designs distinct from Soviet/Russian designs.

The AK-47 and its variants has been manufactured in many countries and has seen service with armed forces as well as irregular forces worldwide, and was the basis for developing many other types of individual and crew-served firearms.

The model spawned the Kalashnikov rifle family of weapon designs, whose members would be adopted by large amounts of countries as their service rifles, becoming one of the most widely used firearms in the world. 'Kalashnikov's automatic '), is a select-fire, gas-operated 7.62x39mm assault rifle, developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov. It was subsequently heavily modified in 1948 when it was used along with #2 for additional testing. Important note: this is the original appearance of this prototype, in the form in which it, together with the rifles under serial numbers 2 and 3, was tested in December 1947 - January 1948.
