MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. In 1950, the Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK) proved its capability to level the playing field between an ordinary young man from the African hinterlands and a well-equipped colonizer, Kalashnikov Group CEO Alan Lushnikov said in an interview with TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov.

"When the national liberation movement began to gain momentum around the world in the 1950s, it turned out that the Kalashnikov assault rifle leveled the playing field between an ordinary young man from the African hinterlands and a white colonizer who was well-equipped and armed. Of course, I’m exaggerating. But that is precisely why the Kalashnikov became a symbol of the national liberation movement. That is why it appears on the flags and coats of arms of a number of countries. The secret is that, at that time, it was a weapon of a completely different caliber: reliability, effectiveness, and affordability," said Lushnikov.

He emphasized that the worldwide fame of the AK-series weapons "is due not only to the assault rifle’s unmatched simplicity and reliability, but also to the sophistication of its design, high degree of standardization, and interchangeability."

The Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK) is a line of automatic small arms developed by Soviet and Russian designer M. T. Kalashnikov. The first assault rifle, a 1947 model, was adopted for service in the Soviet Union in 1949.