MIKHAIL KALASHNIKOV died on December 23
rd
in 2013, aged 94. But his 66-year-old invention, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, has plenty more shots left to fire. Developed in 1947 and first used by Soviet forces in 1949, the AK-47 assault rifle and its many derivatives are now used by the armed forces of more than 80 countries, and by freelancers in many more. No-one knows quite how many are in circulation: 100m is a reasonable guess. Asa proportion of all the guns in the world—another number no-one can be quite sure about—Kalashnikovs probably make up more than one in ten of all firearms.Why does an ageing Soviet invention still dominate modern warfare?
米哈伊尔·卡拉什尼科夫已于
2013
年
12
月
23
日去世，终年
94
岁。但是，他那已有
66
年历史的发明——卡拉什尼科夫自动步枪仍有足够多的子弹等待射出。开发于
1947
年并在
1949
年首次被苏联军队使用的
AK-47
突击步枪以及众多的衍生型号的枪支，如今仍被超过
80
个国家的军队和更多国家和地区的武装组织所使用。没有人知道这种武器的确切流通数量：
1
亿枝是个合理的估计。作为世界上所有武器的一部分——没有人能够对另一种步枪有非常确切的数字——卡拉什尼科夫可能占所有枪支的十分之一强。为什么一种陈旧的苏联发明仍在主导当代战争呢？
The cultural impact of the AK is felt all over the world. Quentin Tarantino's villains celebrate its appropriateness for “when you've absolutely, positively got to kill every [enemy combatant] in the room”. Mexican outlaws boast about their cuernos de chivo, or “goat horns”, the nickname given to the rifle because of its curved magazine. In some parts of Africa, where the gun is seen as a symbol of the ousting of colonial rulers,Kalash is a popular name for boys. Mozambique displays the gun on its flag. In Lebanon, a model nicknamed the “Bin Laden” sells for twice the price of the standard AK-47, because it is the type that al-Qaeda's former boss was seen toting in some of his videos.
AK
步枪的文化影响力在世界各地都能被感受到。昆汀·塔伦蒂诺的恶棍们为这种枪支“绝对能够让你杀死屋子中的［敌方的］每一个人”的适用性而欢呼；墨西哥的匪徒们为他们的“山羊角”——这种步枪因其弯曲的弹匣而得到的一个绰号——而吹嘘。在非洲的某些枪支被认为是已经下台的殖民统治者象征的地区，卡拉什是一个受欢迎的男孩的名字。莫桑比克的国旗上所展示的正是这种枪支。在黎巴嫩，一个绰号为“本·拉丹”的模特，之所以能够以两倍的价格兜售标配的
AK-47
，就是因为基地组织的前老大被看到在许多有关他的视频中都在摆弄的这种型号的步枪。
The gun is nothing special. Its controls are unsophisticated; it is not even particularly accurate. But this simplicity is a reason for its success. Compared with other assault rifles, the AK-47 has generous clearance between its moving parts. That is bad for accuracy, but it means that the mechanism is unlikely to jam, no matter how clogged it gets with Sudanese sand or Nicaraguan mud. Designed to be operated by Soviet soldiers wearing thick winter gloves, it is simple enough for untrained recruits (including children) to use. These features explain why the gun has remained in demand. But its success is also down to supply. The Soviet Union wanted to standardise military equipment among its allies, and so shipped giant caches of the weapons to friendly states, where it also established factories to churnout the rifles by the hundreds of thousand. (The USSR was unconcerned with copyright, too, meaning that knock-offs proliferated.) The gun has spread allover the world. But where the Soviet Union had less influence, the AK-47 wasless popular. To this day, bandits in the Philippines are more likely to usevariants on the M16, an American-made assault rifle supplied to the Philippine army by the United States.
这种枪没有什么特殊之处。它的控制装置不精细；甚至不是特别的准确。但是，这种简单性正是它成功的一个原因。同其他类型的突击步枪相比，
AK-47
各个移动部件之间的空隙过大。虽说这对准确性来说是一个硬伤，却意味着这是一种无论是被灌进了苏丹的沙子还是尼加拉瓜的泥土都不可能出现卡壳的机械装置。由于最初是为了让能在冬季戴着厚手套的苏联士兵使用，因此其简单性足以让没有受过训练的新兵（包括孩子）使用。这些特点解释了这种枪支始终存在需求的原因。但是，它的成功也归功于供应。苏联曾想让这种枪支成为盟友军事装备的标配，因此曾向友好国家输送了大量的这种步枪，并在某些国家建立了工厂，生产出了几十万枝这种枪支。（苏联也不关心这种枪支的版权，因此各种假冒产品充斥了市场。）这种枪支已经传遍了全世界。但是，在苏联影响力较小的国家和地区，
AK-47
的受欢迎程度要差一些。直到今天，菲律宾的土匪都更有可能使用各种型号的
M16
——一种由美国供给菲律宾军队的美国造突击步枪。
With the AK's dominance firmly established, it has proved hard to displace. In Syria, some fighters were pictured using FAL assault rifles, which by some accounts are superior. But they didn't last long because it proved hard to find ammunition: the FAL takes 51mm-long cartridges, which are thinner on the ground in conflict zones than the 39mm-long cartridges used in the older types of AK-47, according to Nicolas Florquin of the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss research-organisation. Perhaps most fundamentally, the basics of warfare haven't changed all that much since the second world war.Drones and smart weapons are revolutionising rich-world armies. But elsewhere, much of today's bloodletting follows a similar pattern to that seen in the1940s. Until warfare evolves, the AK-47 will remain as devastatingly useful as it was half a century ago.
