- Wounded as a tank driver in 1941 during World War II, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov sees the latest Soviet machine gun fail. As he's also an inventor, he starts making improvements and in 1947 ends up creating the AK-47 assault rifle.
- Biographical film about the inventor and designer of small arms Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov. Not everyone knows what a long and thorny path the self-taught man traveled to create the legendary AK-47 assault rifle at the age of 28, which to this day is one of the most ubiquitous weapons in the world.—Peter-Patrick76 (peter-patrick@mail.com)
- The film begins with a sequence (supplemented by subsequent flashbacks) in which Mikhail Kalashnikov (Yuri Borisov), a young farmer's son from Altai, is seen secretly working on a functional toy rifle. The film switches to the year 1941, in the midst of World War II, where the now adult senior sergeant Kalashnikov serves as a tank commander in the Red Army. During the Battle of Bryansk, Kalashnikov is seriously wounded while taking out a German anti-tank gun, and he is taken off the front-lines. While being transported to the rear, he and a companion encounter a group of German soldiers, and he witnesses his comrade's new sub-machine gun failing at a critical moment due to design faults in the magazine (the mag got filled with water and when the water froze, it froze the bullets. The spring was too weak to keep all the bullets nicely separated). This inspires him to use his self-acquired talent at inventing to design a new automatic weapon for the Soviet army.
On his way home (he was sent home to recover), Kalashnikov visits Matai Station in Kazakhstan, where he previously worked as an engineer but was dismissed for using the depot's workshop to build his private weapon designs. He appeals to his former superior, & the head of the depot Krotov (Sergey Gazarov), to let him assemble his latest invention, but Krotov refuses. When Kalashnikov proposes his design to a passing high-ranking officer named Basarov (Seydulla Moldakhanov), he gets authorization to proceed, and with the help of the workers (Kuzmich (Yuriy Loparyov), Kravchenko (Mikhail Gudoshnikov), uncle Misha (Aleksandr Nikolsky) all of whom work in their spare time) he successfully assembles his new sub-machine gun.
While trying to bring it to Basarov at Alma-Ata, he is mistakenly arrested, but an ordnance officer takes notice of the gun's innovative design and has it sent off for evaluation at his workshop led by Andrey Kazakov (Maksim Bityukov). In the testing, the gun works better than all existing models and is super accurate.. As a result, Kalashnikov is released and encouraged to present his gun to Major general Pavel Kurbatkin (Vitaly Khaev), the district commander of Central Asia, who approves him for a national arms design competition. to be approved for national service, the gun has to win at the competition.
Kalashnikov is sent to Golutvin, the Shchurov arms testing facility, where he is to compete against prestigious arms designers like Major Alexey Sudayev (Dmitry Bogdan) and Sergei Korovin; there he also meets Ekaterina 'Katya' Moiseyeva (Olga Lerman), a female design assistant and his future wife. Kalashnikov is ordered to work with engineer Captain Vasily Lyutyy (Artur Smolyaninov) to further improve his weapons design. Kalashnikov is uneducated and needs a lot of help to produce detailed engineering drawing for this weapon. Katya is assigned to work with him. Katya is cold at first, but starts to like Kalashnikov when he gives her space and treats her with respect that she demands. While his weapon ultimately loses to Sudayev's gun, he is given permission to work on new designs, and his friends also encourage him to continue his work on a light machine gun. By 1944, Kalashnikov has the first prototype ready with the help of Basarov
He is asked to go with state security Captain Lobov (Aleksey Vertkov) back to Golutvin for testing and to take part in the competition.. At the railway station Kalashnikov is hailed by his brother, who is a convict and headed for the gulag. Kalashnikov appears to ignore him, but Lobov sees this. He confronts Kalashnikov later for being an enemy of the state. Kalashnikov fights back and tells Lobov that his father gave up their farm for the socialist cause, and he hasn't seen his brother in 8 yrs. Kalashnikov is reunited with Katya. They sleep together. Kalashnikov's design performs well in testing, but none of the designs win as they are too complex for mass production. He is offered a chance to continue to work to improve upon it. Colonel Glukhov (Anatoly Lobotsky) likes Kalshnikov's approach and asks him to stay at Golutvin to complete his improvements. Kalashnikov marries Katya.
The war comes to an end and Kalashnikov is worried that his work will count for nothing. Glukhov assign a new department to Kalashnikov and asks him to continue working on his assault rifle design. In quick time (with the help of Sudyev, who has also returned from the war), Kalashnikov has a new automatic rifle ready and is sent to the Kovrov Arms Factory in 1947 to improve on it. Kalashnikov knows that Kovrov is run by Degtyaryov, who is a competitor for the new rifle design competition. He doesn't hope to get a fair chance.. Impatient to see if it works, and denied a test at the firing range, he conducts his own successful trial, upon which he is arrested for testing his gun in the open without authorization and brought to General Vasily Degtyaryov (Valery Barinov), a notable arms designer whom Kalashnikov considers his fiercest competitor. However, Degtyaryov, expressing his sincere respect for Kalashnikov's talent and the superiority of his design, removes himself from the competition, and tested under extreme conditions (after being immersed in water and sand), the new rifle passes.
In 1949, after the first major field testing, the new weapon is approved for mass production. Kalashnikov is decorated with the Stalin prize and given an extended leave of absence, which he uses to visit his mother at his home farm along with his wife and children. Over 200 MM Ak-47s were produced and the gun is still in service.
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