The AK-47 is a gas-operated assault rifle first designed in the Soviet Union but manufactured in many countries around the world. The ‘AK’ in its name stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova, which simply means “Kalashnikov’s automatic rifle,” after its designer Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov. It is the progenitor of the Kalashnikov rifle family, which includes some of the most widely-used firearms.
