If this book doesn’t admit that Kalashnikov ripped off Hugo Schmeisser’s StG44, then it’s not worth reading. BTW, Schmeisser was held captive in the USSR and forced to work in the same arms factory where Kalashnikov supposedly “invented” the AK.
For all the StG44 theory fans just check SVT-38 semi-auto sniper rifle. AK has more in common with that than it is with StG44 and SVT came out years before StG or any comparable German rifle.
The AK was inspired by the Stg, definetly. However, they were still two different designs, with the AK more influenced by AMERICAN weaponry. Pete Kekkonen stated of the relationship between the two rifles:
“Back to the question re German influence on AK-47: There are some resemblances between AK and StG 44, but they are just superficial similarities. M. T. KALASHNIKOV copied details of many American (not German) firearms, including the breech bolt of U.S. M1 Carbine, a safety/selector lever from REMINGTON Model 8 hunting rifle and principle of trigger mechanism from BROWNING AUTO-5 shotgun, but many applications of these ideas are modified or improved by Kalashnikov himself and many major innovations are his designs, without known predecessors...
Actions of German assault rifle (with a tilting breech bolt) and that of AK-47 (with a rotating bolt) are, especially, quite different. So are also cocking and safety arrangements.”
>BTW, Schmeisser was held captive in the USSR and forced to work in the same arms factory where Kalashnikov supposedly “invented” the AK.
And yet, there’s no Schmeisser characteristics in the AK-47. From what I heard, there certainly were in some of the earlier prototypes.
I recently found out that while Schmeisser was indeed in Izhevsky, Kalasahnikov designed the AK in Kovrov.