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Kalashnikovs
Ever since the Kalashnikov’s introduction in the Soviet Union in 1947 it has been a favorite due to its simple design. Of between 90 and 122 million assault rifles estimated to have been produced since World War II, between 70 and 100 million were Kalashnikovs. Together, these small arms have been responsible for more civilian deaths than air attacks or gas chambers. Nuclear weapons, it was once thought, would transform warfare, but they were economically dubious from the start. If the $2 billion spent building the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs had been used for conventional weaponry, the war might have ended sooner.
Production ratio since WWII of assault rifles. Kalashnikovs in red, other types in yellow.
Lineage: “A Place for Hype”, by Edward Tenner, published May 2007 as book review of The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900, by David Edgerton. [PDF]