Kalashnikov statue features German rifle

Earlier this week, there was a bit of fanfare over the opening of a statue of Mikhail Kalashnikov in Moscow to commemorate the recently passed firearm inventor. It was soon after it’s unveiling that someone discovered that the wrong rifle, a German StG 44, was depicted on the base, according to BBC;

A series of modified AK rifles were etched on a metallic plate on the base of the statue, including the wrong drawing.

Russian arms historian Yuri Pasholok was the first to point out the error, and several experts later confirmed this was the case.

Sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov said earlier on Friday that “this is something we’re correcting”, adding that “we’re trying to avoid mistakes”, Russia’s Rossiya-24 TV channel reported.

The erroneous depiction was cut out out of the statue. From the UK’s Independent;

The sculptor, Salavat Shcherbakov, was forced to apologise on state-run Rossiya 24 channel. He said: “It looks like this [mistake] sneaked in from the internet.”

And the error caused additional controversy because of the accusations, made during Kalashnikov’s lifetime, that his most famous weapon copied the StG 44 design.

Thanks to Thomas Huxton for the tip.

Category: Who knows