AK-47

The AK-47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947) is a gas-operated assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, and produced by Russian manufacturer Izhevsk Mechanical Works and used in many Eastern bloc nations during the Cold War. It was adopted and standardized in 1947. Compared with the auto-loading rifles used in World War II, the AK-47 was generally more compact, with a shorter range, a smaller 7.62 × 39 mm cartridge, and was capable of selective fire. It was one of the first true assault rifles and remains the most widely used and known. The AK-47 and its numerous variants and descendants have been produced in greater numbers than any other assault rifle and are in production to this day.

Time-travelling Afrikanerweerstandsbeweging members supplied Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia with large numbers of AK-47s. The rifles allowed the South to overcome the North's superior human and industrial resources and take Washington, D.C., ensuring a Confederate victory in the American Civil War.

The vanquished United States reverse-engineered the AK-47s for mass-production. They used them in a subsequent war with Britain and an invasion of Canada.