Russia, like any other civilized country,It is abundant in a wide variety of exhibition complexes, museums, art galleries and other cultural sites. Not so long ago - in 2004 - their list was replenished with one more: a new museum opened in Izhevsk (Kalashnikov). In some ways, its name is somewhat arbitrary, since the exposition includes not only the embodiment of the ideas of the famous gunsmith. Here is the most diverse small arms. However, there is a museum with a similar name on the factory’s territory; therefore, a new cultural object was given the name of the legendary weapon creator.
The history of the famous factory
Museum in Izhevsk (Kalashnikov is respected here)Begins its exhibition with very old times. The exposition opens with an illustration of the history of weapons in general, for example, a sample of a silicon gun, also manufactured at a local factory, is presented. Note that he was already two hundred years old, and during all this time the plant was engaged - and very successfully - with weapons.
No less interesting are the Berdanok specimens, whichwere made in the 19th century and were widely used by the tsarist Russian army. It is worth noting that their "author" was an American by the name of Berdan - hence the fixed name of the rifles. At the same time, the Russian craftsmen did not just pretend ready-made weapons, but made a number of very successful improvements.
Museum in Izhevsk (which Kalashnikov, and notfactory) demonstrates the famous trilinea - rifles of the First World and Civil Wars. Their "father" was already Russian (Mosin), who, in principle, was a representative of the "competitor" - an armory in Tula. However, it was made trilineyki precisely in Izhevsk.
Great Patriotic War and Izhevsk weapons
It was during these years that the plant was the mostsought after and covered himself with glory. The Kalashnikov Museum in Izhevsk shows all the types of weapons produced here. Here both aviation machine guns, and aviation guns (Nudelman-Suranov and Shpitalny), and the Berezin cannon, and anti-tank guns (both by Degtyarev and Simonov’s design) are almost the entire “assortment” used in those difficult years. We can say that the Izhevsk plant created the material base, thanks to which the victory was won.
The epoch of M.T. Kalashnikov
Yet genuine recognition to the factory brought exactlythis designer gunsmith. In his field, he was a truly talented man. The museum in Izhevsk (Kalashnikov) presents for inspection samples of all his “works”, even those that have not been launched into the series. Naturally, the brightest subject of the exhibition is the world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifle, familiar even to schoolchildren, still not defeated by any other prototype in terms of reliability and simplicity in circulation. Although since its creation - 1949 - enough time has passed, and the weapon has gone far ahead, the accuracy of AK firing, the ability to use ammunition that is very different in caliber (5.56 very far from 7.62, agree), small weight and convenience for the shooter remain unsurpassed.
In this case, the designer himself was not limited toonly this ingenious development. His talent includes 35 patents for very different weapons - from machine guns to hunting rifles. And the improvements made by the designer in the “devices” created by others are also very significant.
Principles of the museum
The creators of this exhibition complex approachedtask creatively. This is not a boring collection of some individual exhibits. Weapon development is tightly linked to the overall technical development of human thought and civilization. The Kalashnikov Museum neatly and harmoniously inscribes the development and modification of the means of extermination in history, shows the weapons business as one of the areas of technical development and culture of all mankind.
Many exhibits in a modern interactive.A striking event can be considered the composition “The Fate of a Man”, which tells about the formation of Kalashnikov himself. Almost anyone is interested to listen to the memoirs of the designer himself and view his film biography - both are transmitted on high-quality "plasma". Guides who are willing to tell little-known facts from the life of the designer, and from the history of weapons, work competently and very fascinatingly. The only drawback of visitors is that the exposition does not work on Sundays.
Rifle area as part of the museum
A good and very unexpected move was a shooting gallery.The Kalashnikov Museum in Izhevsk acted very wisely, giving sightseers the opportunity to shoot almost any weapon that is represented in its exposition. For these purposes, there are as many as three sites: for shooting from pneumatics, for using a “fire gun” and a beam-crossbow shooting gallery. We can say that none of the visitors left here displeased.
No wonder the museum in Izhevsk (Kalashnikov) almost immediately became very popular. Nowadays, none of the proposed excursions in Udmurtia will bypass the recently created pearl.
