From 1946 to 1948 work progressed on the Kalashnikov rifle. In 1949 one of his rifles, the Avtomat Kalashnikova Obrazets 1947, was accepted by the Soviet Army and quickly dubbed the AK-47.

AK-47, Soviet assault rifle, possibly the most widely used shoulder weapon in the world. The initials AK represent Avtomat Kalashnikova, Russian for automatic Kalashnikov,  for its designer, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, who designed the accepted version of the weapon in 1947.