The Gun (78 page)
Authors: C. J. Chivers
Tags: #Europe, #AK-47 rifle - History, #Technological innovations, #Machine guns, #Eastern, #Machine guns - Technological innovations - History, #Firearms - Technological innovations - History, #Russia & the Former Soviet Union, #General, #Weapons, #Firearms, #Military, #War - History, #AK-47 rifle, #War, #History
Several arms dealers helped me, too. The preponderance of them, due to the nature of their business, asked to remain anonymous here. Two don’t mind a public thank-you: Reuben Johnson and Tim Sheridan. I was aided by many people engaged in many ways in researching ongoing conflicts: Tania Inowlocki, James Bevan, Aaron Karp, Robert Muggah, Tanya Lokshina, Phillip Killicoat, Brian Wood, Sergio Finardi, Peter Danssaert, Peter Bouckaert, Anna Neistat, Ole Solvang, Hugh Griffiths, Nicholas Marsh. Gary Kokalari, a one-man Albanian smear factory, provided a seemingly small tip that exposed a Pentagon-funded international scandal
in the Kalashnikov ammunition trade, and deepened my understanding of arms and munitions movements. John Wallace and Ed Costello helped with recollections of time shared with General Kalashnikov, and with referrals. Ruslan Pukhov and Dmitri Bender helped with insights and materials in Russian. Virginia Ezell provided referrals and references, including useful copies of
Small Arms World Report.
Several government employees and military officers helped locate records or shared material and information that, because of a stubborn culture of government secrecy in the United States, are not accessible to the public. Their assistance enriched this book. Officials at Rosoboronexport in Moscow invited me to several ceremonies related to the Kalashnikov and its place in Russian arms history, discussed many aspects of the international arms trade, and through their colleagues at Izhevsk, arranged a rare tour of the Izhmash plant to observe the manufacture and final assembly of assault and sniper rifles.
They also arranged interviews with General Kalashnikov, as did Igor Krasnovksi, one of the general’s grandsons. General Kalashnikov deserves a special thank-you for meeting several times in Izhevsk and Moscow, and for entertaining questions he has heard before.
The nudge toward this book, which ultimately led to those interviews, came from Samuel G. Freedman, who, in 2002, not long after David Rhode and I had returned from Afghanistan and completed a series of newspaper articles about guerrilla and terrorist training methods, suggested a more thorough examination of the Kalashnikov’s origins and ubiquity. Stuart Krichevsky seconded the idea and shepherded it throughout.
Karen Thompson guided the book through its production, and worked around (and tolerated) my repeated long trips overseas. Jonathan Karp arrived with enthusiasm to publish the book she made possible. Outside of Simon & Schuster, several editors supported reporting into aspects of the military small-arms trade and its effects. At the
New York Times:
Susan Chira and Roger Cohen, who edited the foreign report, Matt Purdy and Paul Fishleder on the Investigations desk, Katie Roberts and Marc Charney at the Week in Review, Rogene Fisher and Jeff Delviscio at the At War blog, along with Ian Fisher, Kyle Crichton, Beth Flynn, and Bill Keller. Also, Mark Warren and David Granger at
Esquire.
Sid Evans and Anthony Licata at
Field & Stream,
with David DiBeneddetto and Colin Kearns. David Petzal, an army veteran and editor who
has dedicated decades to understanding small arms, read the draft manuscript and applied an eye true to his reputation: thoroughly informed, unsparing, and welcome.
Friends at the
Times
pitched in with information, referrals, translations, clippings, and other support: David Rohde, Nick Kulish, Paul Zielbauer, Eric Schmitt, Nick Wood, John Burns, Dex Filkins, Jim Dao, Thom Shanker, Michael Gordon, Jim Glanz, Carlotta Gall, Michael Slackman, Ellen Barry, Cliff Levy, Steve Myers, Andrew Kramer, Sophia Kishkovsky, Willy Rashbaum, Jeffrey Gettleman, Bobby Worth, Joe Kahn, Andrei and Oleg Shevchenko, Natasha Bubenova, Phyllis Collazzo, Cynthia Latimer, Flora Lee, Charlie Williams, Alain Delaqueriere, Ethan Wilensky-Lanford, Michael Schwirtz, Josh Yaffa, and Sasha Nurnberg. Photographers (and a videographer) joined me on many trips and indulged requests for detailed pictures of arms, ammunition, log books, serial numbers, shipping labels, munitions packaging, and markings: Adam Ellick, Luke Tchalenko, Joao Silva, Chang Lee, Christoph Bangert, Yuri Tutov, Justyna Mielnikiewicz, Joseph Sywenkyj, Sergei Kivrin, Dima Beliakov. Journalists from other news organizations helped, too: Nick Paton Walsh, Jeffrey Fleishman, Beth Noble, Arkady Ostrovsky, Alan Cullison, Aram Roston, Bryon McWilliams, and Bing West.
Several people listed here read portions of the draft manuscript, or drafts in their entirety, and offered suggestions and corrections. Other readers included Mark Greene and Kory Romanat.
I was assisted throughout by local journalists, guides, interpreters, and drivers in many different countries. Yuriy Tartarchuk escorted a small group of us through Chernobyl’s ruins and the exclusion zone, and allowed Joseph Sywenkyj to photograph pages in the military instructor’s log book detailing Kalashnikov drills performed by Soviet students. Yuri Strilchuk led us through the test site at Semipalatinsk, where the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb, Joe 1, was detonated, and explained the bomb’s design, placement, and blast effects, allowing for this book’s opening scene. Many people who helped in conflict zones or police states will not be listed, to protect them from retaliation from insurgents or from authorities who punish dissent or restrict access and honest reporting, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Palestinian territories. Several can be named: Peshwaz Faizulla, Alan Abdulla, Sangar Rahimi, Abdul Waheed Wafa, Pir Zubair Shah, Taimoor
Shah, Nasir Ahmed, Arian Jaff, Abdul Samad Jamshid, Olesya Vartanyan, Dima Bit-Suleiman, George Kumagong, Jimmy Otim.
Much of my understanding of infantry tactics and how they have changed was gained in the Marine Corps, both in the field and via the Corps’ emphasis on reading military history. This foundation was enhanced and enriched by countless military officals, officers, and troops who shared their experiences or who allowed me and a photographer to accompany them on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. A list of everyone would fill pages. Among those who helped with recollections, tips, suggestions, document review or arms or munitions identification were Nick Pratt, Mike Richards, Mike Bruce, Tom Wilhelm, Greg Sailer, Sulev Suvari, Rory Quinn, Ed Ota, Mike Mendoza, and Brett Bourne. Several public affairs officials assisted with documents or referrals: Bruce Zielsdorf, Frank Misurelli, Peter Rowland, Sheldon Smith, Dave Johnson, Daniel King, Christian Kubik, and more public affairs noncommissioned officers and officers in Afghanistan and Iraq than could be listed here. In the field, on patrols, raids, sweeps, medical evacuations, and other missions, and in long talks in the lulls, I was aided by and learned from Jimmy Howell, Josh Biggers, Paul Stubbs, Matt Baker, Ken Detreux, Sean Riordan, Dustin Kirby, Mark Grdovic, James McCarver, Bertrand Fitzpatrick, Richard Dewater, Colin Smith, Ramon Gavan, Daniel McKernan, Norberto Rodriguez, Douglas Terrell, Zackary Filip, Chuck Major, Walter De La Vega, Mark Trouerbach, Patrick Maguire, James Mingus, Stephan Karabin II, Tom Grace, Brian Rogers, Steven Green, Robert Smail, Gregory Veteto, Sean Conroy, Osvaldo Hernandez, Jarrod Neff, Cory Colistra, Adam Franco, Gordon Emmanuel, Jason Petrakos, Edward Mitchell III, Jeremy Owen, Joseph Wright, Matthew Dalrymple, Thomas Drake, Junior Joseph, Daniel Fuqua, Daniel Downes, Christopher Fine, Joshua Dolan, Brian Kitching, Moti Sorkin, Brian Christmas, Sly Silvestri, Jason Davis, Matt Stewart, Joseph Callaway, Deric Sempsrott, Ian Bugh, Grayson Colby, David Harrell, Chad Orozco, Zachary Kruger, Joshua Smith, Bill Yale, Eric Brown, Travis Vuocolo, Thomas Wright, Justin Smith, Robert Soto, Chris Demure, John Rodrigiuez, Tim McAteer, Chris Jones, Frank Hooker, Nick Rolling, and Brett Jenkinson. The last two on this list were fellow members of Class 1-90 of the Ranger Course whose paths crossed with mine in Kirkuk, Iraq, in Ghazni province or the Pech and Korangal valleys in Afghanistan. Our shared time informed
my understanding of wars as they are fought, and of the experiences of combatants. They provided clarity and forcefulness to my thoughts.
The staff of the Maury Loontjens Memorial Library in Narragansett, Rhode Island, ensured that time at home was used productively, by searching for book after book, many of them out of print, and securing them for my reading via interlibrary loan.
My wife, Suzanne Keating, and our children supported everything and endured much, always offering understanding and love. Honey Keating made moonlighting possible, year after year.
Three colleagues deserve special mention: Nikolay Khalip and Viktor Klimenko of the
Times
bureau in Moscow traveled with me across the former Soviet Union, constantly providing advice and good judgment and sharing the work with good cheer. Tyler Hicks, a model of courage, talent, and professionalism, shared the patrols and many of the worst days, month after month for years. His photographs—disturbing, unflinchingly honest, and made at tremendous personal risk—show war for what it is.
My understanding of the consequences of assault-rifle proliferation, and the continued use of Kalashnikov rifles as instruments of state repression, was helped by Natasha Estemirova and Anna Politkovskaya in Russia, and Alisher Saipov in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. All three labored for justice and accountability in lands ruled by violence. All three were murdered for their efforts to uncover the truth, as was Umar Israilov, a source on the insurgency and counterinsurgency in Chechnya, who was shot dead in a contract killing in Vienna after sharing details of crimes by government officials in Russia. To these victims, and to the American, Afghan, Russian, and Iraqi service members wounded or killed on operations I was allowed to be part of or that I witnessed up close, words cannot convey the depth of my thanks, or of our loss.
None of the people mentioned above, or anyone else, deserves any blame for errors in this book or conclusions I have drawn that do not align with theirs. All responsibility lies with me.
automatic rifles tested at,
284
–89
Afghans, Afghanistan,
380
–81
and AK and AK-type rifle production and distribution,
11
,
361
–62,
378
n
,
381
,
411
–12,
413
n
Soviet withdrawal from,
380
–81
AK-46 (
Avtomat Kalashnikova-46
),
192
AK-47 (
Avtomat Kalashnikova-47
), AK-type assault rifles:
casualties inflicted by,
13
–14,
21
,
148
,
227
,
240
–41,
340
,
347
–48,
351
,
354
,
358
,
387
–94,
396
–98,
401
,
405
,
408
ceremonial uses of,
11
cultural status of,
359
deceptions on,
20
design and development of,
3
–9,
11
–12,
15
–16,
19
,
21
,
108
n
,
144
–56,
158
–60,
185
–209,
223
,
228
,
242
–43,
251
,
257
–59,
269
–70,
275
,
280
,
292
,
294
–95,
308
–9,
341
,
345
,
353
,
360
,
377
–78,
402
–3,
406
–8,
413
,
419
n
,
432
–33
n
,
436
n
,
444
n
destruction of,
413
