Drawing of a German rifle on the Kalashnikov monument. The sculptor Shcherbakov will change the monument to Kalashnikov with a German rifle. Son of his class

Salavat Shcherbakov told Business FM that he was ready to correct the mistake with the machine diagram in the sculptural composition. According to him, there was no malicious intent

Monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov in Moscow. Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS

The author of the Kalashnikov monument, unveiled this week, is ready to correct the mistake with the machine gun diagram in the sculptural composition. In an interview with Business FM, Salavat Shcherbakov said that he wants to contact the scientist who discovered the error.

According to the latest data, the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) decided to remove the diagram of the German StG 44 assault rifle from the monument. RBC reports this.

The fact that the sculpture contains an assembly diagram of a German Schmeisser instead of an AK-47 diagram was written on his Facebook page by historian, consultant to several leading military museums in Russia, Yuri Pasholok. “Don’t say it was them by accident. You have to be beaten for this,” he noted.

Yuri Pasholok is in no hurry to blame the sculptor himself, but he also does not want to advise the team that worked on the monument. Here's what he said in an interview with Business FM:

Yuri Pasholok historian “He has a consultant, so let them work. All these things are accepted by a whole bunch of commissions. Where it came from is a question directly to the people who took it. Whoever put the signatures is actually responsible, not the sculptor. Their consultants had a museum where they got all these machines, but for some reason no one contacted them. Museum - they were asked for materials, they gave them materials, and then they see this. You see, the following happened: someone wanted an additional circuit diagram for the machine and went to the Internet. The first thing they found was called designer girl syndrome. The goal is not to punish him, but to simply straighten the monument. I saw it by chance, they showed it to me, I looked - it looked familiar, I looked for it - here it is. Any person, even not an expert, will immediately discover this.”

The author of the sculptural composition, People's Artist of Russia Salavat Shcherbakov, commented on the situation in a conversation with Business FM. According to him, the erroneous diagram, if it really refers to the German Schmeisser, could have been taken from the Internet. But it’s easy to correct this detail, the main thing is that the media does not inflate a political scandal, he believes.

Salavat Shcherbakovsculptor, People's Artist of Russia“We don’t know now if this is true, because right now we want to meet the scientist who noticed the error. So far, based on the drawings that we had, we have not yet determined whether there is an error. Second: if this turns out to be an error, we will be very grateful to this specialist, this often happens. We can easily fix it because it is a background fragmentary moment. There are seven machine guns depicted there, they were all taken from the museum, that is, a lot of work. None of our team could have had any malicious intent to slip anything, they could only have made a mistake. I think that this error most likely does not exist, but if it exists, then this is also not a tragedy. But thank you anyway, and we are waiting for this specialist who discovered that if he is our friend and supporter of this topic, the monument, then we will be very glad to meet him and take advantage of his knowledge. Artistic work is quite complex, and we always consult on very different issues, we always immerse ourselves in the material honestly, the machines were taken from a museum in St. Petersburg, seven models - we physically had them, we had access to them, and this is a drawing lying on the drawing board. We could take this drawing from the Internet, for example, it says “AK-47”. But the Internet, we know, is a garbage dump, there could easily be a mistake.”

At the Kalashnikov plant, Business FM confirmed off the record: the diagram on the monument is indeed erroneous. “This is not a design for a Kalashnikov assault rifle,” said an employee of the enterprise.

A similar scandal occurred in 2014 with the monument “Farewell of a Slav” at the Belorussky railway station. The sculptors had to remove from it a model of the German Mauser 98k repeating rifle, which was used by mistake.

On a sculptural composition dedicated to the Soviet designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, they found a drawing of the German StG 44 automatic rifle. See the diagram assault rifle The Third Reich on the bas-relief was noticed by a historian on Facebook. “Don’t say it was them by accident. For this you have to beat him, painfully and publicly. These are sculptor boys, damn it!” reads the caption to the published photo.

The StG 44 assault rifle (Sturmgewehr 44, also known as MP 43/MP 44) was developed by designer Hugo Schmeisser during World War II. Until 1945, about 420 thousand copies were manufactured.

“We have no information about the error yet. We depict seven machine guns, the eighth machine gun is in the hands of. In addition, we depict plumbing and drawing tools. If there is an error, we will correct it. The most important thing now is to separate what is happening from political chatter,” he said.

According to Shcherbakov, he would like the historian Yuri Pasholok, who discovered the error on the monument, to personally contact the sculptor, “so that I understand what and where the error is.” “At the same time, someone says that this specialist from social networks actually does not exist. If there is a specialist and he is right, then we will be very grateful and will make certain corrections,” noted the author of the monument.

At the same time, according to Kononov, the fact that the mistake was discovered suggests that the StG and the Kalashnikov assault rifle are “completely different assault rifles, and it is categorically incorrect to accuse Kalashnikov of borrowing”

The monument to Kalashnikov, created by sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov, was inaugurated at the intersection of Sadovaya-Karetnaya and Dolgorukovskaya streets in the center of Moscow on September 19. The public reaction to the new Moscow landmark turned out to be mixed. Many Muscovites are embarrassed by the figure of the famous weapons designer and are not sure that such individuals should be immortalized. This position was outlined, in particular, by the musician.

At the same time, the artist is confused not only by the ethical side of the issue, but also by the aesthetic one. "OK. Let Kalashnikov. But why such a mediocre, ugly sculpture?” says the musician. According to him, even in Soviet times“this idol” would not have passed the artistic council. “Well, why are we spoiling our city like this, disgracing ourselves in front of the whole world?” he concluded.

Makarevich was supported by his colleague, the singer who performed last year at the Eurovision 2016 contest. “I can’t remain silent... it’s disgusting to erect such a monument in the center of the capital. A man with a machine gun in his hands! All the authorities care so much about psychological state children, constantly introducing new bans, and immediately erects a monument to Kalashnikov with an assault rifle in the center! What do we teach children? Fight? Make this picture the Norm!? There are not enough emotions to express indignation,” the artist wrote on his Instagram (original spelling).

“No dancer or singer will listen to the opinion of the sculptor on how he danced or sang. This is a profession, and you don’t need to get involved in it,”

- said Shcherbakov. According to him, even professionals behave modestly and do not absolutize everything as the ultimate truth.

The installation of the monument was timed to coincide with Gunsmith's Day in Russia. The website published a congratulation to the workers of the military-industrial complex from Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Russian leader also mentioned Kalashnikov. “We are rightfully proud of Russian craftsmen, engineers, designers, whose creative genius created unique, world-famous weapons. The names of such talented gunsmiths as Pavel Zakhava, Georgy Shpagin, Mikhail Kalashnikov will forever remain in the military, heroic history of the Fatherland,” the text of the congratulations says.

It is worth noting that the sculpture depicting the world-famous gunsmith installed in Moscow is not the first work on this topic. The previous monument to Kalashnikov was erected in 2015 at the military memorial cemetery in Mytishchi, where the designer was buried after his death in 2013.

However, due to the profanity with which the blogger expresses his indignation at the historical ignorance of the sculptor, “NI” has no right to reproduce the text of the blog in full.

“You can enlarge and compare in Photoshop - everything is repeated there exactly down to the millimeter. That is, yes, the engraving was absolutely exactly removed from this picture.The only trouble is that the picture shows the assembly diagram of the German MKb.42. You can look at encyclopedia of weapons. But the military community was in charge of the work on the monument!” writes the blogger.

However, there is no need to be surprised. Especially after the sensational mistakes in postcards and posters and billboards that were put up for the anniversary of the Victory throughout the country.

“Don’t say it was them by accident. For this you have to beat him, painfully and publicly. These are sculptor boys, damn it!” - Pashalok wrote on his Facebook page.

Monument to the designer small arms Mikhail Kalashnikov and his assault rifle was opened in the capital on Gunsmith Day, which is celebrated on September 19. The monument appeared in the city center, at the intersection of Sadovaya-Karetnaya, Dolgorukovskaya and Oruzheyny Lane streets. The author of the sculpture was People's Artist of Russia Salavat Shcherbakov.

It is possible that such an overlap with a machine gun is not accidental. According to one of the popular versions, the German StG-44 rifle became the prototype for complete or partial copying during the development of the AK. Arguments in favor of this version include: external resemblance guns and the fact that the Kalashnikov assault rifle appeared precisely at the time when a group of leading German gunsmiths was working in Izhevsk. However, experts refute the version that Mikhail Kalashnikov borrowed ideas from StG designer Hugo Schmeisser. Firstly, because in both versions of the weapon there were no fundamentally innovative elements; they were all known from late XIX- beginning of the 20th century. The novelty of these systems lay in the concept of a weapon chambered for an intermediate cartridge between a pistol and a rifle-machine-gun cartridge; the AK also surpassed the German model in terms of reliability, so there can be no question of any copying. Another argument in favor of the inconsistency of the version is the fact that the AK was developed in conditions of strict secrecy and the involvement German specialists was impossible. Another assumption is based on borrowing - supposedly a prototype of a Soviet machine gun and German rifle became the Czechoslovakian rifle ZK-420.

There is a hypothesis that does not detract from the talent of the Soviet gunsmith Kalashnikov, but directs him in a slightly different direction. According to it, Mikhail Kalashnikov did not invent anything - he studied the systems and details of the most successful types of small arms, refined, improved some functions and competently combined them, designing the legendary AK-47. It was Kalashnikov who selected and tested the best combinations of elements, looked for ways of joining and introduced productive ideas. Therefore, if he cannot be called an inventor in its pure form, then, without a doubt, he remains the creator of the Kalashnikov assault rifle.

BY THE WAY

The Russian Military Historical Society will remove the diagram of the German StG 44 assault rifle from the monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov on the Garden Ring in Moscow. agency "Moscow" Executive Director of RVIO Vladislav Kononov. He said that the sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov and his apprentice “got something wrong.” According to him, RVIO made a requirement only for the weapon that Kalashnikov holds in his hands - an assault rifle of his own design, Kononov called the rest "a flight of creative imagination." “It’s a very small background thing. I'm even surprised how they saw her. We took it from sources. And where we took it, it says “Kalashnikov assault rifle.” Something from the Internet,” Shcherbakov told RBC. According to Kononov, such an error only emphasizes how different the AK is from the StG 44, and that accusations of Kalashnikov borrowing the design are “categorically false.”

Of course, we are no longer surprised by anything, but on the monument to Kalashnikov, unveiled in Moscow, they placed a diagram of the German STG-44 assault rifle. Historian Yuri Pashalok drew attention to this

The building that housed the “sharazhka”, where Hugo Schmeisser worked from 1945 to 1952. In 1953 he died, and all “Kalashnikov’s inventions” stopped

From the memoirs of Hugo Schmeisser:


“If it weren’t for that idiot Misha Kalashnikov, who always got under our feet and prevented everyone from working, we would have invented the AK-47 not in ’52, but in 1947, as planned.
There was nothing worse and more harmful for the engineering bureau than this arrogant cretin, who was always meddling with his bast shoes in our drawings. Otto twice tried to strangle him, Hans tried to beat him with a crossbar, and Fritz tried to stab him with a compass. The blockhead did not understand that he was disturbing everyone. I, as best I could, reassured my friends in misfortune: at least we were warm and fed, unlike our comrades at the logging site. The turning point was 1951, when Misha went on a long drinking binge: Albert came up with the idea of ​​giving him alcohol, in which we washed the springs of test specimens. Realizing that we could easily get rid of him with the help of vodka, I reluctantly stole 12 liters from the laboratory and ordered them to be given to Mikhail. We had nothing to clean our test samples with, but we were spared his presence. Now he appeared at the office once a month, unshaven and scary as hell, with shaking hands, demanding his eternal chekushka. We gave him a new can and sent him away. By the end of the year, the test copy was ready. Misha was brought to the shooting in a children’s sleigh, drunk and with an accordion.”

Military historian Yuri Pasholok carefully examined the monument Mikhail Kalashnikov, opened on September 19 in the center of Moscow, and found on it drawings of the German assault rifle StG 44 (Sturmgewehr 44), developed by Hugo Schmeisser in 1944. The historian immediately sounded the alarm in social networks- and it’s not surprising that a drawing of a German rifle could be on a monument to the great Soviet designer?

Federal News Agency asked the editor-in-chief of Kalashnikov magazine, a military expert, for comment on this whole situation Mikhail Degtyarev.

“Firstly, the diagram on the monument is not of the Sturmgewehr 44, as they write about it on the Internet, but of the MKb.42(H), but this changes little. This is just a slightly different example of weapons from the same time period, also produced in fascist Germany. What we see is the result of the collective lack of professionalism of the monument’s customer and its executor. Moreover, the performer is a sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov- distinguished himself for the second time. At the Belorussky railway station there is already his monument “Farewell of the Slav”, where in the hands of Soviet soldier a Mauser rifle, not a Mosin rifle. Shcherbakov worked in his traditional manner, and RVIO showed unprofessionalism as a customer,” the expert said in an interview with a FAN correspondent.

Mikhail Degtyarev hopes that the error will be corrected in the near future. “In no case should the sculptor be absolved of blame, given that this is his second mistake with Soviet weapons on patriotic monuments,” he sums up.

Nadezhda Usmanova, head of the information policy department of the Russian Military Historical Society, told FAN that her organization was not involved in expert support for the process of creating the monument.

“Of course, first of all, questions should be addressed to the sculptor. RVIO initiated and ordered the construction of this monument, but Salavat Aleksandrovich Shcherbakov executed the order. He was in direct contact with the design bureau (Kalashnikov Concern - FAN note). On the part of RVIO there were mainly only wishes for the figure and the weapon that the designer is holding in his hands: this is one of the first prototypes of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, as far as I know, it is not even called AK, but MT. We are not experts in weapons, we have a slightly different specialization. Therefore, we did not thoroughly check such things. This is the sculptor’s flight of fancy and his area of ​​responsibility,” said Usmanova.

Military historian Yuri Pasholok, who was the first to report errors in the design of the monument, is absolutely right, adds Usmanova. The appearance of a German drawing on a monument to a Soviet designer is an unfortunate mistake, and it needs to be corrected.

“RVIO has already contacted the sculptor with a request. He decided to dismantle the slab on which the drawing was depicted and not leave it in place. Too many explanations need to be given every time, whether this is the right machine or the wrong one. As far as we know, dismantling is underway right now. Salavat Aleksandrovich is at the site and resolves this issue,” she sums up.

The situation seems all the more contradictory, given the myth spread on the Internet that Kalashnikov allegedly copied his famous assault rifle from the German Schmeisser model. Blogosphere experts have already debunked this “hypothesis”, citing a lot of arguments in favor of why Schmeisser could not have been involved in the invention of the famous AK. Historical documents showed that Soviet designers generally did not have a particularly high opinion of their German colleague. Usmanova notes that the mistake made in the design of the monument stimulated a revival of discussion on this issue, and therefore involuntarily also helped to expose the annoying myth.