Small Arms

An AK, or Avtomat Kalashnikova, is an assault rifle. Both sub-machine guns and machine-guns are different weapons entirely. An avtomatchik, accordingly, can conveniently be translated rifleman.

The assault rifle most commonly seen on Russian soldiers is the AK-74, which fires a 5.45 mm calibre bullet. Police units and armoured vehicle crews could also be seen carrying an AKSU, a shortened ("carbine") version of the weapon with a folding stock.

AK-74

Russian sources often mention a podstvolnyy granatomet, or underslung grenade launcher: this is a weapon with a separate trigger and sight, attached under the barrel.

AK-74 with podstvolnyy granatomet

It would also be misleading to translate any AK as Kalashnikov, as this would not distinguish them from other Kalashnikov weapons such as the Pulemet Kalashnikova (PK) or the Ruchnoy Pulemet Kalashnikova (RPK), which are machine-guns.

PKM machine-gun: variants are PKS (tripod) and PKT (vehicle-mounted)

Another weapon commonly seen in Russian media is the SVD, or Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova. Although it is tempting to translate snayper as sniper, a more appropriate rendering is marksman. This is because snipers in the British military would carry out significantly different functions to the carrier of an SVD in a Russian infantry platoon, who is there to increase the unit's small arms reach beyond the range of the standard assault rifles.

SVD

What's a Makarov?

A pistolet Makarova (PM) is a handgun, the standard issue sidearm for police.

Makarov pistol with magazine