[reiver1]

No proof, of course. I totally believe that the semi-literate guy designed the gun all by himself.

Well supposition can be a position.... but no one, including Kalashnikov, said he designed the gun alone, he talks about his teams often and names the primary contributors during the different periods of development.
I've found that formal schooling and intelligence are not one and the same.
e.g. Neither of the Wright Brothers finished High School....Ben Franklin dropped out of school at 10, and Henry Ford in 8th grade.. etc.

 

[max popenker]

The Holodomar coincided with pogroms and many of the Ukrainians deported and targeted were of Jewish ethnicity.

Being a jew and having some roots in Ukraine I can definitely tell ya that pogroms were not coincided with holodomor.
When one of my gran-dads was about 1 y.o, his family had to fled pogroms from Nikolaev to Odessa. And that was in 1914
Worst and bloodiest pogroms were carried in 1918-1921, in the independent Ukraine
All were carried out by local Ukrainian nationalists
There were also much earlier pogroms there, dating back to 18th and 19th century

The russians are now likely different in genes and for sure in language from Ukrainians.

You see, it's hard to define who is Russian and who is Ukrainian genetically, unless that person comes from a very remote village somewhere deep in the said territory
Ukraine now consists from territories that once were Poland, Romania and Hungary, and thus has a lot of genes from there. During soviet times, quite a lot of Russians went to Ukraine and quite a lot of Ukrainians left their homeland to live and spread elsewhere in the USSR, so genes became even more mixed
And the Russia itself is extremely big, has many very different nationalities that were mixed for centuries
An average Russian citizen maybe not so genetically diverse as an average American (we have noticeably less African heritage for example), but otherwise I think we are close

 

[max popenker]

No proof, of course. I totally believe that the semi-literate guy designed the gun all by himself.

You mean Browning, Garand or Stoner?

 

[Watson99]

Hey, Popenker, have you ever seen the movie called "Delai Raz"?

 

[barnetmill]

Being a jew and having some roots in Ukraine I can definitely tell ya that pogroms were not coincided with holodomor.
When one of my gran-dads was about 1 y.o, his family had to fled pogroms from Nikolaev to Odessa. And that was in 1914
Worst and bloodiest pogroms were carried in 1918-1921, in the independent Ukraine
All were carried out by local Ukrainian nationalists
There were also much earlier pogroms there, dating back to 18th and 19th century


You see, it's hard to define who is Russian and who is Ukrainian genetically, unless that person comes from a very remote village somewhere deep in the said territory
Ukraine now consists from territories that once were Poland, Romania and Hungary, and thus has a lot of genes from there. During soviet times, quite a lot of Russians went to Ukraine and quite a lot of Ukrainians left their homeland to live and spread elsewhere in the USSR, so genes became even more mixed
And the Russia itself is extremely big, has many very different nationalities that were mixed for centuries
An average Russian citizen maybe not so genetically diverse as an average American (we have noticeably less African heritage for example), but otherwise I think we are close

My mothers parents were from a town outside of Minsk and they were Jewish. In 1905 when cossacks were attacking the 'temple' my grandfather part of some sort of guard pulled out his pistol and shot at them, missing. He got beaten up and from the story I got the local police saved his life and he was arrested. To make a long story short he escaped and in 1906 emigrated to America. Unlike many jews they were able to speak 'good' russian and apparently my grandmother's family the Chernins was a well known family in Chicago and the east coast. Seems like many of that family also emigrated. My mother found out about that part of it when she was contacted by people doing historical research on the family. She never bother to stay in touch and essentially was not part of any Jewish community and we ate bacon at home. She is 103 and lives in a condo in reasonably good health for her age.

 

[max popenker]

Hey, Popenker, have you ever seen the movie called "Delai Raz"?

No, and I generally try to avoid Russian movies made during the Perestroika (late 1980s) and 1990s. I was there myself and I definitely do not need exagerrated and often overhyped acounts of all the shit that happened during the fall of the USSR and afterwards.

 

[max popenker]

To make a long story short he escaped and in 1906 emigrated to America.

He was lucky
My grand-grandpa failed to evacuate from Odessa in 1941 for an unknown reason. He was rounded up by a local Ukrainian police force operating under Germans, and executed along with other captured Jews. We were never able to find his grave.
His children were elsewhere at the time, my grand-pa was serving in the Soviet Navy during the war as an NCO.

 

[Watson99]

I see... So, I gather you haven't done the mandatory two in the name of the "Motherland". I am just trying to channel this thread into something more productive before it goes completely off the rails.

 

[max popenker]

I see... So, I gather you haven't done the mandatory two in the name of the "Motherland". I am just trying to channel this thread into something more productive before it goes completely off the rails.

You're wrong again. I've done my service in Russian army in 1997-98, as an officer called from the reserves (I got my 2nd Lt rank in the University)
To keep up with the topic, here's the photo of our training squad from 1994, shortly before we take the military oath as cadets. Yours truly is standing in the middle of the top row

 

[Watson99]

Edited

 

[max popenker]

You might want to give it a shot and watch that movie.

Why should I? I do not need any refreshers on how bad it was back in the perestroika times

 

[Watson99]

Edited

 

[Watson99]

Edited

 

[max popenker]

Anyway, here is the movie, Popenker. I tried to find it with English subtitles, but unfortunately could not. It's in your language, though. Comments below alone are worth reading as a part of the history of your country. Don't ignore it, the time is right.

I think I already said it twice. I was there for the ride, all nine yards and then quite a lot more.
So I do not need any reminders from back then, I probably can tell a story or ten quite a lot worse, as well as better than that.
This history is a part of me and I'm a small part of that history too.

 

[max popenker]

Still old Soviet style uniforms. Did you, guys, have to cut sheets for the "podvorotnichki"? An Army without the socks, right?

Yes. My uniform was as old as me, probably taken out of the war reserve stocks
Now, 30 years later, it's all quite different

 

[Nick]

You mean Browning, Garand or Stoner?

Browning received his gun literacy in his father's gun shop where he worked since he was seven years old.

Someone please show me Kalashnikov's gun shop.

 

[max popenker]

Someone please show me Kalashnikov's gun shop.

Browning received literacy from his father on black powder cap'n'ball guns. Who taught him about automatic weapons?
And can you please show us training shops of Garand or Stoner?
As for Kalashnikov, I think you should re-read Chumak's book, and then we can compare Browning's father rural gun shop to the NIPSMVO in Shurovo in regard to teaching potential

 

[Nick]

Sure. That's all it takes to a genius - a crash course at a proving ground facility.

 

[Watson99]

Yes. My uniform was as old as me, probably taken out of the war reserve stocks
Now, 30 years later, it's all quite different

 

[max popenker]

Sure. That's all it takes to a genius - a crash course at a proving ground facility.

I think you should google up what N and I in the name of the proving ground stands for, and what was accomplished by the in-house design team
And then we'll talk again
And my question on Garand and Stoner still stands as well