Top Russian Machine Guns
Maxim heavy machine gun model 1910. It was a first self-powered machine gun with water cooling of the barrel. Gun produced after 1940 were upgraded in such a way that coolant circuit could be loaded not only with water but with snow or ice. This gun could provide only automatic fire so it was extremely effective against infantry.
Degtyaryov hand-held infantry machine gun was used by the Soviet Army starting from the year 1927. It was one the few weapon models developed solely in the Soviet Union but not changed or modernized western samples. It appeared to be rather fail-safe and easy in use and maintenance and for this reason was widely used till the end of the World War 2.
Kalashnikov hand-held machine gun abbreviated in Russian as RPK was developed in mid-50’s when a national program on modernization of army weapons was launched. It was aimed to produce a reliable infantry assault rifle and a light machine gun which would be of a rather similar construction and with similar and interchangeable spare parts. A tender was held in 1961 to determine the best designed products. As a result the modernized AK-47 and unified with it RPK were introduced into the Soviet Army.
NSV heavy machine gun was a universal anti-infantry, anti-aircraft and anti-armored-carriers weapon designed in 1971 in order to replace DShK. Its production was ended immediately after the Collapse of the USSR.
