Originally Posted by Stefan

I have to disagree, the Avtomat was the first practical assault rifle to be adopted by the military and see front line service. It demonstrated that it was possible to build a full automatic rifle that could be easily handled by one man without turning into an LMG. Had it not been or the turmoil of the Russian civil war and the supply problems experienced by the Imperial Russian Army in WW1 it could have seen far more widespread service. It could easily be argued that weapons like the Avtomat were what set the stage for the Stg44 and the AK47.