After the end of World War II, a new conflict immediately broke out between the former allies - the Cold War. As a result, the world, which had not had time to heal the wounds of the world massacre, immediately plunged into a series of local conflicts, hot spots and hybrid warriors. In most cases, the states-leaders of the military-political blocs could not and did not want to face each other on their own for objective reasons. To protect their interests and their own safety, they had to use the hands of others. Of course, each of the blocks without fail "helped" its allies and, first of all, with weapons.
Starting a conversation about which Soviet weapons are also widely used in the world, like the legendary Kalashnikov assault rifle, one should immediately note - it's easier to list domestic serial weapons that were not sold at all and were not supplied to others countries. The Soviet Union possessed a huge industrial complex, the second largest in the world in terms of capacity and productivity. And the second largest military-industrial complex in the world. Types of hand weapons were produced in millions of copies.
For example, the RPG-7 grenade launchers only at the beginning of the 1980s were produced in the amount of 9 million copies and were in service with more than 40 countries of the world. And this is not counting those types of weapons that are licensed and not licensed local copies of this weapon. The Dragunov sniper rifle has a smaller circulation, but this does not prevent it from only officially being in service with more than 30 countries of the world. For better understanding, at the time of 2021, there are 197 states in the world. A simple and reliable Kalashnikov machine gun is officially in service with almost 60 countries around the world. The heavy Soviet machine gun DShK is in service with almost 70 countries of the world. All this without taking into account those countries and conflicts where weapons are used, unofficially falling into the hands of local combatants from gray and black markets.
Of course, the Soviet Union sold and donated not only hand weapons to the Allied states. For example, T-72 tanks were used (and continue to be used) in more than 50 states of the planet. About the same number of countries use the Soviet MLRS "Grad". It supplied Mi-24 heavy attack helicopters to 60 countries of the USSR. But Mi-8 helicopters are used on half of the planet, if we take into account both the military and civilian use of these machines.
A separate article in the field of arms trade and military support can be considered numerous gifts in the form of obsolete weapons. So during the Second World War, just a colossal number of tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, artillery pieces and, of course, millions of small arms were produced. Not all of this was disposed of. Soviet weapons during the Great Patriotic War were actively distributed by the USSR as assistance to its allies in the first two decades of the cold wars: PPSh, SVT, T-34 tank of all models, even SU-100, M-30 howitzers, 61-k anti-aircraft guns - all this is not a complete list of the socialist hand help.
At the beginning of the 1980s, about 40% of the world arms market was in the Soviet Union. More than 55% fell on the NATO bloc, where the leading positions were occupied by the United States - 27% of supplies, France - 12% of supplies, Great Britain - 5% of supplies. China held about 3% of the market. At the same time, it should be understood that the income of the USSR from the arms trade at that moment was approximately comparable to the income of Great Britain. In other words, most of the weapons were supplied "free of charge", which implied the political loyalty of these states to the USSR, as well as economic and political preferences for the country of the Soviets.
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Continuing the topic, read about 5 legendary pistols, the popularity of which never dreamed of new models.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/210321/58276/
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