adam wrote:

In the grand narrative of World War II, the Battle of Bryansk is a minor conflict, barely deserving of a footnote. But Bryansk has another place in history. It was there that a then-unknown tank commander named Mikhail Kalashnikov decided that his Russian comrades would never again be defeated. In the years following the Great Patriotic War, as Soviet propagandists dubbed it, he was to conceive and fabricate a weapon so simple, and yet so revolutionary, that it would change the way wars were fought and won. It was the AK-47 assault rifle.

If you haven't seen Lord of War, with Nicholas Cage, check it out. It's an homage to the Kalishnikov and a pretty detailed and historic view of how arms dealing has grown over the last 30 years.

RE: Weapon Of Mass Destruction - washingtonpost.com