AK-15?

After the recent night club massacre in Miami, some anti-gun lobbier ranted long and loud about "He had an AK-15!"

WI the Russian Army introduced an AK-pattern infantry rifle in 1915?
How many rounds would the magazine hold?
Would it be effective enough to halt the Kaizer's campaign on the Eastern Front?
Would Field Marshal Mannerheim's men get significant numbers of AK-15s?
Bonus points if Mannerheim's takes ALL the AK-15 rifles home to Finland after WW1.
 
I think the biggest 'weapon' problem for the Russians in 1915 was not the rifle in the infantry mans hands but the lack of shells for the Gunners Artillery Piece

But I'll play

Perhaps it is a copy of the Mondragon 1908 - after the Mexican Army cancels it the Russians invite's Manuel Mondragón to come to Russia and set up a new factory to iron out some of its issues, simplify it (ie remove the bipod), rechambered for the Common 7.62 x 54 R and mass produce the Weapon.

The weapon simply then known as the Mosin-Mondragón 1915 was more commonly named the Alexander Kerensky Rifle after Alexander Kerensky the great Russian Reformer and then Prime Minister (whom many modern Historians claim saved the Russian nation's slide into Chaos) and finally adopted in large number's in 1915 - it was subsequently known as the AK-15

Below is a modified 'Guards' Assault Variant with a 30 round Drum intended for Trench Storming or Urban combat and by 1917 every man in Cat 1 and 2 infantry Regiments (where the weapon had replaced the M91 Mosin Nagant Bolt Action rifle) were issued with at least one drum magazine and a dedicated pouch to hold it in.

17332769_1.jpg


Or maybe it is the Remington Model 8 - built under licence just before WW1 and issued as a carbine to cavalry and Artillery units and eventually made its way into many regiments as an NCO's weapon?
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
So, essentially, something akin to a Browning M1918 introduced three years early, and by the Russians? I suppose the most likely creation might be some sort of improved, lightened Hotchkiss M1909, converted to be an infantry-portable weapon. Given that Hotchkiss was in France, after all, that'd be the most likely course to supplying the Russians. The German MP18 is absolutely a step in the right direction, but that was born of the lessons of the trenches. Still, it's not inconceivable that the Russians might manage to develop such a creature, and it's more likely it doesn't see widespread use until 1916, where, if deployed widely enough, it'll support the Brusilov Offensive and perhaps result in slightly lower Russian casualties. I'm not sure it'd be any more of a war-winner, but maybe it'd have just the right success somewhere to change things.

I'm not sure it'd improve the Finnish situation any, but I confess I don't know much about that at all; I'll leave that to others.
 
Could this fedorov avtomat be a starting point ?

I know far too little to know how wide of the mark this is but if Wikipedia is right was in service by 1915.
 
Could this fedorov avtomat be a starting point ?

I know far too little to know how wide of the mark this is but if Wikipedia is right was in service by 1915.
As far as I've been able to gather from a quick google search, the Russian army ordered Fedorovs in 1915, and while the Fedorov Avtomat was designed with the same purpose in mind as the BAR (basically, to walk and fire so as to suppress the enemy in their trench during an assault) in practice its light weight and lighter ammunition made it the world's first assault rifle more or less. I don't know how insistent the OP is on the rifles being called AK-15 (although the "A" in "AK-47" stands for avtomat so it wouldn't be too hard to figure out how to get that name to work) but the Fedorov basically already fits the bill. The problem is that the Russian industry during the war had limitations and producing light machine guns or avtomats wasn't of the utmost priority, and a single small arms design wouldn't change the course of the war.

While it doesn't fit all the points of the OP, best I can figure this is that the Russian Republic holds on during the war without risking too many lives (or public support) on offensives, and/or some POD allows them to have a stronger industry during the war, leaving Russia in a more stable position. Towards the later stages of the war Fedorov Avtomats are produced in greater numbers and given the official designation "AF-15", although it's also unofficially referred to as the "AK-15" after Kerensky or also as the "2.5 Line Rifle", in reference to its caliber. The new AF-15 rifles are predominately issued to grenadiers and shock regiments, whose aggressive assaults on Austrian and Turkish positions are backed by impressive volumes of automatic weapons fire. Some however find their way into the hands of cavalry units, such as that led by Finnish general Mannerheim, whose soldiers keep them when they return to Finland.
 
Some however find their way into the hands of cavalry units, such as that led by Finnish general Mannerheim, whose soldiers keep them when they return to Finland.

This does not really work as Mannerheim came to Finland alone after he had been essentially booted out of the Russian military as "politically unreliable". The soldiers of his unit were predominately not Finnish and thus did not return to Finland. There were no Finnish units in the Russian military during WWI, the Finnish soldiers and officers there were in the different branches of the military were part of various mostly Russian units.

The best way to get such weapons to Finland and to the hands of the Finnish Whites would be that, for some reason, Russian military units in northern Finland would be issued with them in 1915-1917 or that crates of the rifles would have been transported to these areas at this time by train, deliberately or due to a bureaucratic snafu. Then in early 1918 when the Finnish Whites moved in to disarm the Russian troops in central and northern Finland, they find these weapons and arm new Finnish units with them. There could also be a transport ship loaded with these weapons in Petrograd by Bolsheviks and sent to Helsinki in the fall of 1917 to arm the Finnish Reds, which for one reason or another was forgotten (these things happen during revolutions) and then only found (and unloaded) by the Finnish government officials after the Whites took the capital together with the Germans.
 
Relax 9 fanged hummingbird.

I am not rigid about my original question.

My original post poked fun at rabid, anti-gun lobbyists who rant about subjects that they poorly-understand.
My first speculation was something like Turtledove's novel "Guns of the South" with Avtomat Kalashikovs mysteriously delivered 30 years early.

I am enjoying all the OTL evidence that Russian designers had semi-automatic rifles almost ready for production during WW1.

In the long run, I wanted to encourage speculation about many Russian Regiments using semi-automatic rifles during WW1.
I do not care if the rifles are made by Fedorov, Simonof or Kalashnikov, as long as they reach the front lines soon enough to change the outcome of several battles.
 
More I review these weapons the more I see the Avtomat as the logical option to fill the OP requirement. A Mondragon derivative could be a second, if it gets the attention of the Russian Army early enough. A distant third might be a Madsen derivative. But, that weapon was a LMG by modern standards & it would have been a larger jump to get a 'assault rifle' out of it. Fedorovs Avtomat is so close its almost there.
 
Relax 9 fanged hummingbird.

I am not rigid about my original question.

My original post poked fun at rabid, anti-gun lobbyists who rant about subjects that they poorly-understand.
My first speculation was something like Turtledove's novel "Guns of the South" with Avtomat Kalashikovs mysteriously delivered 30 years early.

I am enjoying all the OTL evidence that Russian designers had semi-automatic rifles almost ready for production during WW1.

In the long run, I wanted to encourage speculation about many Russian Regiments using semi-automatic rifles during WW1.
I do not care if the rifles are made by Fedorov, Simonof or Kalashnikov, as long as they reach the front lines soon enough to change the outcome of several battles.


Timeline's exist where Russia does very much better but just providing a new rifle is unlikely to make the dramatic change things in isolation, not least as it is unlikely that the wonder weapon could have been kept secret while simultaneously equipping the majority of the army, and so the central powers would likely either have their own or soon be equipping their own forces based on copies of captured weapons. I'm sure someone with much more knowledge than me will provide evidence to the contary but a change in leadership and the political and social system would be needed in addition to the gun to effect the sort of change you seek.
 
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