The Timeless, Ubiquitous AK-47

Zagros Mountains, Northern Iraq, 1979
Kalashnikov's design won a state competition in 1947 (thus the name AK-47) and went into mass production two years later. During the deep freeze of the Cold War, the Soviet Union began pouring the guns and its manufacturing know-how into almost 20 spheres of influence, including Iraq. Here, a Kurdish girl in northern Iraq uses the gun to protect her family from an attack by the Iraqi military.

• Men of War