\n<\/p>\n
In Part 1<\/a> of this article, I talked about the history of AK rifle production in East Germany, and\u00a0Part 2<\/a> was dedicated to my personal experiences with\u00a0East Germany AKs. In Part 3, I want to talk about less-known variants of DDR AKs and their destiny after the Berlin Wall fell and communism in East Europe collapsed.<\/p>\n In 1974, the Soviet Union accepted into service a new 5.45\u00d739 round and started replacing old stocks of AKs chambered in 7.62\u00d739. Other Warsaw Pact countries were supposed to follow suit, but in reality, few actually did. Even under puppet governments, countries were slowly realizing that the Soviet Union was moving towards an inevitable collapse.<\/p>\n The implementation of the new caliber was dragging along. For example, only in 1986, Romania started producing their 5.45 rifles. Poland only started making their 5.45 AK, \u201cTantal\u201d, in 1988. The Czech Republic and Hungary never really got on with the manufacturing of a 5.45 rifle.<\/p>\n