Nikolay Mikhaylovich Afanasyev

Nikolay Mikhailovich Afanasyev (Николай Михайлович Афанасьев) (November 14, 1916 – March 15, 2009) was a Soviet firearms designer.

Afanasiev was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1938 he graduated from a Tekhnikum of the Mechanization of Agriculture. In 1939 was drafted to serve tank corps in Mongolia, where he started to work on machine gun design. After the Nazi invasion of the USSR, he volunteered for front-line service. He was allowed to fighter from September 1941 until the fall of 1942, when he was recalled to work armaments, initially on improving fuses for 82- and 120-mm mortars. After 1948 he worked at the KBP Instrument Design Bureau.

Designs

 * LAD machine gun - 1942
 * Afanasev A-12.7 - 1950
 * Afanasev Makarov AM-23 - 1953
 * a bullpup design with which he participated in the AKM contest - 1955
 * 2A-14 23 mm autocannon, used in the ZU-23 - 1960 (with P.G. Yakushev)
 * 2A-7 23 mm autocannon, used in the ZSU-23-4 - 1960 (with P.G. Yakushev)
 * TKB-011
 * TKB-0136, competed in Project Abakan
 * OTs-02 Kiparis

Honours and awards

 * Hero of Socialist Labour (1986) - For achievements in the design of aircraft gun armament
 * Two Orders of Lenin (1963, 1986)
 * Order of the October Revolution (1977)
 * Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class (1963)
 * USSR State Prize (1967)
 * Mosin Prize
 * Honoured Inventor of the RSFSR (1968)