One of Russia's newest museums is devoted to what may be the world's deadliest work of art, the AK-47 assault rifle. In the western Urals, a redoubt of weapons manufacture since Tsarist days, the museum might be dismissed as a shrine of nostalgia for the Soviet arsenal. Yet the AK-47 remains a unique advertisement for a distinctly Russian approach to technology, one with lessons beyond the world of weapons enthusiasts.

The Kalashnikov is the most successful firearm in history. William Hartung and Rachel Stohr report in Foreign Policy that between 70 and 100 million of the weapons are in circulation, compared with just seven million U.S. M-16s. In Afghanistan, the AK-47 costs as little as $10.