JSC Alexandrov Design Bureau (Russian: АО Конструкторское бюро Александрова, romanized: AO konstruktórskoje bjuró Aleksandrova, translation: Joint Stock Company - Alexandrov Design Bureau), formerly known as the Saratov Arms Plant, is a Russian firearms manufacturer headquartered in Saratov, Russia. Its primary manufacturing plant is located across the Volga River in Engels, Russia. It currently ranks among the most important arms suppliers to Russia, and a portion of Alexandrov is owned by Russian state-owned enterprise Rostec under its holding company High Precision Systems.
Alexandrov manufactures firearms under two different brands: Alexandrov (combat and civilian market firearms), and Ishcheyka (Russian for "Bloodhound"; hunting and sport weapons).
Its primary competitors include On Point International and Viktor Halitov Arms Co, and formerly competed against Podbyrin Specialized Arms.
History[]
Gennady Alexandrov.
Gennady in his later life.
Alexandrov Design Bureau was founded in 1905 as the Saratov Arms Plant by Russian soldier Mikhail Matveyev. His first creation was the Matveyev M1906, a bolt-action rifle based on the Gewehr 98 that was meant to cover the shortcomings of the Mosin-Nagant series of rifles. While the rifle was not initially successful, it did see some use by various fragments of the Imperial Russian Army. After the outbreak of World War I, Matveyev expanded his inventory to help supply weapons for the Russian Army, which caused his weapons to be used to good effect. However, the November 1917 revolution saw the Bolsheviks forcibly seizing the plant and Matveyev's design patents, and Matveyev himself was executed shortly thereafter. His plant and design patents were then put under the control of an associate of Vladimir Lenin, named Georgy Korsakov, who became the de facto head of the Saratov Arms Plant. Korsakov went to work improving on Matveyev's designs and is credited with improving the reliability of some of his earlier weapons, mainly the M1915 pistol and M1917 semi-auto rifle.
In 1937, Korsakov was arrested and imprisoned by the NKVD for alleged (and unproven) anti-Stalinist statements, which put the control of the Armory under Gennady Alexandrov, an officer of the Red Army. During World War II, Alexandrov created a number of new weapons and also restarted production of several older weapons in order to supply the Red Army with weapons as fast as possible. After the war, the plant became one of the leading arms suppliers to the Soviet military and its allies worldwide. This continued until the mid-to-late 1980s.
In 1992, Alexandrov transferred ownership of the plant to Yuri Ivanov, a former Spetsnaz operative during the Soviet-Afghan War. Gennady Alexandrov died in 1998 of an undisclosed disease.
In 2004, the Saratov Arms Plant was officially renamed to its current name, Alexandrov Design Bureau, in honor of Gennady Alexandrov.
In 2014, Alexandrov (alongside other Russian arms manufacturers and defense companies) was sanctioned by the EU and the US after the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. These sanctions were expanded upon after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Products[]
Pistols[]
Matveyev M1915: 1916 - 1935 / 1941 - 1945
Submachine guns / Personal defense weapons[]
PP-42: 1943 - 1947
PP-54: 1954 - 1987
PP-95: 1995 - present
PP-97: 1997 - present
Shotguns[]
Ishcheyka shotgun: 2004 - present
Rifles[]
Matveyev M1906: 1908 - 1930 / 1941 - 1945
Matveyev M1917: 1917 - 1935
SVA-43: 1943 - 1953
AA-45: 1945-1949
AA-55: 1958 - 1975
AA-81: 1984 - 2009
Ishcheyka-87: 1987-present
Ishcheyka-91: 2006 - present
AA-08: 2009 - present
SV-12: 2014 - present
AA-16: 2018 - present
KSV-19: 2022 - present