Finnish Defense Forces Looking to Get Rid of 100,000 East German and Chinese AKs

Anyone got any Finnish friends? According to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, the Finnish Defense Forces (FDF) need to get rid of 100,000 surplus assault rifles as they reduce their active reservist strength from 350,000 to 250,000 persons.

The rifles are East German- and Chinese-made AKs in 7.62x39mm that were bought up by the Finns to be used by second-line troops in the event of a military emergency (as any student of Finnish history will know, it’s a remarkably forward-thinking measure considering the nation’s rocky past with their big neighbor). Since such an emergency never came up, the guns never came out of storage and have just been sitting in FDF arms depots and arsenals ever since.

I don’t know who the hell Helsingin Sanomat is interviewing that’s representing “the West” when they say that there’s “little demand for Chinese and East German assault rifles in the West”, because AKs from those countries are some of the most prized weapons in collectors’ and shooters’ safes here in the US. Chinese AKs in just about any form can’t be imported into the US since the Norinco debacle in the 1990s and East German AKs are rare as well – those that weren’t destroyed after the German reunification are sprinkled randomly throughout the world, mostly in Africa and Asia. Some East German AKs make it to the US in the form of parts kits, one of the most recent batches coming from the former Yugoslavia. They’re known for their high-quality metal parts and unique buttstocks, pistol grips and handguards.

Having seen the excellent condition that used-and-abused Finnish Mosin-Nagants reach the United States in (some of which are over 100 years old), I’d be very excited to see the state of these guns, even if they can only come in as parts kits. Funnily enough, I was just getting the ball rolling on my own East German AK parts kit build when I came across this article. Send ’em over Finland, I’ll be waiting!

Matt Korovesis

I've been a history and gun enthusiast since I was a kid. I love to shoot just about anything, from silenced bolt-action .22s to fully automatic heavy machine guns, and I love even more when I get to write about them. My main interests are modern small arms and the military small arms of World War II and prior conflicts, with a particular focus on Russian and Finnish firearms. Reading about guns like the Mosin-Nagant rifle in books and on the internet got me interested in collecting, shooting, and writing about them, and I hope to do the same for others through my work.

Stalk me on Instagram by clicking here.