My Small Piece of Albanian History

[Susurrus]

Knowing the number of Hoxhaists here who are quite interested in that period of Albania's past, and also that a number of non-hoxhaists are interested in this sort of thing, I figure this is worth posting. Warning for enormous images.

I have recently come into possession of an Albanian "July 10th" SKS. It is their unique variation of the rifle. There are only about 5000 left in the world, as the US encouraged the Albanian government during the 90s to destroy many of their small arms.


http://i.imgur.com/emsEh5f.jpg



The Albanian variant has several feature that differ from other SKSs. First, the bolt handle is of an AK-style, rather than the usual knob.

http://i.imgur.com/tQejnyM.jpg



Another unusual feature is the extended front handguard, which covers the entire gas-tube assembly.

http://i.imgur.com/6aYDdUe.jpg



Instead of the single buttplate trapdoor on most SKSs, the Albanians needed two for their cleaning kit.

http://i.imgur.com/IMZOqW5.jpg



Also, though not really a feature, the Albanian SKSs are said to have proportionally more trench art than most. Mine is no exception.


http://i.imgur.com/E4apaWC.jpg


And then one more pic just for fun.

http://i.imgur.com/LiLyEXh.jpg

[l'Enfermé]

That's pretty neat. It would be more convenient for everyone if you put the photographs in spoiler tags though.

[Luc]

:drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool:: drool:

fuckin nice man!, so jealous

[Sasha]

It would be more convenient for everyone if you put the photographs in spoiler tags though.


i agree, i did it for you...

[Susurrus]

That's pretty neat. It would be more convenient for everyone if you put the photographs in spoiler tags though.

Ah, I should have remembered that. Haven't posted in too long. Thanks.

[Susurrus]

i agree, i did it for you...

Woah, fast, thanks.

[Winkers Fons]

Cool. I have a later model Chinese SKS. Most likely manufactured in the mid 70s.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Many a revisionist has been vanquished from the nozzle of such an ancient and mighty beast...

[Ismail]

I'm pretty sure that's the "rifle" part of the "pickaxe and rifle," which when combined were the symbol of the Party of Labour.

See: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VrwjqSZtL._SL500_.jpg

[Susurrus]

I'm pretty sure that's the "rifle" part of the "pickaxe and rifle," which when combined were the symbol of the Party of Labour.

See: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VrwjqSZtL._SL500_.jpg

No, that's a Mosin-Nagant rifle. Looks like an M44 to me.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff280/uzvslbu/Mosin/036.jpg?t=1285112895

[Goblin]

Sweet!

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Wooooo tankie-ism. :rolleyes:

[Devrim]

Wooooo tankie-ism. :rolleyes:

Mixed in with a dose of American weapons fetishism, a winning combination if ever there were one.

Devrim

[Ismail]

It's just "American weapons fetishism," Susurrus' politics are far from anything related either to Brezhnevism or "Stalinism."

That being said, Albania was known as a country where most everyone had a gun and was required to be trained in its use. :D

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

It looks intact (but I'm no expert), is it still in fully working condition?

[La Guaneña]

damn i wish i lived in the us sometimes

[Susurrus]

It looks intact (but I'm no expert), is it still in fully working condition?

Indeed so. Sadly, the ammo for it is rare and overpriced at the moment, due to panic buying. The caliber, 7.62x39, is shared with the AK-47, and so everyone is buying all the AKs and ammo due to the possibility of an assault weapons ban.

[Raúl Duke]

Do you go practice shooting or hunting with it (when the munitions are not over-priced) or is it primarily a collectable you hang on the mantle so to speak?

[Susurrus]

Do you go practice shooting or hunting with it (when the munitions are not over-priced) or is it primarily a collectable you hang on the mantle so to speak?

This one I've only gotten recently, so time will tell. However, I can say that I'll probably shoot it, but not as much as I would another SKS variant, and keep it in good shape. Ordinarily, I'd regard an SKS as an excellent bush gun, but since the Albanian ones are of such relatively few numbers, I feel obligated to keep it out of harm's way. But it will certainly see range time, and probably be occasionally taken for a walk.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

How does the recoil compare with that of a rifle chambered in 5.56 (the only calibre of rifle round I've fired)?

I remember being quite surprised that such a little bullet could produce such a kick. It made me wonder how anyone can fire an assault rifle on automatic with any reasonable accuracy. Although I got used to it (holding the rifle hard into the shoulder was a great help), I was forcefully reminded of the recoil at one point when I was smacked in the face and had my glasses bent by a rifle with the iron-sight set too far back.

I looked up the hoops one has to go through in order to shoot in the UK, and it's frigging ridiculous. Assuming you can find a suitable gun club, pay the membership fees, pass probationary membership, pay for the firearms certificate and associated costs, you're then limited pretty much to manual-action rifles, and the certificate applies for that weapon only. Bullshit heaped upon bullshit.

It becomes even more infuriating when the overly-smug fuckfaces who call themselves my countrymen preen themselves in front of Americans. Yeah, be proud of being disarmed! After all, no government has committed murder or oppression and they can thus be trusted with far more deadly weapons (such as armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and NBC munitions) much better than private individuals with small arms, right? Go fuck yourself, you servile peons of inbred aristos. You aren't just lacking a weapon in your hands - you're lacking a weapon in your hearts and in your minds as well.

Well, that turned into a mini-rant.

[ellipsis]

Nice! Im jealous, i just have a run of the mill norinco sks.

[Susurrus]

How does the recoil compare with that of a rifle chambered in 5.56 (the only calibre of rifle round I've fired)?

I remember being quite surprised that such a little bullet could produce such a kick. It made me wonder how anyone can fire an assault rifle on automatic with any reasonable accuracy. Although I got used to it (holding the rifle hard into the shoulder was a great help), I was forcefully reminded of the recoil at one point when I was smacked in the face and had my glasses bent by a rifle with the iron-sight set too far back.

I looked up the hoops one has to go through in order to shoot in the UK, and it's frigging ridiculous. Assuming you can find a suitable gun club, pay the membership fees, pass probationary membership, pay for the firearms certificate and associated costs, you're then limited pretty much to manual-action rifles, and the certificate applies for that weapon only. Bullshit heaped upon bullshit.

It becomes even more infuriating when the overly-smug fuckfaces who call themselves my countrymen preen themselves in front of Americans. Yeah, be proud of being disarmed! After all, no government has committed murder or oppression and they can thus be trusted with far more deadly weapons (such as armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and NBC munitions) much better than private individuals with small arms, right? Go fuck yourself, you servile peons of inbred aristos. You aren't just lacking a weapon in your hands - you're lacking a weapon in your hearts and in your minds as well.

Well, that turned into a mini-rant.


I fear I can't provide feedback on how it compares to 5.56, as I have never fired anything in that caliber myself(my evil assault rifle is an AK variant). However, it would be a bit more recoil than that. Not much, however. And yeah, getting used to recoil is always a lesson to learn when starting. I personally jumped from a .22 to a Mosin Nagant when I started shooting, so I had to learn fast.

And nice rant :D.

[Susurrus]

Nice! Im jealous, i just have a run of the mill norinco sks.

One of the old milsurp ones, or the commercial models? I plan to someday get one of the former myself, once prices get back to normal.

[ellipsis]

Mil surp. Got mine for 190 with scope and 30 round mag. Now I see Yugoslav skss going for 400+

[Hit The North]

How does the recoil compare with that of a rifle chambered in 5.56 (the only calibre of rifle round I've fired)?

I remember being quite surprised that such a little bullet could produce such a kick. It made me wonder how anyone can fire an assault rifle on automatic with any reasonable accuracy. Although I got used to it (holding the rifle hard into the shoulder was a great help), I was forcefully reminded of the recoil at one point when I was smacked in the face and had my glasses bent by a rifle with the iron-sight set too far back.

I looked up the hoops one has to go through in order to shoot in the UK, and it's frigging ridiculous. Assuming you can find a suitable gun club, pay the membership fees, pass probationary membership, pay for the firearms certificate and associated costs, you're then limited pretty much to manual-action rifles, and the certificate applies for that weapon only. Bullshit heaped upon bullshit.

It becomes even more infuriating when the overly-smug fuckfaces who call themselves my countrymen preen themselves in front of Americans. Yeah, be proud of being disarmed! After all, no government has committed murder or oppression and they can thus be trusted with far more deadly weapons (such as armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and NBC munitions) much better than private individuals with small arms, right? Go fuck yourself, you servile peons of inbred aristos. You aren't just lacking a weapon in your hands - you're lacking a weapon in your hearts and in your minds as well.

Well, that turned into a mini-rant.

Yeah, dude, we just don't have enough mass-shootings in our education system. We should be like the US and let every asshole with a grudge to settle get access to semi-automatic weaponry. What is wrong with this country? It's almost like we don't want to shoot the shit out of each other!

Also, just from an empirical position, it is obvious that there is a direct correlation between a well armed population and a revolutionary working class. Because, like, the American proletariat are at the forefront of the global struggle aren't they?

Besides, it's not like the US gun lobby is almost exclusively populated by reactionary patriots who don't give a flying dead fuck for the innocent victims of gun crime and think that Obama is a communist fuck who wants to disarm them in preparation of the Jewish-Islamic-homo-commie invasion. That's just propaganda from the anti-gun lobby. Fuck Obama! Bring back George W, he strived to keep us armed to the teeth. He definitely wasn't a Jew-loving, Muslim pinko-faggot, unlike some people I could mention (Obama).

I think every revolutionary in America should stand shoulder to shoulder with the NRA and the Republican Party. It's about time the left got on the right side.

The British, on the other hand, should just shoot themselves. I've no idea what a "servile peon" is but is sure sounds faggoty.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

The British, on the other hand, should just shoot themselves. I've no idea what a "servile peon" is but is sure sounds faggoty.

First of all, it was unprincipled of Noxion to exploit this thread to turn it into a gun control thread. Though personally as a Maoist I believe that we all have the right to mandatory military training and fully automatic assault riffles, and that there should be no police and a military restrained to only a couple ten thousand people. Just putting that out there again, again sorry if this is baiting some gun control person to respond to me, that isn't what I intended,

Second, that is homophobic lanaguage, I understand that in certain cultures (such as the one I live) the use of the term "fag" is more of a way to enforce social cohesion than as a homophobic remark, but that still doesn't mean that leftists should ever tolerate this sort of language.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Yeah, dude, we just don't have enough mass-shootings in our education system. We should be like the US and let every asshole with a grudge to settle get access to semi-automatic weaponry. What is wrong with this country? It's almost like we don't want to shoot the shit out of each other!

Because the problem is guns, not violence, borne of an inadequate level of social provision that makes even countries poorer and generally more mismanaged than the US look good in comparison. Sure.


Also, just from an empirical position, it is obvious that there is a direct correlation between a well armed population and a revolutionary working class. Because, like, the American proletariat are at the forefront of the global struggle aren't they?

Not my position, so not sure how you're extrapolating that from my post. But nice strawman anyway.


Besides, it's not like the US gun lobby is almost exclusively populated by reactionary patriots who don't give a flying dead fuck for the innocent victims of gun crime and think that Obama is a communist fuck who wants to disarm them in anticipation of the Jewish-Islamic-homo-commie invasion. That's just propaganda from the anti-gun lobby. Fuck Obama! Bring back George W, he strived to keep us armed to the teeth. He definitely wasn't a Jew-loving, Muslim pinko-faggot, unlike some people I could mention (Obama).

I think every revolutionary in America should stand shoulder to shoulder with the NRA and the Republican Party. It's about time the left got on the right side.

More strawmandering. Fuck you and fuck off.


The British, on the other hand, should just shoot themselves.

I'd rather they armed themselves, to be honest.


I've no idea what a "servile peon" is but is sure sounds faggoty.

Maybe you should use less homophobic language and pick up a dictionary sometime?

[Hit The North]

First of all, it was unprincipled of Noxion to exploit this thread to turn it into a gun control thread. Though personally as a Maoist I believe that we all have the right to mandatory military training and fully automatic assault riffles, and that there should be no police and a military restrained to only a couple ten thousand people. Just putting that out there again, again sorry if this is baiting some gun control person to respond to me, that isn't what I intended,

Second, that is homophobic lanaguage, I understand that in certain cultures (such as the one I live) the use of the term "fag" is more of a way to enforce social cohesion than as a homophobic remark, but that still doesn't mean that leftists should ever tolerate this sort of language.

You really are a boring Marxist. I'm using the term for satirical effect.

Btw, how can you be a Marxist and a Maoist at the same time?

[Hit The North]

Because the problem is guns, not violence, borne of an inadequate level of social provision that makes even countries poorer and generally more mismanaged than the US look good in comparison. Sure.


The problem was guns in Sandy Hook and Columbine (to name only two). Are you arguing that the perpetrators were compelled to indiscriminate, murderous violence because they were suffering social deprivation? Are you claiming that they could have ammassed their respective body counts using knives or clubs?


Not my position, so not sure how you're extrapolating that from my post. But nice strawman anyway.


Really? You seemed to be equating the British reluctance to promote a gun culture with their subservience to the ruling class.


More strawmandering. Fuck you and fuck off.


You see, it is these anger issues which make it best for everyone that you don't own a firearm.


I'd rather they armed themselves, to be honest.

If you're happy for your neighbours to be armed I can only assume that you live in a nice middle class suburb or something. Maybe you want the firearm to shoot grouse :lol:


Maybe you should use less homophobic language and pick up a dictionary sometime?

You're the one siding with the gun nuts. Don't you think that these largely white, Republican psychos are homophobic? I'm just lampooning your allies.

[Raúl Duke]

Why does gun-control have to be such a "black-white; all or nothing" subject (I always found it bizarre that some leftists actually seem to favor banning guns/very strict controls, using "guilty by association" fallacious arguments and the like; why should we let the state disarm us)? Even banning particular class of weapons or clip sizes don't really do much to remediate the issue. In Florida, talking to a few people who own weapons their biggest concern are "gun show gun trades" or private sales which is legal in some states and problematic since there's no background checks, paper-work, etc (my father's Cuban work associate mentioned this story that when he sold a gun this way, it ended up being used in a crime). Putting a restriction, control, or a ban on such unrestricted weapons sale would probably be more wiser than just outright/general banning of semi-auto rifles and "more than 10" clips.


Anyway, it looks like a pretty nice rifle.

[Ismail]

To quote Jan Myrdal, Albania Defiant, p. 146: "Chinese support is important, but crucial to Albania's defense is that the entire Albanian people are armed, have weapons. There are weapons in every village. Ten minutes after the alarm sounds, the entire population of a village must be ready for combat. There has never been any shortage of weapons in Albania, but never have the people been as armed as they are today."

And from the Country Studies book on Albania:

Paramilitary training developed to the point that many fifteen to nineteen-year-old youths could be organized to fight as partisan forces or to operate as auxiliary units during a national emergency. Its main purpose was, however, to provide the armed forces with conscripts who were in good physical condition and had sufficient basic military training and knowledge to enter a military unit and perform satisfactorily with a minimum of adjustment. The academic year for secondary school and university students included one month and two months of full-time paramilitary training, respectively. Paramilitary training did not exclude older Albanians, however. Until age fifty, men were obligated to spend twelve days per year in paramilitary training. Women participated for seven days per year until age forty.

Paramilitary training included extensive physical conditioning, close-order drill, hand-to-hand combat, small arms handling, demolition, and tactical exercises applicable to guerrilla operations. It was conducted in secondary schools by military officers assigned to them and also at military units to which the schools were attached for training purposes. Paramilitary programs of the communist youth organizations were similar to those conducted in the secondary schools. Albanian youths carrying rifles and machine guns marched in May Day parades. As many as 200,000 young people participated in paramilitary training each year.The issue in America is that of a violent society which fosters in many people anti-social behavior, not the presence of guns.

[ellipsis]

Stop flaming and derailing the thread. We have plenty of other threads for the gun control debate.

Also I'm issuing an infraction to hit the north, for prejudice language and flame baiting.

[ellipsis]

My "armorer" has a yugo, a norinco, and a Russian made, west German re-barreled sks. My dream would be to snag a Chinese paratrooper model which accepts ak magazines.

[Hit The North]

My "armorer" has a yugo, a norinco, and a Russian made, west German re-barreled sks. My dream would be to snag a Chinese paratrooper model which accepts ak magazines.

So just how small does your penis have to be before you develop such a huge gun fetish?

[o well this is ok I guess]

Really? You seemed to be equating the British reluctance to promote a gun culture with their subservience to the ruling class. well ya know



If you're happy for your neighbours to be armed I can only assume that you live in a nice middle class suburb or something. Maybe you want the firearm to shoot grouse :lol: The implication here is that the lower classes can't be trusted with firearms.
Cmon man be real


You're the one siding with the gun nuts. Don't you think that these largely white, Republican psychos are homophobic? I'm just lampooning your allies. I said I don't like Obama, I guess that means I'm a born-again.

Don't you have an SWP meeting to be at or something

[Hit The North]

The implication here is that the lower classes can't be trusted with firearms.
Cmon man be real


I have neighbours who I would definitely not like to see gain easy access to firearms.

But, yeah, the gun saturated inner-cities of the USA are a real role model.


I said I don't like Obama, I guess that means I'm a born-again.
Why, do you hate Obama because you think he's a closet communist who wants take your guns away from you? If so, you might have a point: you'd be a born-again paranoid idiot.


Don't you have an SWP meeting to be at or somethingDon't you have an imaginary party meeting to pretend you're at, or something?

[o well this is ok I guess]

I have neighbours who I would definitely not like to see gain easy access to firearms. Cmon man keep going I really want to know how you're going to organize your community that you don't want to touch with a 10 foot pole


But, yeah, the gun saturated inner-cities of the USA are a real role model. Gang violence is drug violence is whatever what do you care if they're alive or dead?

Also, hoo boy, really got lucky on the SWP bit. I didn't even know. I'd say it was a lucky guess, but well, you know, what other left party can boast being afraid of poor people?

[ellipsis]

Thread closed. Thanks for derailing it. Hit the north, u should be happy I didn't give you a second infraction. just chill, it's just a forum.

Thanks OP for the thread, sorry it got ruined.