Thread: Great Patriotic World War?

My understanding is that the Great Patriotic War (Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́) is just another name for World War II (Вторая Мировая Война). However, I've also heard that the Great Patriotic War actually only refers to the Eastern Front (Восточный фронт) portion of the war. My understanding also is that the AK-47 (Автомат Калашникова) was developed during WWII. So:

1) Are the following two sentences phrased correctly?
2) Which sentence would be more likely spoken by a Russian in Russia when speaking of the history of the AK-47?

Автомат Калашникова был разработан во время Второй мировой войны.

(The Kalashnikov was developed during World War II.)


Автомат Калашникова был разработан в годы Великой Отечественной войны.

(The Kalashnikov was developed during the Great Patriotic War.)

The Great Patriotic War and WWII is the same thing
The 47 in AK-47 refers to the year 1947. That's the year the carbine was ready for mass production, so it was not developed during WWII (however early designs started in 1945, which was the last year of WWII)

Great Patriotic War is part of WWII USSR taked part in (1941-1945).

The war in East Asia against Japan was really not part of "В.О.В.", in other words. But I think you could consider German bombing of Britain to be part of "the Western front of the Veh-Oh-Veh" -- more Nazi bombs dropped on the UK meant fewer Nazi bombs in reserve to attack the USSR, so all allies in the European theater were part of the same fight.

But I think you could consider German bombing of Britain to be part of "the Western front of the Veh-Oh-Veh"

To make it more clear: GPW is war of USSR against German (and some of Geman's allies). "Отечественная" stands for "Great War of the Land of the Fathers".
However it is common mistake to use "GPW" instead of "WWII" and vice versa.

2) Which sentence would be more likely spoken by a Russian in Russia when speaking of the history of the AK-47?
Автомат Калашникова был разработан во время Второй мировой войны.
Автомат Калашникова был разработан в годы Великой Отечественной войны.

Second one. Something which belongs to the history of USSR have more chances to be spoken with term "GPW".