Speaking of lack of skill... supposing the protagonists intercept a shipment of said soviet-bloc equipment, would it be realistic for them to be able operate them with minimum fiddlin'? (I have to take the characters from havin' a household of hunting rifles to being armed-to-the-teeth guerilla fighters)
like I sais, designed for peasant soldiers...
no kiddin, I could teach you to field strip, clean and proficiently operate an AK in about 30 minutes...
Achnad?... about two weeks...