MOSCOW — A Russian government-owned conglomerate announced plans on Monday to sell to two private investors just under half of the company that makes Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The company, Izhevsk Machine Works, has made AK-47s, which are the world’s most distributed firearm, since shortly after World War II. And despite years of deep financial crisis, the company has been seen as a crown jewel of Russia’s military industrial complex.

Izhevsk returned to profitability in recent years in large part because of robust sales to American civilians.

The government had been searching for investors to share the burden of modernizing the sprawling machine shops and integrating the business, known as Izhmash, with other small arms makers as part of a broader overhaul of military enterprises, an important sector in the Russian economy.