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I am almost positive that they did build them and that Russia supplied them with the equipment and initial training on their production.

 

Information of Bulgarian AKM's is hard to come by. From what I could find, Arsenal of Bulgaria never put AKM's into production back in the 1960’s, but did produce prototypes. But they apparently scapped the idea and chose to stick with the milled Type 3 design. The factory apparently revisited the idea again in the early-to-mid 2000's, and started producing AKM receivers, but again, it never made it out of the prototype phase. This is probably the reason why Arsenal of Las Vegas was not able to import the SLR-108, which was a semi auto Bulgarian-made AKM that many here in the US were eagely awaiting.

The confusing part is that Arsenal of Bulgaria seems to have continued producing AKM receivers to some degree, as back in 2009, Arsenal of Las Vegas imported the receiers along with other parts, and
built a variety of AKM-pattern rifles for the US market in both 7.62 and 5.56 calibers. They are the SLR-line of rifles that have been available for the past 5 years (SLR-107 series and SLR-106 series). They have been available for so long, that I almost think that Arsenal of Bulgaria is doing limited runs of the AKM receivers during breaks in their normal production. But that's just a guess.

Arsenal SLR-108
http://www.arsenalinc.com/usa/SLR-108.html

 

I am almost positive that they did build them and that Russia supplied them with the equipment and initial training on their production.

The Soviet Union did supply Bulgaria with tooling and parts for the original Type 3 AK-47, so its definatley probable that they did the same for the AKM.

 

I really wish they had produced the 108. There aren't really many true to form akm with chromed barrels since the curtain fell on parts kits. A lot of companies get close but there really hasn't been a factory akm since the preban.

 

I really wish they had produced the 108.

Me too. I have an SGL-21 that I sorta converted to an AKM (45 degree gas block and laminate stock set), but its not 100% correct.

 

Back during the Communist era, did the Bulgarians ever use AKMs, and if so did they manufacture them or did they get them from another country?

Good question!