Mikhail Kalashnikov

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Mikhail Kalashnikov, circa 2000

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (Russian: Михаи́л Тимофе́евич Кала́шников, Mihail Timofeevič Kalašnikov) (born November 10, 1919) is a famous Russian gun designer, most famous for his AK-47, frequently called the Kalashnikov.

[edit] Background

Born in a poor peasant family in the village of Kurya, Altai Krai, he started his engineering career working at a train depot, where Kalashnikov was able to learn much about mechanics. In 1938 he was drafted into the Red Army and served as a tank commander during the first months of the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941 Kalashnikov was badly wounded in combat and sent home from the front lines. He started to create his first gun designs in a hospital and soon joined a depot's workshop of the Moscow Aviation Institute. While working there Kalashnikov produced a number of innovations for tanks, including a mechanism that would count the number of shots fired. Within several years, he was promoted to the position of chief engineer and given far more resources. In 1947, he designed the AK-47 (an acronym for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947). In 1949 the AK-47 assault rifle became operational in the Soviet Army; after this the design would become Kalashnikov's most famous invention.

Kalashnikov, who started as a self-taught-inventor, ascended to the prominent position of General Designer of small arms for the Soviet Army. In his design engineering department, Hugo Schmeisser and Werner Gruner (MG 42), a pioneer in the area of the sheet metal embossing technology, worked into the 1950s. In addition, a number of German laborers were enlisted or coerced to work in the USSR under the technical designer.

Later in his career he developed a squad automatic weapon variant of the AK-47, known as the RPK (Ruchnoi pulemyot Kalashnikova - Kalashnikov's light machine gun), and also the PK (Pulemyot Kalashnikova - Kalashnikov's machine gun), which used a much larger cartridge (the same full-powered rifle cartridge as employed in the Mosin-Nagant rifle). The cartridge was belt-fed rather than magazine-fed. In other respects, it was nearly the same design. These designs both saw widespread adoption in their respective roles, though the AK-47 still served as the primary infantry weapon.

Since 1949 Mikhail Kalashnikov has been living and working in the town of Izhevsk, Udmurtia. In 2004, he began promoting his own brand of vodka [1]. He told Reuters Television, "I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things." The new brand is 41% alcohol and sold worldwide with his seal of approval, in a glass bottle the shape of the rifle.

The legacy of Kalashnikov's rifles as the most popular assault weapons has prompted him to state his regret that they are now used by terrorists [2].

Mikhail Kalashnikov was awarded twice the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1998 he was awarded an Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclete (orden Svyatogo Andreya Pervozvannogo). His military rank is Lieutenant General. He is a Doctor of Technical Sciences.

Despite estimates that there are around 100 million AK-47 assault rifles in circulation, General Kalashnikov claims that he himself has made no money from the sale of these weapons and that he only receives a meagre state pension. Recently, he has said that he wished he had invented the lawn-mower instead.[3]