Mikhail Kalashnikov - Ak 47 Inventor

Lieutenant-General Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (Russian: Михаи́л Тимофе́евич Кала́шников; 10 November 1919 â€" 23 December 2013) was a Russian general, inventor, military engineer, writer and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the PK machine gun.

Kalashnikov was, according to himself, a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weaponry to design arms that achieved battlefield ubiquity. Even though Kalashnikov felt sorrow at the weapons' uncontrolled distribution, he took pride in his inventions and in their reputation for reliability, emphasizing that his rifle is "a weapon of defense" and "not a weapon for offense".

Early life

Kalashnikov was born in Kurya, Altai Governorate, Russian SFSR, now Altai Krai, Russia, to Aleksandra Frolovna Kalashnikova (née Kaverina) and Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov. In 1930, his father and most of his family were deprived of property and deported to the village of Nizhnyaya Mokhovaya, Tomsk Oblast. In his youth, Mikhail suffered from various illnesses and was on the verge of death at age six. He was attracted to all kinds of machinery, but also wrote poetry, dreaming of becoming a poet. He went on to write six books and continued to write poetry all of his life. Kalashnikov's parents were peasants, but, after deportation to Tomsk Oblast, had to combine farming with hunting, and thus Mikhail frequently used his father's rifle in his teens. Kalashnikov continued hunting into his 90s.

After completing seventh grade, Mikhail, with his stepfather's permission, left his family and returned to Kurya, hitchhiking for nearly 1,000 km. In Kurya he found a job in mechanics at a tractor station and developed a passion for weaponry. In 1938, he was conscripted into the Red Army. Because of his small size and engineering skills he was assigned as a tank mechanic, and later became a tank commander. While training, he made his first inventions, which concerned not only tanks, but also small weapons, and was personally awarded a wrist watch by Georgy Zhukov. Kalashnikov served on the T-34s of the 24th Tank Regiment, 108th Tank Division stationed in Stryi before the regiment retreated after the Battle of Brody in June 1941. He was wounded in combat in the Battle of Bryansk in October 1941 and hospitalised until April 1942.in the last few months of being in hospital, he overheard some fellow soldiers complaining about the Soviet rifles at the time and this is when he came up with the idea of making a new rifle which later became the AK47.

Seeing the drawbacks of the standard infantry weapons at the time, he decided to construct a new rifle for the Soviet military. During this time Kalashnikov began designing a submachine gun. Although his first submachine gun design was not accepted into service, his talent as a designer was noticed. From 1942 onwards Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central Scientific-developmental Firing Range for Rifle Firearms of the Chief Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.

In 1944, he designed a gas-operated carbine for the new 7.62×39mm cartridge. This weapon, influenced by the M1 Garand rifle, lost out to the new Simonov carbine which would be eventually adopted as the SKS; but it became a basis for his entry in an assault rifle competition in 1946.

His winning entry, the "Mikhtim" (so named by taking the first letters of his name and patronymic, Mikhail Timofeyevich) became the prototype for the development of a family of prototype rifles. This process culminated in 1947, when he designed the AK-47 (standing for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947). In 1949, the AK-47 became the standard issue assault rifle of the Soviet Army and went on to become Kalashnikov's most famous invention. While developing his first assault rifles, Kalashnikov competed with two much more experienced weapon designers, Vasily Degtyaryov and Georgy Shpagin, who both accepted the superiority of the AK-47. Kalashnikov named Alexandr Zaitsev and Vladimir Deikin as his major collaborators during those years.

Later career

From 1949, Mikhail Kalashnikov lived and worked in Izhevsk, Udmurtia. He held a degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences (1971) and was a member of 16 academies.

Over the course of his career, he evolved the basic design into a weapons family. The AKM (Russian: Автомат Кала́шникова Модернизированный â€" Kalashnikov modernized assault rifle) first appeared in 1963, was lighter and cheaper to manufacture owing to the use of a stamped steel receiver (in place of the AK-47's milled steel receiver), and contained detail improvements such as a re-shaped stock and muzzle compensator. From the AKM he developed a squad automatic weapon variant, known as the RPK (Russian: Ручной пулемет Кала́шникова â€" Kalashnikov light machine gun).

He also developed the general-purpose PK machine gun (Russian: Пулемет Кала́шникова â€" Kalashnikov machine gun), which used the more powerful 7.62×54R cartridge of the Mosinâ€"Nagant rifle. It is cartridge belt-fed, not magazine-fed, as it is intended to provide heavy sustained fire from a tripod mount, or be used as a light, bipod-mounted weapon. The common characteristics of all these weapons are simple design, ruggedness and ease of maintenance in all operating conditions.

Approximately 100 million AK-47 assault rifles had been produced by 2009, and about half of them are counterfeit, manufactured at a rate of about a million per year. Izhmash, the official manufacturer of AK-47 in Russia, did not patent the weapon until 1997, and in 2006 accounted for only 10% of the world's production. Kalashnikov himself claimed he was always motivated by service to his country rather than money, and made no direct profit from weapon production. He did however own 30% of a German company Marken Marketing International (MMI) run by his grandson Igor. The company revamps trademarks and produces merchandise carrying the Kalashnikov name, such as vodka, umbrellas and knives. One of the items is a knife named for the AK-74. This arm is so famous due to its reliability in the most extreme climatic conditions, it works perfectly well in desert as in the snow. It is the official weapon of the armies of 55 countries, furthermore, it appears in the embleme of some States, from Africa specially because it helped to their decolonization, as for example Mozambique.

During a visit to the United States in the early 2000s, Kalashnikov was invited to tour a Virginia holding site for the forthcoming American Wartime Museum. The former tanker Kalashnikov became visibly moved at the sight of his old tank in action, painted with his name in Cyrillic.

On 17 November 2013, Kalashnikov was hospitalized in an Udmurtian medical facility. He died on 23 December 2013 at a hospital after a prolonged illness.

Death

Kalashnikov died 23 December 2013, at age 94 in a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia and where he lived, from gastric hemorrhage. In January 2014 a letter that Kalashnikov wrote six months before his death to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, was published by the Russian daily newspaper Izvestia. In the letter he stated that he was suffering "spiritual pain" about whether he was responsible for the deaths caused by the weapons he created. Translated from the published letter he states, "My heartache unbearable same insoluble question: if my rifle deprive people of life, and therefore I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ninety-three years old, the son of a peasant, and Orthodox Christian according to his faith, responsible for the death of people, let even an enemy?"

The patriarch wrote back, thanked Kalashnikov, and said that he "was an example of patriotism and a correct attitude toward the country". Kirill added about the design responsibility for the deaths by the rifle, "the church has a well-defined position when the weapon is defense of the Motherland, the Church supports its creators and the military, which use it."

He became one of the first people buried in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery.

Family

Kalashnikov's father, Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov (1883â€"1930), was a peasant. He completed two grades of parochial school and could read and write. In 1901 he married Aleksandra Frolovna Kaverina (1884â€"1957), who was illiterate throughout her life. They had 19 children, but only eight survived to adult age; Kalashnikov was born 17th, and was close to death at age six.

In 1930, the government labeled Timofey Aleksandrovich a kulak, confiscated his property, and deported him to Siberia, along with most of the family. The eldest three siblings, daughters Agasha (b. 1905) and Anna and son Victor, were already married by 1930, and remained in Kuriya. After her husband's death in 1930, Aleksandra Frolovna married Efrem Kosach, a widower who had three children of his own.

Mikhail Kalashnikov married twice, the first time to Ekaterina Danilovna Astakhova of Altai Krai. He married the second time to Ekaterina Viktorovna Moiseyeva (1921â€"1977). She was an engineer and did much technical drawing work for her husband. They had four children: daughters Nelli (b. 1942), Elena (b. 1948) and Natalya (1953â€"1983), and a son Victor (b. 1942). Victor also became a prominent small arms designer.

The title to the AK-47 trademark belonged to Mikhail Kalashnikov's family until 4 April 2016, when the Kalashnikov Concern won a lawsuit to invalidate the registration of the trademark.

Weapon designs

During his career, Kalashnikov designed about 150 models of small weapons. The most famous of them are:

• AK-47
• AKM
• AK-74 / AKS-74U / AK-74M / AKS-74
• AK-101 / AK-102
• AK-103 / AK-104
• AK-105
• AK-12
• RPK / RPK-74
• PK / PKM / PKP
• Saiga semi-automatic rifle

Awards and tribute

Incorporates information from the corresponding article in the Russian Wikipedia

• Recipients of the Order of St. Andrew
• In 1998, he was awarded an Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclete
• On his 90th birthday on 10 November 2009, Kalashnikov was named a "Hero of the Russian Federation" and presented with a medal by President Dmitry Medvedev who lauded him for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of"
• In 2012, Izhevsk State Technical University was named after Kalashnikov
• On November 7, 2014 a statue of Kalashnikov was unveiled at the Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri, Armenia. Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan attended the opening ceremony.

Russian Federation

Decorations

• Hero of the Russian Federation (2009)
• Order of St. Andrew (2008)
• Order For Merit to the Fatherland, Second Class (1994)
• Order of Military Merit (Russia) (2004)

Awards

• State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of design (1997)
• Award of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of education (2003)
• All-Russian Literary Prize of Suvorov (2009)

Honorary diplomas

• Diploma of the Government of the Russian Federation (1997, 1999)

Medals

• Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941â€"1945"
• Medal "Symbol of Science" (2007)
• Gold Medal of Zhukov
• Medal "For outstanding contribution to the development of the collection business in Russia"

Acknowledgements

• Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (1997, 1999, 2002, 2007)

Soviet

Honours

• Hero of Socialist Labour (1958, 1976)
• Order of Lenin (1958, 1969, 1976)
• Order of the October Revolution (1974)
• Order of the Red Star (1949)
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (1985)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1957)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (1982)

Medals

• Medal "Hammer and Sickle" (1958,1976)
• Medal "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941â€"1945"
• Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941â€"1945"
• Medal "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
• Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941â€"1945"
• Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941â€"1945"
• Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
• Medal "Veteran of Labor" on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
• Jubilee Medal "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
• Jubilee Medal "40 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "70 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow"

Awards

• Stalin Prize (1949)
• Lenin Prize (1964)

Foreign decorations

• Order of Honour of Belarus (1999)
• Order of Friendship, First Class (2003)

Other honours

• the home of Mikhail Kalashnikov in the village he set Courier lifetime bronze bust (1980)
• the name of the designer named projected prospect in Izhevsk (1994)
• "Honorary Citizen of the Altai Territory" (1997)
• Ministry of Economy of Russia award â€" The sign "of small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov" (1997)
• Union of scientific and engineering organizations and the Government of Udmurtia established an award named after Mikhail Kalashnikov (1999)
• Diamond company "Alrosa" extracted 29 December 1995 gem diamonds weighing 50.74 carats given the name "designer Mikhail Kalashnikov" (14.5 x 15, 0h15, 5 mm, quality Stones Black) (1999)
• Mikhail Kalashnikov Cadet School in Votkinsk (2002)
• Award in his name at the School of Weapon Skills of Izhevsk (2002)
• Izhevsk State Cultural Institution "Museum of Mikhail Kalashnikov"
• "Honorary Engineer of Kazakhstan" (Kazakhstan; 2004)
• Gift from President Hugo Chávez, the highest award of the Republic â€" a copy of the famous sword of Simon Bolivar, which is a relic of Venezuela and the copy is equal to the highest award of the country (2009)
• The name of Mikhail Kalashnikov was given to the military department of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg (2009)
• Izhevsk State Technical University was awarded the name of Mikhail Kalashnikov (2012)
• German knife company Boker has dedicated a series to him (2013)
• The companies that make Kalashnikov rifles, Izhmash and Izhevsk Mechanical Plant were merged and formally renamed Kalashnikov Concern. (2013)

Quotes

• "I was in the hospital, and a soldier in the bed beside me asked: ‘Why do our soldiers have only one rifle for two or three of our men, when the Germans have automatics?’ So I designed one. I was a soldier, and I created a machine gun for a soldier. It was called an Avtomat Kalashnikova, the automatic weapon of Kalashnikovâ€"AKâ€"and it carried the date of its first manufacture, 1947."
• "Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer ... I always wanted to construct agriculture machinery."
• "When a young man, I read somewhere the following: God the Almighty said, 'All that is too complex is unnecessary, and it is simple that is needed' ... So this has been my lifetime motto â€" I have been creating weapons to defend the borders of my fatherland, to be simple and reliable."
• "I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists ... I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work â€" for example a lawn mower."
• "I created a weapon to defend the borders of my motherland. It's not my fault that it's being used where it shouldn't be. The politicians are more to blame for this."
• "I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence."

References

Further reading

• Forge, John (Januaryâ€"February 2007). "No Consolation For Kalashnikov". Philosophy Now (59). Retrieved 24 January 2007. 
• Ружье. Оружие и амуниция double/special issue of 1997/5-6 has a fairly complete inventory of Kalashnikov's designs. Issues 1 and 2 of the same magazine from 1999 have articles on Kalashnikov's 1st sub-machine gun (1942) [1][2] and respectively his first rifle (1944â€"45) [3][4].

External links

• M.T. Kalashnikov Museum and Exhibition Small Arms Complex
• 'I sleep soundly' â€" Interview with and article on Mikhail Kalashnikov at the age of 83, from The Guardian newspaper.
• Mikhail Kalashnikov backs weapons control
• BBC NEWS Profile: Mikhail Kalashnikov
• Free illustrated virtual guided tour of the Museum of Mikhail Kalashnikov
• The life of Mikhail Kalashnikov (Russian)
• Mikhail Kalashnikov with Elena Joly: The Gun that Changed the World
• 7,62 мм ручной пулемет Ðœ.Т. Калашникова. 1944 г. Kalashikov model 1944 light machine gunâ€"his 2nd design.
• The Economist: Obituary 11 January 2014 Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, weapons inventor, died on 23 December, aged 94