Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, Dies At 94
Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the arms designer credited by the Soviet Union with creating the AK-47, the first in a series of rifles and machine guns that would indelibly associate his name with modern war and become the most abundant firearms ever made, died on Monday in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic, where he lived. He was 94.
Dima Korotayev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47, holding a prototype of his famous assault rifle in 2007.Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic’s president, confirmed the death, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Born a peasant on the southern Siberian steppe, General Kalashnikov had little formal education and claimed to be a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weapons to conceive of a rifle that achieved battlefield ubiquity.
For better or worse, the legacy of a WWII Tank Mechanic’s rifle is one that has changed the world and led to a major industry in possibly the most unlikely place - the US.
Rest in peace, General.