Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (Russian: Михаил Тимофеевич Калашников; 10 November 1919 – 23 December 2013) was a Russian small armsdesigner, most famous for developing the AK-47, AKM, and AK-74 assault rifles.

Early life

Kalashnikov was born in Kurya, Kuryinsky District, Altai Krai, Russia, to Aleksandra Frolovna Kalashnikova (née Kaverina) and Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov. His father was deported in 1930, that is, most of his family was deprived of property and deported to Siberia, 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 Siberia had to combine farming with hunting, and thus Mikhail frequently used his father's rifle in his teens. He has since continued hunting through his 90s.

After completing seventh grade, Mikhail, with his stepfather's permission, left his family and returned to Kurya, hitchhiking for nearly 1000 km. In Kuriya 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 hospitalized until April 1942. While in the hospital, he overheard some fellow soldiers complaining about the Soviet rifles of the time.

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 7.62x39 mm 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 Armyand 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

Over the course of his career he evolved the basic design into a weapons family. The AKM(Russian: Автомат Калашникова Модернизированный – 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 AK47'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 Калашникова – Kalashnikov light machine gun), and the PK (Russian: Пулемет Калашникова – Kalashnikov machine gun), which used the more powerful 7.62×54R cartridge of the Mosin-Nagant rifle. The PK series is a general-purpose machine gun. 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.From 1949, Mikhail Kalashnikov lived and worked in Izhevsk, Udmurtia. He held a degree ofDoctor of Technical Sciences (1971) and is a member of 16 academies.

Approximately 100 million AK-47 assault rifles have 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, has patented the weapon only in 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.

Family

Kalashnikov's father, Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov (1883–1930), was a peasant. He completed two grades of parochial school and could read and write. In 1930, he was named a kulak, deprived of property and deported to Siberia, where he died shortly thereafter. In 1901 he married Aleksandra Frolovna Kaverina (1884–1957), who was illiterate through her life. They had 19 children, but only eight survived to the adult age; Kalashnikov was born 17th, and was close to death at age six. The eldest three siblings, daughters Agasha (b. 1905) and Anna and son Victor, were already married by 1930, and remained in Kuriya when the rest of the family was deported to Siberia. After the death of Timofey Aleksandrovich in 1930, Aleksandra Frolovna remarried Efrem Kosach, a widower who had three children of his own.

Mikhail Kalashnikov married Ekaterina Viktorovna Moiseyeva (1921–1977). 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 (1953–1983), and a son Victor (b. 1942). Victor also became a prominent small arms designer.

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

• Recipients of the Order of Saint Apostle Andrew the First-Called
• Mikhail Kalashnikov was twice named Hero of Socialist Labour. 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.

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 1941–1945."
• 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

• 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 1941–1945."
• Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945."
• 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 1941–1945."
• Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945."
• 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 (Kazakhstan), 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 – 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 – 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.

Quotes

• "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 — for example a lawn mower."
• "Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer ... I always wanted to construct agriculture machinery."
• "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."
• "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 – I have been creating weapons to defend the borders of my fatherland, to be simple and reliable."