Mikhail Kalashnikov has died

Famous firearms designer 94-year-old Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov has died.

“It is a sad day today: famous firearms designer Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov died in the result of continuous long-term illness in the year of 94,” spokesperson of the president of Udmurtia Victor Chulkov wrote it in his page of Facebook, “Armenpress” reports.

Kalashnikov was born inKurya, Kuryinsky District, Altai Krai, Russia, to Aleksandra Frolovna Kalashnikova (née Kaverina) and Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov. His father wasdeportedin 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 has 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 1000km. In Kuriya he found a job in mechanics at a tractor station and developed a passion for weaponry. In 1938, he was conscripted into theRed Army. Because of his small sizeand 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 byGeorgy Zhukov.Kalashnikov served on theT-34sof the 24th Tank Regiment, 108th Tank Divisionstationed inStryibefore the regiment retreated after theBattle of Brodyin June 1941. He was wounded in combat in theBattle of Bryanskin October 1941and 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 asubmachine 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 theRed Army.

In 1944, he designed a gas-operated carbine for the new7.62x39 mmcartridge. This weapon, influenced by theM1 Garandrifle, lost out to the newSimonovcarbine which would be eventually adopted as theSKS; 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 theAK-47(standing forAvtomat Kalashnikova model 1947). In 1949, the AK-47 became the standard issueassault rifleof theSoviet 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 DegtyaryovandGeorgy Shpagin, who both accepted the superiority of the AK-47. Kalashnikov named Alexandr Zaitsev and Vladimir Deikin as his major collaborators during those years.

From 1949, Mikhail Kalashnikov lived and worked inIzhevsk,Udmurtia. He held a degree ofDoctor of Technical Sciences (1971)and is a member of 16 academies.

Over the course of his career he evolved the basic design into a weapons family. TheAKM(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 asquad automatic weaponvariant, known as theRPK(Russian:Ручной пулемет Калашникова– Kalashnikov light machine gun), and thePK(Russian:Пулемет Калашникова– Kalashnikov machine gun), which used the more powerful7.62×54Rcartridge of theMosin-Nagantrifle. 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.

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 companyMarken Marketing International(MMI) run by his grandson Igor. The company revamps trademarks and produces merchandise carrying the Kalashnikov name, such asvodka, umbrellas and knives.One of the items is a knife named for theAK-74.

Kalashnikov's father, Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov (1883–1930), was a peasant. He completed two grades ofparochial schooland could read and write. In 1930, he was named akulak, 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 sonVictor(b. 1942). Victor also became a prominent small arms designer.