YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The world-famous small arms maker Mikhail Kalashnikov may be interred on December 26 in the Russian city of Izhevsk 600 miles east of Moscow, the regional authority has said. “Armenpress” reports about this citing the Voice of Russia.

The designer of the popular AK-47 assault rifle will reportedly be buried "at one of Izhevsk cemeteries." The ceremony is expected to be attended by a number of foreign guests, the spokesman of the region’s governor told reporters.

The 94-year-old passed away on Monday in the capital city of Russia’s Udmurtia region Izhevk after a lengthy illness.

The creator of the iconic AK-47 assault rifle, Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died in the intensive care unit at the Central General Hospital in Russia's Udmurtia region. He was 94 years old.

Born in 1919, Mikhail Kalashnikov was the seventeenth child of well-off peasants. When he was eleven his parents had their land confiscated, like many other wealthy people in Stalin’s time and the whole family was exiled to Siberia. Since 1949 Mikhail Kalashnikov lived and worked in the capital of the Udmurtia republic Izhevsk. He received a doctorate in technical sciences and was a member of 16 academies. Over the course of his career he evolved his basic AK-47 rifle design into a whole family of weapons.

The AKM, or Kalashnikov modernized assault rifle, appeared in 1963. It was lighter and cheaper to manufacture than AK-47. From the AKM Kalashnikov developed the RPK light machine gun and the PK – Kalashnikov machine gun. The common characteristics of all his weapons are their simple design and ease of maintenance in all operating conditions.

Mikhail Kalashnikov received numerous awards for his work and was named a "Hero of the Russian Federation in 2009 with then-President Dmitry Medvedev presenting him with a medal for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of".

Approximately 100 million AK-47 assault rifles were produced by 2009 and about half of them are counterfeit, manufactured at a rate of nearly a million per year. Izhmash, the official AK-47 manufacturer in Russia, only patented the weapon's design 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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences to Mikhail Kalashnikov’s friends and family after the death of the outstanding small arms designer, Putin’s press service announced.

The prominent small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, who developed the most famous assault rifle in the world, passed away on December 23 at the age of 94 years. Today his legendary AK-47 is used by more than 100 countries.

Kalashnikov is famous all across the globe. He was a living legend, an honorary member of several academies and universities in Russia, China and the US. The French Libération newspaper included his assault rifle on a list of outstanding inventions of the 20th century.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in Altai (western Siberia) in a peasant family of many children. In 1938, he was conscripted into the army where he served in a tank regiment.

It was then when Kalashnikov started to show his skill of an inventor. He created a counter of shots from a tank gun, a special device for a TT pistol (this pistol was used in the Soviet Army from 1931 till the 1960s), which made it easier to shoot through chinks in a tank turret, and a device for registering a tank motor’s operating time.

Since August 1941, Mikhail Kalashnikov served in the troops that fought against the Nazis, but was wounded and had to retire for six months. It was during this vacation that Kalashnikov created the first model of a submachine gun of his own. In 1944, he created a multiple-shot rifle which actually was the first prototype of what is now widely known as the Kalashnikov gun.

In 1947, Kalashnikov’s brainchild was tested and found to be very effective.

Mikhail Kalashnikov often said that he created his gun for rank-and-file servicemen like himself.

Both Russian and foreign experts unanimously call the Kalashnikov gun the best weapon of the 20th century. It has even been registered in the Guinness book of records as such. The Kalashnikov gun is easy-to-use, reliable and long-serving. At present, there are more than 150 mln items of the Kalashnikov gun in the world.

"Mikhail Kalashnikov’s brainchild is more than a weapon," the Editor-in-Chief of the Russian magazine "Natsionalnaya Oborona" ("National Defence") Igor Korotchenko says. "The Kalashnikov gun is a symbol of the skill of Russian weapon inventors and producers."

"In fact, what is known all over the world as "the Kalashnikov gun" is a whole series of modifications of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s initial brainchild," Igor Korotchenko adds. "I am not sure that I can name another person who has done as much for Russia’s military strength as Mikhail Kalashnikov has. The Kalashnikov gun or its modifications are still used in the Russian army. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to call Mikhail Kalashnikov a real genius. And, it should also be stressed that he was a self-made man, an autodidact."

At present, there are 150 models of weapons based on Kalashnikov’s invention in the world, including a hand automatic gun, a short rifle and plain-barrel guns.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was a restless man. Even at a very respectable age, he never stopped working. "I have lived a long life", he used to say to young creators of new kinds of weapons who asked for his help, "but I’ve still done too little. I feel myself obliged to keep on working. We have to strengthen Russia’s security, and please remember – I am always here to help you."