Inventor of the AK-47 rifle, dies aged 94

[NP99]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-2...ged-94/5173370

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of iconic AK-47 automatic rifle, has died aged 94.

Kalashnikov designed a weapon that became synonymous with killing on a sometimes indiscriminate scale, but was seen in the Soviet Union as a national hero and symbol of Moscow's proud military past.

He was admitted to hospital last month with internal bleeding, and died on Monday (local time) according to a spokesman for the central Russian Udmurtia region. No cause of death was given.

In 2009 he was awarded the Hero of Russia gold star medal for creating what was described as "the national brand every Russian is proud of.


The Kalashnikov is officially in service in 55 countries.

Several national emblems feature the rifle, and some boys in developing nations have been named Kalash after it.

In 1973, Chile's communist president Salvador Allende died holding an AK-47 - a gift from Soviet-backed Cuban leader Fidel Castro - in a coup staged by pro-US general Augusto Pinochet.

Thirty years later, invading US troops found a gold-plated Kalashnikov reportedly given to Saddam Hussein's son Uday at one of the Iraqi leader's palaces in Baghdad.

Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader killed in 2011, posed with a Kalashnikov in videotaped diatribes against the West.

Bearded Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Liberia's gangs of young thugs wearing flip-flops, Somali hijackers and South American guerrillas - all seem to admire the rifle that enthusiasts say continues to work in dust, sand and swampland.

Kalashnikov had said he never intended for the rifle to become the preferred weapon in conflicts around the world.

He said it was politicians that killed people, not his rifle, and that it saddened him to see the firearm fall into the hands of criminals and child soldiers.

"I created a weapon to defend the fatherland's borders. It's not my fault that it was sometimes used where it shouldn't have been. This is the fault of politicians," he said during an award ceremony at the Kremlin to mark his 90th birthday.

AK-47's name stands for "Kalashnikov's Automatic" and the year it was designed, 1947. Also called the "Kalashnikov", the rifle and its variants are the weapons of choice for dozens of armies and guerrilla groups around the world.

More than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles, which rarely jam even in adverse conditions, have been sold worldwide and they are wielded by fighters in such far-flung conflict zones as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

But their inventor, a World War II veteran, has barely profited financially from them and lived modestly in Izhevsk, an industrial town 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) east of Moscow.

Kalshnikov once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower.

The Izmash factory that was the home manufacturer of the weapon in Udmurtia has now fallen on hard times after a collapse in orders following the fall of the USSR, a fact that prompted Kalashnikov to make a personal appeal to president Vladimir Putin.

Design inspiration came in hospital after WWII wounding

Born in a Siberian village as the 17th child of his family on November 10, 1919, Kalashnikov had a tragic childhood during which his father was deported under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1930.

Wounded during combat in 1941, Kalashnikov designed his rifle in 1947, driven by Soviet defeats in the early years of World War II at the hands of better-armed German soldiers.

[threedogs]

Only 28 when he designed it, a guy ahead of his time, I've heard that name heaps of times,
Thanks NP99

[NP99]

I got to fire 10 rounds from one in Vietnam. For an old beat up weapon it was very accurate. The boys in Afghanistan have picked up a few and rate them we'll too.....

[growler2058]

Ive fired one when on Holidays in Thailand. It was an old beast of a thing. And a 1911 Colt that also was as old as the hills

[Hodge]

Fired a few when I was a kid back in Europe. Back then we just knew them as Kalashnikov's, nobody ever called them Ak-47's. Ofcourse it being so common there to me it was just a gun, unaware of how significant the machine actually was throughout there world.

[rottodiver]

i had a bit of fun shooting one when i was in albania.... incredible power!!!

[threedogs]

If only he'd used his invention for good instead of evil.
They say Mr Diesel died broke too
being dumb about rifles but how many rounds a seconds please

[NP99]

Tab data

Cartridge: 7.62x39mm
Feed: Magazine
Magazine Capacity: 30 rounds
Gas operated
Weight: 9.5 lbs
Length: 34.2 inches
Length (folded stock): 27.5 inches
Rate of fire semiautomatic: 40 rpm
Rate of fire automatic: 100 rpm
Rate of fire cyclic: 600-800 rpm
Maximum effective range: 400 meters

[XT43]

Got to fire one, amongst others, in Vegas.

Instructor pointed to the holes in the roof of the firing range and said they were from this bad boy as he handed me the AK47 when people weren't ready for the kick.

It was instant love of the power of getting to fire one.

[NP99]

A soldier proof weapon proven in battle...