Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at 94; creator of the AK-47 assault rifle
Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47, sometimes called the Kalashnikov, became the world's most ubiquitous weapon. For the most part, Kalashnikov defended his brainchild, designed 'for the glory of the Soviet army.' But he admitted: 'I am sad that terrorists use it.'
Interviewers always asked Mikhail Kalashnikov the same question and he always gave the same answer: Yes, he could sleep at night. Quite easily, thank you.
Kalashnikov, creator of the AK-47, a cheap, simple, rugged assault rifle that became the weapon of choice for more than 50 standing armies as well as drug lords, street gangs, revolutionaries, terrorists, pirates and thugs the world over, died Monday at a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, according to a government spokesman. Kalashnikov was 94.
Over six decades, the AK-47 — sometimes called the Kalashnikov — became a staple in guerrilla raids and gang drive-bys. It was so easy to operate that children as well as professional soldiers could fire 650 deadly bursts per minute.
In Vietnam, the Viet Cong used AK-47s while moisture and muck sometimes jammed more precise American M16s. In Rwanda, some 800,000 Tutsi villagers were slaughtered with machetes and AK-47s. With its distinctive banana-shaped clip, the weapon was a favorite of Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, who had one nearby in almost every photograph. In Africa, Mozambique placed a silhouetted AK-47 on its flag, crossed with a hoe.
A diminutive, white-haired man with the honorary rank of general, Kalashnikov was revered throughout Russia and the other republics of the former Soviet Union. A Kalashnikov museum in Izhevsk, the once-closed industrial city in the Urals where he spent much of his career, draws 10,000 visitors a month. Anniversaries of the gun's 1947 birth are duly noted; at a ceremony for its 60thbirthday in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it "a symbol of the creative genius of our people".
In a November interview with the Los Angeles Times, Russian arms expert Igor Korotchenko called Kalashnikov one of the greatest weapons designers of all time.
"If Colt designed a handgun which made all Americans equal, Kalashnikov invented a weapon which made it possible for many countries to fight for their independence and win it," said Korotchenko, a retired Russian colonel who edits Nastionalnaya Oborona, a Moscow-based national defense magazine.
Historians say the AK-47 and its spinoffs changed combat forever. While they aren't as accurate as other guns or as effective at long distances, they weigh only eight pounds and have few moving parts. Child soldiers can take them apart and put them back together in 30 seconds. They can tolerate sand, grit, mud and humidity. They work just as well in jungle and swamp as on city streets.
"Together these traits meant that once this weapon was distributed, the small-statured, the mechanically disinclined, the dimwitted and the untrained might be able to wield, with little difficulty or instruction, a lightweight automatic rifle that could push out blistering fire for the lengths of two or three football fields," wrote journalist C.J. Chivers in "The Gun", his 2010 book about the AK-47.
On top of that, the AK-47 — short for Avtomat Kaloshnikova 1947 — is everywhere. It can be purchased in some countries for "less than the cost of a live chicken," according to author Larry Kahaner. By some estimates, it is the world's most abundant firearm, with one for every 70 of the men, women and children on Earth.
Its spread "helps explain why, since World War II, so many 'small wars' have lingered far beyond the months and years one might expect," Kahaner wrote in the Washington Post. "Indeed, for all the billions of dollars Washington has spent on space-age weapons and military technology, the AK still remains the most devastating weapon on the planet, transforming conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq."
In news reports over the years, Kalashnikov appeared to be of mixed minds about his brainchild. At one point, he spoke of establishing a fund for gunshot victims.
"I am proud of my weapon but I am sad that terrorists use it," he told the Russian online publication newsru.com in 2009. "I wish I had invented a machine which people could use, which could do good for farmers — for example, a sowing machine."
But for the most part, he vigorously defended his namesake weapon.
"I designed the Kalashnikov for my motherland, for the glory of the Soviet army," he said, choking with emotion during a 1997 interview with the Moscow Times. "If it has fallen into the wrong hands, that is not my business."
In his later years, Kalashnikov was pleased to learn that former rebels in Africa were naming their firstborn sons "Kalash."
And he was proud that his tiny hometown on the Russian steppes had erected a bronze bust of its most famous son.
Newlyweds dropped by to lay flowers beside it, he told the Associated Press in 2007.
"They whisper, 'Uncle Misha, wish us happiness and healthy kids,'" he said. "What other gun designer can boast of that?"
Born on Nov. 10, 1919, in Kurya, a remote village in south central Russia, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was one of 18 children. Only eight survived to adulthood.
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