Kalashnikov died in a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic where he lived, said Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic's president.

One has to respect what Kalashnikov created. It's truly a tool, by every definition and one that just plain works.

He also made it to the ripe old age of 94 in the former People's Republic...dang.

Matt

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Moore:
He also made it to the ripe old age of 94 in the former People's Republic...dang.

Matt

Hopefully that's a helluva lotta Vodka and Czek mail-order blonds!

He also said that for as much money as he made off the AK-47 design, he should have invented a lawnmower. He made very little off the design. He was in the USSR, too many young people don't remember that.

Like Browning, his designs will live long after him.

http://abcnews.go.com/Internat...tent-letter-21514870



AK-47 Designer Kalashnikov Wrote Penitent Letter

MOSCOW January 13, 2014 (AP)

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press

Associated Press

In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.

The Russian daily Izvestia on Monday published the letter, in which Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, told Patriarch Kirill that he kept asking himself if he was responsible. The AK-47 is the world's most popular firearm, with an estimated 100 million spread around the world.

"The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people's lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ... son of a farmer and Orthodox Christian am responsible for people's deaths," he said in the letter.

Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind.

"The longer I live, the more often that question gets into my brain, the deeper I go in my thoughts and guesses about why the Almighty allowed humans to have devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression," Kalashnikov continued. "Everything changes, only a man and his thinking remain unchanged: he's just as greedy, evil, heartless and restless as before!"

Kalashnikov's daughter, Elena, was quoted by Izvestia as saying that a local priest could have helped her father write the two-page letter, which was typed and carried his signature.

The rifle's simplicity and reliability made it a weapon of choice for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union. Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries. The gun's cult status among revolutionaries and national-liberation fighters is enshrined on the flag of Mozambique.

The letter, which was sent in April, contrasted sharply with past statements by Kalashnikov, who had repeatedly said in interviews and public speeches that he created the weapon to protect his country and couldn't be blamed for other people's action.

"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence," the designer told The Associated Press in 2007.

The church sought to comfort him with exactly same argument. Izvestia quoted Kirill's spokesman Alexander Volkov as saying the Patriarch responded to Kalashnikov and praised him as a true patriot.

"If the weapon is used to defend the Motherland, the Church supports both its creators and the servicemen using it," the newspaper quoted Volkov as saying.

In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised Kalashnikov's weapon as a "symbol of the creative genius of our people." Putin attended Kalashnikov's burial at a memorial military cemetery just outside Moscow.

While it's not especially accurate, Kalashnikov's rifle can perform in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons such as the U.S. M-16.

"During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers," Kalashnikov said at a 2007 ceremony marking the rifle's 60th anniversary.

Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, first showed his designer skills when he invented some modifications for Soviet tanks while serving as a Red Army conscript. He was badly wounded in a 1941 battle with the Nazis and first started designing of a new automatic rifle while he was recovering in the hospital.

Kalashnikov received numerous honors, including the Hero of Socialist Labor and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize, but never got rich because his invention was never patented.

Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer of the Izmash company that first built the AK-47. He started travelling the world in the waning days of the Soviet Union, serving as a living symbol of Russian prowess in making weapons and helping negotiate new arms deals.

In his letter to the Patriarch, Kalashnikov said that at 91 he began visiting a church in the city of Izhevsk where he worked and died, adding words of praise for the Russian Orthodox Church.

I don't believe to "Izvestia"

I do not believe that the AK-47 was ever used by anyone in the former USSR countries to "Defend" it.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I do not believe that the AK-47 was ever used by anyone in the former USSR countries to "Defend" it.

You may well be correct, Rich. The AK-47 carbine was invented in 1946 and became general issue in 1947.

It was not a weapon used to defend the USSR in WWII which ended in 1945...that honor goes to the SKS, a mainly Simonov design, not a Kalashnikov. Even more predominant in Soviet/Russian hands was the very old Moisin-Nagant bolt action rifle.

The AK47 DID play a large role in enslaving much of eastern Europe, and was used in many other instances such as against us in Vietnam.

Understand that to the Soviet Russkies that was all "defense of the motherland" by building border states as defensive buffer zones against the West.

There is no doubt the West avidly wished for Communism to fail and even invaded Russia a couple of times after WWI to try to accomplish its overthrow. The U.S was heavily involved in both invasions, both of which were defeated by the Russians and their allies.

So, I guess it is natural they believe their later aggressions were "defensive". To a large extent, they were.

i wonder why they didnt atacck RUSSIA,hthat would be disaster for west

quote:

Originally posted by TEUTONIC:
i wonder why they didnt attack RUSSIA,that would be disaster for west

The U.S.A. DID attack Russia, twice. That's what I was saying above.

One of those attacks was through Siberia...something known to American historians as the American Expeditionary Force to Siberia... There were 13 other Allied nations helping the American Force (mostly in name only...they provided almost nothing by way of tangible assistance).

The other U.S. attack on the Russian mainland was with the British at Archangelsk, reached via Murmansk. The U.S. only sent one Army division to Archangelsk (known by the West as Archangel) and the British sent larger Army & Royal Navy forces. Both times we got our butts kicked because of not being equipped or trained for fighting in temps of -80° of Frost, having no clear cut objectives or battle plan, and totally unsustainable supply lines...not to mention totally inadequate leadership and no public support for the attacks.

(Kind of like Vietnam, eh?)

Those invasions are a major reason why the Russians have never fully trusted either British or American motives ever since.

if hitler couldnt with all his strenght,no one else will take over russia

Today's China MIGHT defeat today's Russia, at least for a while...but I sure as Hell hope they never try. The ensuing 30 years of all out and then guerilla war would ruin the whole world completely.

(The Chinese could lose a BILLION men and still have a Billion men and a Billion women left....in a war of attrition the Russians would inevitably lose, but it would be unparalleled carnage for everyone for many, many years.)

Another internet source stated that after his death, Kalashnikov was run over by a truck, buried in mud for a week, then dug up, shaken off and put back to work.

Lest it be taken the wrong way, I repeat that joke out of respect, rather than disrespect.