The Creator Of Kalashnikov AK-47 Rifle Turns 90: One Of A Kind Life Story
The infamous AK-47 rifle, a creation of the Soviet inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, has turned military thinking on its head. Light and unpretentious, yet effective and reliable, AK-47 has firmly established itself as a key weapon in the arsenals of over 100 different countries. But who was the man behind the notorious AK-47?
By now, Kalashnikov’s name has become a brand and an unofficial symbol of Russia. Many people still think Kalashnikov is the name of a military lab, not someone’s last name. It gives me shivers to think how many people have been killed with AK-47 over the years, but the life story of its creator -- Mikhail Kalashnikov is something that has always fascinated me. In a sense, he is the embodiment of the Soviet dream, which in analogy to the American dream, saw him rise from rags to riches. The seventeenth child in his family and a high school dropout, he achieved the popularity of an inventor of the most commonly used weapon in the world. And, it is his incredible life story that makes many Russians take personal pride in his invention.
His name was officially declassified only fifteen years ago and it was than that the world first saw a human face behind the powerful AK-47. Kalashnikov created his weapon in the trenches of World War II as a sergeant with virtually no technical background. But, his creation saw him rise in military ranks to general-lieutenant and earned him a Ph.D. in technical studies.
But, Kalashnikov is not your typical weapons designer. At 5 feet 3, Kalashnikov wrote poetry and says he would have become a writer if it was not for the War. He says he never profited from the sales of his rifle and always wished he would have rather invented a lawnmower…
And, at 90, he keeps on plugging away at his test lab in Izhevsk, getting up every morning to get to work and tickle his inventor’s bone. For his 90th birthday, President Dmitri Medvedev bestowed Russia’s highest honourary title upon Kalashnikov, the man who is one of the few remaining walking legends that modern Russia has inherited.
November 12th, 2009 - 16:21
Very nice article about great person.