A fascinating story of a Russian weapons designer Mikhail Kalashnikov whose famous AK-47 automatic rifle influenced the course of numerous conflicts worldwide.
If I were to ask you, and you had to answer immediately, “What is the deadliest weapon of the 20th century?” many of you would intuitively say, “Obviously, the atomic bomb.” You would be partially right.
It’s only natural to first recall the most striking events. And what is more indelibly etched into the minds of people from the history of warfare than atomic explosions? When the United States dropped two bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the death toll reached around 200,000, and for many decades afterward—and even today—the entire world has lived in fear of another such use of these weapons.
Yet, while atomic weapons served as a deterrent, numerous conventional conflicts and wars were raging. In these, the world-renowned Kalashnikov, also known as the AK-47, a weapon designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947, reigned supreme as the deadliest conventional weapon of the 20th century. It earned this title primarily because of its widespread use and the huge number of casualties associated with it over time. Estimates put the death toll in the millions.
The proliferation of the AK-47 assault rifle:
In terms of cumulative loss of life, the AK-47 can indeed be considered deadlier than any nuclear weapon, because it has continually appeared in global conflicts since its inception. Although it does not inflict massive casualties all at once like a nuclear bomb, its extensive and prolonged use has contributed to a greater number of victims over time.
It is likely the most widespread assault rifle in the world. An estimated 100 million AK-type rifles have been produced—half of them outside Russia, many under invalid Soviet-era licenses or with no license at all. Incidentally, its creator never received a single cent for his invention, as it was never patented.
(Image below: The exhibition of the Kalashnikov Museum and the small arms exhibition complex in Izhevsk. A permanent exhibition.)
But what is the history of this weapon, and what became of its creator? That is what we’ll look at today.
The Life of Inventor and Poet Mikhail Kalashnikov
Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in the small town of Kurya, the seventeenth child of peasant farmers Timofey Alexandrovich Kalashnikov and Alexandra Frolovna Kalashnikova. In total, they had nineteen children, but only eight survived to adulthood. And it was a close call that Mikhail himself didn’t die young. He suffered from various illnesses, and at the age of six, one of them nearly cost him his life.
Even today, this is an extremely remote and harsh region. Mikhail’s birthplace is located near the border with Kazakhstan and China in the southern part of Siberia. To give you an idea, Moscow is more than 4,000 kilometers away.
From an early age, it was apparent that he was interested in all sorts of machines, yet he was not a narrowly focused individual. He wrote poetry and dreamed of becoming a poet. Later in life, he wrote six books and continued writing poetry throughout his life.
In 1930, the family’s property was confiscated, and his father and most of the family were deported as “kulaks” to the village of Nizhnyaya Mokhovaya in the Tomsk region. After the deportation, the family had to combine farming with hunting, and as a teenager, Mikhail often used his father’s rifle. Kalashnikov, by the way, continued hunting well into his 90s.
After finishing the seventh grade, Mikhail received permission to leave his family and return to Kurya on foot, walking nearly 1,000 kilometers. Afterward, he found work as a mechanic at a tractor station.
The Path to the Army
A party organizer at the factory soon noticed Mikhail’s skill and recommended him for a position at a nearby weapons design office, where he worked as a tester. In 1938, he was drafted into the Red Army.
Thanks to his engineering abilities, he served as a tank mechanic and later became a tank commander. Even during training, he created his first inventions, which involved not only tanks but also small arms, and he was personally commended by Georgy Zhukov.
In October 1941, he was wounded in battle against the Germans at Bryansk and remained hospitalized until April 1942. During his entire hospital stay, he listened to many of his wounded comrades complain about their current weapons—how they malfunctioned and were unreliable. Thus, as soon as he was released, he set to work on what would become the famous AK-47 assault rifle.
The Birth of the Famous Weapon
Kalashnikov’s initial idea was clear. He decided to design a reliable, simple, and effective firearm for the Red Army.
Although his first design for a new submachine gun was not accepted by the army’s leadership, his talent as a designer did not go unnoticed. From 1942 onward, Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central Scientific-Development Firing Range for Rifle Arms under the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.
The development process culminated in 1947, when he designed the AK-47 (short for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947). In 1949, the AK became the standard assault rifle of the Soviet Army, securing Kalashnikov’s most famous invention.
It’s noteworthy that throughout the entire process of developing his first assault rifles, Kalashnikov competed against two much more experienced weapons designers, Vasily Degtyaryov and Georgy Shpagin, who eventually acknowledged the AK-47’s superiority.
The weapon that would become an icon had been created. Mikhail Kalashnikov continued his work. He earned a doctorate in technical sciences. Later he developed modernized, lighter, and cheaper-to-produce versions of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. Over his career, Kalashnikov designed about 150 models of small arms.
Kalashnikov always maintained that his motivation was service to his homeland, not making money. The Soviet Union honored him with the Stalin Prize, the Order of the Red Star, and the Order of Lenin. In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised the Kalashnikov rifle as a “symbol of the creative genius of the Russian people.” Mikhail Kalashnikov died a national hero in 2013 at the age of 94.
In November 2013, a museum dedicated to him was opened in his hometown of Kurya, housed in a century-old wooden school building where Kalashnikov had once studied.
The Creator’s Doubts
Although Kalashnikov felt regret over the uncontrolled distribution of his weapons, he was proud of his inventions and their reliability. He always emphasized that his rifle was a “defensive weapon” and not an “offensive” one.
Allegedly, a year and a half before his death, he wrote a letter to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, expressing remorse for having created what is probably the world’s most widespread firearm. He pondered his guilt over the deaths caused by his weapon, even if they involved enemies. However, the authenticity of this letter remains in doubt.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/technology/AK-47
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47
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