By Lukas I. Alpert and
Stephen Miller
Updated Dec. 23, 2013 4:48 p.m. ET
Acclaimed a hero in the Soviet Union for creating the most popular assault rifle in history, Mikhail Kalashnikov was the namesake of the AK-47.
Mr. Kalashnikov died in Izhevsk on Monday at age 94, after a long illness, said Yelena Filatova, a spokeswoman for the gun's manufacturer, Kalashnikov Concern. She didn't give further details.
Mr. Kalashnikov said the automatic rifle was designed "to protect the motherland" after World War II. But the AK-47 and its descendants and knockoffs became mainstays for armies and guerrilla soldiers around the globe. Light, durable, cheap to manufacture and simple to maintain, the rifle creates a deadly spray of bullets without much of a kick.
The design of the Avtomat Kalashnikova—or Kalashnikov's automatic—spread widely after its rollout in 1949. It is estimated that 100 million have been produced.
Mr. Kalashnikov said he regretted that it became the weapon of choice for guerrilla armies. "It was like a genie out of the bottle, and it began to walk all on its own and in directions I did not want," he told Britain's Guardian newspaper in 2003. But he added, "I sleep soundly. The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics."
Mr. Kalashnikov's biography took on near-mythic proportions, propelled by a Communist media apparatus hungry for peasant heroes. He was the child of near-illiterate peasants, born in the remote region of Altai, where the family farmed, according to published reports.
But during Stalin's agricultural collectivization in 1930, his father was deemed a class enemy and the family lost its land. The father died soon after the family was deported to the Siberian region of Tomsk.
Short of stature and mechanically adept, Mr. Kalashnikov said he dreamed of becoming a poet. But as World War II got under way, he joined a tank brigade. Injured early in the war, he was assigned to a firearms lab.
Soviet engineers had developed a new, smaller gun cartridge, and after the war the Soviet Army declared a contest to design a gun to fire it. Working with a team, Mr. Kalashnikov created the winning design. He later married the project's draftswoman.
Mr. Kalashnikov became a national hero and subject of multiple biographies in Russian. He was twice named a Hero of Socialist Labor, one the U.S.S.R.'s highest honors, and in 2009 a Hero of the Russian Federation. He also served as a member of the Supreme Soviet, the U.S.S.R.'s rubber-stamp legislative body.
He continued to work into his 80s as the chief designer and a consultant at the arms factory in Izhevsk, Russia, where the AK-47 was first manufactured.
The rifle's use shows no signs of flagging. In the fall of 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had ordered an upgraded version of the AK-47.
"Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer," Mr. Kalashnikov said in 2007 at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the gun.
Stephen Miller
Updated Dec. 23, 2013 4:48 p.m. ET
Acclaimed a hero in the Soviet Union for creating the most popular assault rifle in history, Mikhail Kalashnikov was the namesake of the AK-47.
Mr. Kalashnikov died in Izhevsk on Monday at age 94, after a long illness, said Yelena Filatova, a spokeswoman for the gun's manufacturer, Kalashnikov Concern. She didn't give further details.
Mr. Kalashnikov said the automatic rifle was designed "to protect the motherland" after World War II. But the AK-47 and its descendants and knockoffs became mainstays for armies and guerrilla soldiers around the globe. Light, durable, cheap to manufacture and simple to maintain, the rifle creates a deadly spray of bullets without much of a kick.
The design of the Avtomat Kalashnikova—or Kalashnikov's automatic—spread widely after its rollout in 1949. It is estimated that 100 million have been produced.
Mr. Kalashnikov said he regretted that it became the weapon of choice for guerrilla armies. "It was like a genie out of the bottle, and it began to walk all on its own and in directions I did not want," he told Britain's Guardian newspaper in 2003. But he added, "I sleep soundly. The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics."
Mr. Kalashnikov's biography took on near-mythic proportions, propelled by a Communist media apparatus hungry for peasant heroes. He was the child of near-illiterate peasants, born in the remote region of Altai, where the family farmed, according to published reports.
But during Stalin's agricultural collectivization in 1930, his father was deemed a class enemy and the family lost its land. The father died soon after the family was deported to the Siberian region of Tomsk.
Short of stature and mechanically adept, Mr. Kalashnikov said he dreamed of becoming a poet. But as World War II got under way, he joined a tank brigade. Injured early in the war, he was assigned to a firearms lab.
Soviet engineers had developed a new, smaller gun cartridge, and after the war the Soviet Army declared a contest to design a gun to fire it. Working with a team, Mr. Kalashnikov created the winning design. He later married the project's draftswoman.
Mr. Kalashnikov became a national hero and subject of multiple biographies in Russian. He was twice named a Hero of Socialist Labor, one the U.S.S.R.'s highest honors, and in 2009 a Hero of the Russian Federation. He also served as a member of the Supreme Soviet, the U.S.S.R.'s rubber-stamp legislative body.
He continued to work into his 80s as the chief designer and a consultant at the arms factory in Izhevsk, Russia, where the AK-47 was first manufactured.
The rifle's use shows no signs of flagging. In the fall of 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had ordered an upgraded version of the AK-47.
"Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer," Mr. Kalashnikov said in 2007 at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the gun.
