Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov (??????? ??????????? ???????????, born November 10, 1919) is a famous Russian gun designer. Born in a poor peasant family he started his engineering career working at a train depot, where Kalashnikov was able to learn much about mechanics. In 1941 he was drafted into the Red Army and served as a tank commander during the first months of the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941 Kalashnikov was heavily wounded in combat and sent home from the frontlines. He started to create his first gun designs in a hospital and soon joined a depot's workshop of the Moscow Aviation Institute. While working there Kalashnikov produced a number of innovations for tanks, including a mechanism that would count the number of shots fired. Within several years, he was promoted to the position of chief engineer and given far more resources to work with. In 1947, he designed the AK-47 (an acronym for "Avtomat Kalashnikov model 1947"). In 1949 the AK-47 assault rifle became operational in the Red Army; after this the design would become Kalashnikov's most famous invention.

Related Topics:
November 10 - 1919 - Russian - Engineering - Mechanics - Red Army - Great Patriotic War - Moscow Aviation Institute - Tanks - 1947 - AK-47 - Acronym - 1949 - Assault rifle

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Kalashnikov who started as a self-taught-inventor ascended to the prominent position of General Designer of small arms for the Soviet Army. In his design engineering department, Hugo Schmeisser and Dr. Gruner (MG 42), a pioneer in the area of the sheet metal embossing technology, worked into the 1950s. In addition, a number of German laborers were enlisted or coerced to work in the USSR under the technical designer.

Related Topics:
Soviet Army - Hugo Schmeisser - Dr. Gruner - MG 42 - 1950s

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Later in his career he developed a squad automatic weapon variant of the AK-47, known as the RPK (Ruchnoi Pulemyot Kalashnikova - Kalashnikov's Light Machinegun), and also the PK (Pulemyot Kalashnikova - Kalashnikov's Machinegun), which used a much larger cartridge (the same full-powered rifle cartridge as employed in the Mosin-Nagant rifle). The cartridge was belt-fed rather than magazine-fed. In other respects, it was nearly the same design. These designs were not as popular as the AK series, which is still widely used.

Related Topics:
Squad automatic weapon - AK-47 - RPK - Mosin-Nagant - Rifle - Cartridge

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Since 1949 Mikhail Kalashnikov has been living and working in his native town of Izhevsk.

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Mikhail Kalashnikov was awarded twice the title of Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1998 he was awarded an Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclet (????? ??????? ?????? ?????????????). His military rank is lieutenant-general. He is a Doctor of Technical Sciences.

Related Topics:
Hero of Socialist Labour - 1998 - Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclet

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His son later became a weapons designer, and lost in the recent "Abakan" design competition which saw the adoption of the AN-94 Nikonov rifle by the Russian army.

Related Topics:
Weapon - AN-94 - Russian army

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