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.

External links

• Biography
• Biography
• 'I sleep soundly' - Interview with and article on Mikhail Kalashnikov at the age of 83, from The Guardian newspaper.
• The Biography of the Main Gun Designer Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov - Official biography
• Automat Kalaschnikow film documented the man and his machine