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Mikhail Kalashnikov He Created the AK-47. Then Asked God for Forgiveness.
“More than a hundred million copies of his rifle have been made. Near the end of his life, he wrote a letter, asking if he was guilty.”
Mikhail Kalashnikov was born in 1919 in a Siberian village, the 17th of 19 children, and dreamed of becoming a poet. His family was branded kulak and deported. In 1941 he was a tank commander when Germany invaded, and he was badly wounded. In hospital he heard soldiers complain about their weapons, and he began to design a better one. The AK-47 (1947) was simple, cheap and kept working in mud, sand and snow. The Soviet Union gave it to its allies and helped them build factories; the copies followed. Today it is the most widespread rifle on Earth, and it is even on the flag of Mozambique. Kalashnikov said he did it for his country, not for money. Near the end of his life he wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church: "My spiritual pain is unbearable." He died in December 2013, aged 94.
Who is to blame: the man who designs a weapon, or the people who use it?
The facts behind this file
What the record shows
- About 100 million AK-family rifles had been made by 2009, around half of them counterfeit (an estimate).
- He was born in Kurya, Altai, the seventeenth of 19 children, and wrote poetry all his life. In 1930 his family was labelled 'kulak' and deported.
- As a tank commander he was wounded at Bryansk in October 1941; in hospital he heard soldiers complain about unreliable rifles.
- In a letter to Patriarch Kirill, published by Izvestia in January 2014, he asked whether he was guilty for the deaths his rifle caused.
Legends, disputes & careful wording
- Sources differ on when he wrote the letter (2012, or about six months before his death).
- The often-repeated claim that the AK has killed more people than artillery and the atomic bombs is not supported, and the episode does not use it.
Main sources
- Izvestia (January 2014)
- Wikipedia: Mikhail Kalashnikov
Spotted a mistake or know a better source? Tell us.
Further reading
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Image & film credits
- Film: "Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia" (1943, US War Department), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Photos (Wikimedia Commons): Kalashnikov portraits by the Russian Ministry of Defence (CC BY 4.0) and the Press Service of the President of Russia (CC BY 4.0); Kalashnikov at an event (ambrett, CC BY 2.0); Patriarch Kirill (kremlin.ru / Igor Palkin, CC BY 4.0); Izhevsk aerial view and the Kalashnikov Museum (Vyacheslav Bukharov, CC BY-SA 4.0); flag of Mozambique (Aerra Carnicom, CC BY-SA 4.0). Public domain: a T-34 tank in Lwów (1942), AK-47 (US DoD), captured rifles in Khost (US DoD), Somali National Army soldiers, Cuban girl disassembling an AK-47.
- Video clips from Pexels. Narration and music made for this video. No sound effects.
