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MIKHAIL KALASHNIKOV
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BIOGRAPHY OF MIKHAIL KALASHNIKOV
Mikhail Kalashnikov has gone down in the history
of small arms as the creator of the world's best assault rifle and also as
the designer who was the first in the world to develop and make
operational an array of unified automatic small arms models, based on the
identical automatic action, design and operating principle.
Characteristically, back in the early 1920s, the famous Russian designer
V. G. Fedorov, creator of the world's first assault rifle (1916), assisted
by young Soviet designers, substantiated theoretically and developed
unified experimental models of light automatic machine-guns, aircraft
machine-guns, an antiaircraft machine-gun, tank machine-gun and heavy
machine-gun based on his assault rifle design. V.G. Fedorov's idea of
unifying the automatic small arms was partially implemented in practice by
V.A.'Degtyarev, who developed two aircraft and one tank machine-gun, based
on his DA light machine-gun and the machine-guns that entered service with
the Russian Armed Forces. In the second half of the 20th century, Mikhail
Kalashnikov, relying on the achievements of outstanding national designers
and advanced technology, made the most use of Fedorov's idea. The
unification had beneficial economic and production outcome and expedited
the mastering of new types of small arms weapons in the field. Thus, in
our country the unification concept was substantiated, experimental
developments were made, the first combat models were produced and,
finally, the extensive unification of combat automatic small arms was
realized in practice.
Mikhail Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919,
in the village of Kurya, Altai Territory, to a peasant family. Mikhail was
the seventeenth child of Timofel and Alexandra Kalashnikov. On finishing
the 9th form of a secondary school, Kalashnikov went to work in the Matai
depot as an apprentice and was subsequently a technical clerk in the
employ of a Turkistan-Sibenan railway department.
In 1938, Kalashnikov was called up for military
service, served in the Kiev special military district and graduated from a
school of tank drivers. During his service, Kalashnikov showed his worth
in invention. He devised an inertia revolution counter to register the
number of actual shots from a tank gun, made a special appliance for the
TT pistol to enhance fire effectiveness through tank turret slits and
designed a tank running time meter.
In June I94I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, as an inventor,
was sent by military district commander General of the Army G.K. Zhukov to
Leningrad to implement his recent invention. From
the outset of the Great Patriotic War senior sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov
fought against fascist invaders as a tank commander. In October 1941 he
was seriously wounded in the violent battle of Bryansk.
While in hospital, Kalashnikov conceived the idea
of a submachine gun. Later, while on a six-month sick leave, he came to
the Matai depot and, assisted by the depot personnel, realized his
invention is the depot shops. With the submachine gun he left for
Alma-Ata. Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Kaishingulov sent
the inventor to the Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute which had been
evacuated to Alma-Ata. A second model of Kalashnikov's submachine gun was
devised and made in the shops of the Institute aviation ordnance
department. In June 1942 the model was sent for reference to the
Dzerzhinsky Ordnance Academy located in Samarkand.
A.A Blagonravov, an outstanding Soviet small arms
specialist, displayed interest in senior sergeant Kalashnikov's submachine
gun, Although the submachine gun was not recommended for service, the
talent, efforts and original design approaches of the self-taught designer
were highly appreciated. In 1942 Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central
Research Small Arms Range of the Main Ordnance Directorate of the Red
Army.
In 1944 Mikhail Kalashnikov devised a prototype of
the self-loading carbine; its main assemblies were used as a basis for an
assault rifle made in 1946. In 1947, Kalashnikov's updated assault rifle
displayed high reliability and fire effectiveness during arduous
competitive tests and was found best. In 1949, after modifications, the
assault rifle, designated "Kalashnikov 7.62mm assault rifle, make
1947 (AK)," became operational in the Soviet Army and Mikhail
Kalashnikov received the Stalin Prize First Class.
Since 1949 Mikhail Kalashnikov has been living and
working in Izhevsk. He worked his way up from soldier to General Designer
of small arms in the Soviet Army.
Between 1950 and 1970, a series of unified small
arms weapons developed by Kalashnikov-AKM, AKMS, AK-74, AKS-74, AK-74U,
RPK, RPRS, RPK-74, RPKS-74, PK, PKS, PKM, PKSM, PKT, PKTM, PKB, PKMB-were
adopted. The Soviet government highly appraised Kalashnikov's contribution
to the defense might of the country; he was twice honored as Hero of
Socialist Labor (1958 and 1976), won the Stalin Prize (1949) and granted
Doctor's degree (1971) and promoted to the rank of Colonel (1969), awarded
three Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Order of the
Patriotic War First Class, Order of the Red Star and many medals of the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Since 1980 Mikhail Kalashnikov has been a citizen
of honor in his native village of Kurya, where a bronze bust was set up,
as he was twice awarded Hero of Socialist Labor. Since 1987 he has been an
honorable citizen of Izhevsk. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the
great designer, Russia's President Boris Yeltsin himself invested Mikhail
Kalashnikov with the Order "For Distinguished Services for the
Motherland" Second Class and promoted him to Major-General.
The automatic weapons of the Kalashnikov system
are widely used the world over. Since 1990, after the breakup of the USSR
and Socialis Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Kalashnikov small arms
have been extensively or partially operational in the armies, used by
special-task forces or manufactured for export to the following countries:
Albania, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Armenia, Angola, Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Belarus, Benin, Bulgaria, Bolivia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Botswana,
Hungary, Vietnam, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea - Bissau, Haiti,
Gambia, Guyana, Honduras, Georgia, Djibouti, Egypt, Zaire, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, North Yemen, South Yemen, Israel, India, Indonesia, Jordan,
Iraq, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Campuchia, Cape Verde, China, Qatar,
Colombia, Comoros, Congo, North Korea, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia,
Lesotho, Lebanon, Lybia, Lithuania, Mauritania, Madagascar, Macedonia,
Mali, Maldives, Malta, Morocco, Mozambique, Moldova, Namibia, Nigeria, the
Netherlands, Nicaragua, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Peru, Poland,
Portugal, Russia, Romania, Swaziland, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles,
Slovakia, Slavonia, Syria, Somali, Sudan, Surinam, Sierra Leone,
Tajikistan. Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan,
Uganda, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, the Philippines, Finland, Croatia, Czechia,
Sweden, Sri Lanka, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia. South Africa and
Yugoslavia According to various sources, about 70 million Kalashnikov
assault rifles of various modifications were manufactured by the middle of
1990, both in our country and abroad, including those made under license
and piratically(for the invention made in the1940s Kalashnikov has still
not held a patent).
Kalashnikov small arms are extremely popular
throughout the world Asserting that the AK assault rifle helped them gain
sovereignty, some countries included its representation in their national
emblems, while in others newborn boys are named "Kalash."
What is behind the unprecedented popularity of the
Kalashnikov assault rifle and its modifications, as manifested in a
heraldic symbol?
Mikhail Kalashnikov has obtained an optimum
combination of a number of features of the weapon, ensuring its high
firing effectiveness and reliability. These include the short locking
assembly, balanced bolt, unseating of the cartridge case after shot,
preventing failure during extraction of fired cases, insensitivity to
contamination and trouble-free operation in any climatic conditions.
The automatic weapons of the Kalashnikov system
have been the focus of home and foreign historians concerned with arms.
Many world military historical museums made a collection of his weapon
models. They are primarily standard weapons adopted for service at
different times in different countries. The most considerable collection
of experimental and standard small arms, developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov
during 1942-1990, is kept in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery,
Engineer Troops and Communications in St. Petersburg, the oldest military
museum of Russia, until 1964 generally known as the Artillery Historical
Museum.
The collection was saved by the museum, thanks to
the persistence of the Main Ordnance Directorate command. A considerable
reduction of the Soviet Armed Forces in 1959 led to the abandonment of the
Research Small Arms Range, where all innovatory models of small arms for
armed forces had been tested from 1920. The collection of small arms
devised by Soviet designers between 1920 and 1959 was contributed to the
fund of the Artillery Historical Museum in Leningrad. Naturally, the
museum collected all standard models of the Kalashnikov system, which
became operational in the Soviet Army in the period of 1949-1980. The
Museum also collected all Kalashnikov systems and modifications adopted
and manufactured abroad. However, today things do not look so promising.
Only 31 models out of a variety of previously and currently world-produced
modifications of Kalashnikov automatic small arms have been collected.
A second collection amassed at the Izhmash JSC in
Izhevsk, where Mikhail Kalashnikov has headed a design bureau since 1949.
The Izhevsk collection comprises mostly systems developed by Kalashnikov
after 1960. |
