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| Kalashnikov once aspired to design farm equipment. | AP Photo |
"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence," he said in 2007.
Kalashnikov died in a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic where he lived, said Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic's president. He did not give a cause of death. Kalashnikov had been hospitalized for the past month with unspecified health problems.
The AK-47 — "Avtomat Kalashnikov" and the year it went into production — is the world's most popular firearm, favored by guerrillas, terrorists and the soldiers of many armies. An estimated 100 million guns are spread worldwide.
Though it isn't especially accurate, its ruggedness and simplicity are exemplary: it performs in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons such as the U.S. M-16.
"During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers," Kalashnikov said in July 2007 at a ceremony marking the rifle's 60th anniversary.
The weapon's suitability for jungle and desert fighting made it nearly ideal for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union, and Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries.
The gun's status among revolutionaries and national-liberation struggles is enshrined on the flag of Mozambique.
Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, began his working life as a railroad clerk. After he joined the Red Army in 1938, he began to show mechanical flair by inventing several modifications for Soviet tanks.
The moment that firmly set his course was in the 1941 battle of Bryansk against Nazi forces, when a shell hit his tank. Recovering from wounds in the hospital, Kalashnikov brooded about the superior automatic rifles he'd seen the Nazis deploy; his rough ideas and revisions bore fruit five years later.
"Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer," said Kalashnikov. "I always wanted to construct agricultural machinery."
In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised him, saying "The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people."
Over his career, he was decorated with numerous honors, including the Hero of Socialist Labor and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize. But because his invention was never patented, he didn't get rich off royalties.
"At that time in our country patenting inventions wasn't an issue. We worked for Socialist society, for the good of the people, which I never regret," he once said.
Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer of the Izmash company that first built the AK-47. He also traveled the world helping Russia negotiate new arms deals, and he wrote books on his life, about arms and about youth education.
"After the collapse of the great and mighty Soviet Union so much crap has been imposed on us, especially on the younger generation," he said. "I wrote six books to help them find their way in life."
He said he was proud of his bronze bust installed in his native village of Kurya in the Siberian region of Altai. He said newlyweds bring flowers to the bust. "They whisper 'Uncle Misha, wish us happiness and healthy kids,'" he said. "What other gun designer can boast of that?"
--------------------10 things about Mikhail Kalashnikov
By ANDREA DRUSCH
Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47, died at age 94 Monday after a decorated career in the Russian military. His signature invention has been reproduced more than 100 million times since 2009, and is the world’s most popular firearm. Here are 10 things you should know about Mikhail Kalashnikov:
1. He aspired to be a poet. As a boy, Kalashnikov loved machinery but also had an affinity for poetry. He wrote poetry all his life, along with six books.
2. He once hitchhiked home to Russia. Kalashnikov was born in Kurya, Russia, but his family was deported to Siberia under the Stalin regime when he was a child. He left them to return to Kurya after the seventh grade, hitch-hiking nearly 1,000 kilometers, or more than 600 miles.
3. His son is also an arms dealer. Kalashnikov had four children with his engineer wife, Ekaterina Viktorovna Moiseyeva. Their youngest son, Victor, is a prominent small arms dealer who invented the PP-19 Bizon submachine gun.
4. He was injured in the military. Kalashnikov joined the military at 19 and served in the Russian tank division, where he invented improvements to the tanks. When he was injured by the Nazis in the Battle of Bryansk, he began working on weapons creation throughout his recovery.
5. The AK-47 is named after him. Kalashnikov’s signature invention, the AK-47 stands for “Avtomat Kalashnikov.” Avtomat is Russian for “automatic,” and 1947 was the year he invented it at age 28.
6. He has a line of vodka. Produced in St. Petersburg, Kalashnikov Vodka uses water from Lake Ladoga and is classified as a luxury export. It’s one degree stronger than regular vodka and sometimes called “military strength.”
7. He wasn’t motivated by money. Kalashnikov often said money wasn’t important to him but that he was motivated by service to his country. He was driven to design his first rifle by early Russian defeats in WWII to better-armed Germans. “I don’t like luxury,” he said. “I am after a simple decent life.”
8. He was a hunter. Kalashnikov took up hunting with his father to feed his family. He remained an avid hunter for the rest of his life, including a yearly moose hunting trip up into his 90s.
9. He had a big family. Kalashnikov was the 17th of 19 children born to his peasant parents. Only eight children survived to adulthood, and at age 6, Kalashnikov nearly died of illness himself.
10. He regretted terrorists getting hold of his inventions. At 82, Kalashnikov said he was proud of his invention, but that if he had it to do over again, he would invent something less destructive. “I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work — for example, a lawnmower,” he said. However, asked how he felt about sleeping knowing that many had died from his work, he answered: “‘I sleep very well, thank you.”
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