1. Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was a Soviet and Russian lieutenant general, inventor, military engineer, writer, and small arms designer.
19 Facts About Mikhail Kalashnikov
1. 2.
Mikhail Kalashnikov is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the RPK light machine gun and PK machine gun.
3.
Mikhail Kalashnikov was attracted to all kinds of machinery, but wrote poetry, dreaming of becoming a poet.
4.
Mikhail Kalashnikov later went on to write six books and continued to write poetry all of his life.
5.
Mikhail Kalashnikov was wounded in combat in the Battle of Bryansk in October 1941 and hospitalised until April 1942.
6.
From 1942 onwards, Mikhail Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central Scientific-developmental Firing Range for Rifle Firearms of the Chief Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.
7.
Mikhail Kalashnikov's winning entry, with the designer recorded by the alias "Mikhtim" became the prototype for the development of a family of prototype rifles.
8.
Mikhail Kalashnikov named Alexandr Zaitsev and Vladimir Deikin as his major collaborators during those years.
9.
From 1949, Mikhail Kalashnikov lived and worked in Izhevsk, Udmurtia.
10.
Mikhail Kalashnikov held a degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences and was a member of 16 academies.
11.
Mikhail Kalashnikov stated that his motivation was always to serve his country, not to earn money.
12.
Mikhail Kalashnikov died 23 December 2013, at age 94 from gastric hemorrhage.
13.
In January 2014, a letter that Mikhail Kalashnikov wrote six months before his death to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, was published by the Russian daily newspaper Izvestia.
14.
The patriarch wrote back, thanked Mikhail Kalashnikov, and said that he "was an example of patriotism and a correct attitude toward the country".
15.
Mikhail Kalashnikov became one of the first people buried in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery.
16.
Mikhail Kalashnikov completed two grades of parochial school and could read and write.
17.
Mikhail Kalashnikov married twice, the first time to Ekaterina Danilovna Astakhova of Altai Krai.
18.
Mikhail Kalashnikov married the second time to Ekaterina Viktorovna Moiseyeva.
19.
Mikhail Kalashnikov was an engineer and did much technical drawing work for her husband.