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Mikhail Kalashnikov: Inventor of AK-47 Dies At 94
necro81 writes "Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, an arms designer for the Soviet Union, creator of the AK-47, passed away today at age 94. Kalashnikov was born a peasant and entered the Soviet Army as a conscript. However, the self-taught tinkerer had an aptitude that took him far. The AK-47, his best-known creation, was praised for its reliability and low cost; attributes that have made it the most successful firearm ever, seeing use in homeland defense, rebellion, terrorism, and untold massacres. The inventor was himself ambivalent about the uses his creation had seen, but was nevertheless proud of his contribution to his country, where he is praised as a hero."
You can bury an AK-47 for a long period of time and it'll continue to remain operation after you dig it up.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
In Soviet Russia, joke makes you!
BUILD YOUR OWN!
This is a steampunk variant.
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/politics-The%20Steampunk%20AK47.html
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
I am either religious not terribly spiritual, but one can only hope that a man whose invention was responsible for the deaths of so many millions does not go into a peaceful afterlife.
I always think of the Winchester story:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/winchester-mystery-house.htm
Politics aside, Kalashnikov was something of a genius. Or at least a commonsense visionary.
He only had access to relatively crude manufacturing processes and a basic idea of what he wanted.
And he managed to turn out a product that is, by any stretch of the imagination, RIDICULOUSLY successful.
Things that'd be considered weaknesses or defects in other weapons systems are some of the very things that are considered strengths in the Kalashnikov rifles.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
For inventing the most used murdering tool?!?
The number of (approximate) dead and permanently maimed by that gun should be put on his grave. The family ought to be ashamed of him!
I absolutely loved him in Opus 19: The Dreamer while at the New York City Ballet. What a talent.
bringing down 72 helicopters, ten planes, and falling lead took out 200 weddings.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
For inventing the most used murdering tool?!?
It was developed during and immediately after WW2. He created a tool for his fellow soldiers to defend their country, lands and friends and families.
How politicians and criminals MISUSE a tool is not the responsibility of a soldier/designer who does not want to go into battle again with inferior weapons.
"Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer ... I always wanted to construct agriculture machinery."
--Mikhail Kalashnikov
If not for the Nazis, he might have invented an inexpensive, reliable machine that helps feed people around the world. Russia in particular seems to frequently have issues with wheat due to drought and/or wildfires, and this has an impact on global food prices. But coming from a rural area he might never have been exposed to the resources needed to achieve his inventions. He might not have been in a position where anyone with those resources would take him seriously. Sometimes bad things happen and deflect our lives in directions other than those we intended, but sometimes that results in putting us right where we need to be. His conscription exposed him to complex machines he might never have worked with otherwise. His war wounds landed him in the hospital where he overheard others talking about what was wrong with the existing Russian rifles. His hospital stay gave him time away from his job as a tank commander to work on his designs. His first attempts at small arms design were rejected, but they got him noticed, and got him transferred out of the tank division to work on rifle design.
I saw a bumper sticker on the freeway the other day that read: "Remember who you wanted to be." Kalashnikov was haunted by the fact that his design had become a symbol of war and terrorism, but the real tragedy of Kalashnikov's life is that AFAIK he never used his success in his unintended profession to go back and do what he really wanted.
Shame he died, his invention saved so many lives all over the world :D
Some time ago, I watched a documentary that included parts of an interview with him and was greatly impressed by his design principle of favoring "slop" over designs requiring tight tolerances, which yielded high robustness and reliability. One might think of it as the mechanical analogue of Postel's principle but pre-dating it by many years. I think of his words whenever I see my smartphone crashing or other software failures and try to prefer robustness to excessive elegance myself when designing systems.
Rest in peace, fellow engineer.
Your post is politically incorrect. It will offend Slashdotters and be modded down. Around here, the gun is only to be praised. Hallelujah!
In Texas when you buy new car it comes with brand new AK-47. So typical Texas way of promoting violence.
It's not something you'd want in a hunting or sniper rifle, but for the intended purpose it works great.
intended purpose - Killing humans on a battlefield.
I'm part of the gun crowd and I just shake my head when my brehtren try to justify owning these things or AR-15/M4s saying they use them for: hunting, target shooting and the worst one - self defence. They're shit for all of those things. They are over priced crap that uses crap rounds: .223 and that funky 7.62 that the AK uses. SHIT unless you need to kill people. There are plenty of semi automatic rifles that are much better suited for civilians - and even military use too but they're too expensive for outfitting an army. The AK and AR are cheaply made shit for military use. The only reason they are so expensive now is because of the demand from stupid people who think Obama is going to ban them.
The only TRUE reason for a civilian to own those things is because you want to own them for the sake of owning them.
Loose tolerances of internal parts, usually only specified if manufacturing is really crappy. However Kalashnikov did this on purpose -- even though Russia had decent manufacturing capabilities -- knowing that this will lead to much greater reliability in the presence of dirt. American guns such as AR-15s are built to much more precise tolerances, and while they are more accurate than the AK, they are much less tolerant of sand/dirt/grime/powder residue. The AK's reliability is legendary.
And now geeks are applying that underlying principle to computers with "approximate computing". http://classic.slashdot.org/story/13/12/18/2027239
Next time Nazis are invading your country in order to exterminate your friends, feel free to take the moral high ground.
It would have been far better had he been plugged by his own killing machine.
If there has ever been an antithesis to the Nobel Peace Prize, the AK-47* is it.
* given that it has a far larger body count than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
The AK-47 is basically a ripped off MP42 which was invented and manufactured by Germany during WW2. Kalashnikov didn't invent anything.
I hear that, instead of the usual 21 gun salute, the crowd will just fire in the air on full automatic.
Too soon?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The work on the weapon started in 45. The first prototypes were issued in 46.
You knowledge of history is poor.
There was never an assault riffle called "AK 47". There was only "AK" ( ). The suffix "47" (having nothing to do with either invention, or introduction to the red army) was given to it later on, when AK-74 (and that's their proper name) were introduced- they were, most significantly, using the smaller caliber ammo (5.45 mm vs 7.62 used by the older generation). And no, so callled "AK47" wasn't really good riffle- heavy, with a crap accuracy. It was (relatively) quickly replaced by AKM and AKMS.
I don't know where I heard it but I think there is a saying in regards to the AK. "Its like a hammer, you pick it up, it works"
... I do.
Of course, one would then be presented with the image of men in ski masks with flags depicting cars behind them as they read their demands.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
I recall an interview with Kalishnikov -- one thing he said was that if the rifle jammed it could always be used as a club... One has to admire a designer who really understood why the product he was designing had to exist. Much like the wing top engine intakes on russian fighter jets so they can use grass fields. As opposed to the runway walks my brother and his kin did to ensure that no trash was out there that could get sucked into an engine. As a designer myself one has to admire the brutal acknowlegement of the slovenliness of war and the need for appropriate tools -- not stuff that needs a clean room to work properly. I dodged Nam and hope that my children can avoid going places where they could be shot. But I must admire someone who really focused on the task at hand. Kalishnikov is one of the few.
Tonight I'm going to drink a big glass of vodka as a toast to the old commie bastard, and then go out in my backyard and shoot 21 rounds into the air from my AK-47 Saiga :-D
don't worry, I live in a rural area where the falling bullets will do no harm
> When you absolutely, positively got to cut every motherf***ing blade of grass
These things exist. They are called "Bat Wing Mowers", and are powered by farm tractors:
http://www.purplewaveauction.com/a/2010/20100427oktx/6732.JPG
Pretty much any task you can think of for the yard or garden, there is a farm implement that is bigger and scarier.
And made famous by NWA in their song Straight Outta Compton:
AK-47 is the tool. Don't make me act the motherfucking fool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33jyoyJNa2c
Just to put things in perspective, there was an article in Scientific American 5, 10, 15 or so years ago. It looked into the question: what weapon has killed more people than any other weapon ( was it starting in WWII or was in Post WWII?). The answer was the hand held assault rifle.
Okay, a couple of nukes can change that.....
But, more than bombing, cannons, tanks, land mines, I think in fact, more than all the rest combined.
Take into account my bad memory.
Modern (i.e. WW II and later) military small arms are mainly designed to WOUND. Yes, they sometimes kill. But wounding is better for winning battles, wars, and avoiding their resumption.
Kill a soldier and the enemy loses one effective soldier. Wound him and he loses, for a time, SEVERAL effectives and a lot of other resources, hauling the wounded warrior off the field, treating him, feeding him, etc.
More survivors also means fewer vendettas and an easier time making and maintaining peace, rebuilding both sides once the disagreement is over, and forming alliances and trading partnerships with former enemy countries.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
He was shot dead?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
My thought exactly (in 1987 when studying all the Jane's books for the Recon arms and silhouette exam).
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
He dies at the age of 2 * AK47 = 94
1 shot headshot, even.counter terrorists pick up the ak 47
Shoot!
Hello, Jews composed all of Adolf Hitler's leadership cabinette; all except Goering and Himmler were Jewish. And Adolf Hitler was a Catholic Jew of Bulgarian nationality.
Blame Germans now? If I am not mistaken, Communism was founded by Jews and Stalin being a Jew with 3 wives invaded Poland through Katkyn Forest yet when Adolf enters Poland he is blamed for that massacre and Communist Russia Army presence stays in Poland?
Something stinks. Ask an actual Polish Dr. WIlliam Luther Pierce what happened in Katkin Forest.
As foe Kalashnikov: he put firearms into the hands of religious nuts that would let their family starve, as well as incapable of maintaining their estate and defensive weapons, and AK47 being a low-maintenance tool he basically kept a number of 4th-world shit territories on the map. Way to go to keep bad neihbors alive and well for Azerbeijan and Armenia to tolerate.
I always forget: the nerds on this site completely dump all their capability of rational thought and intellect when it comes to the topic of their favorite penis supplement, the gun.