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Birthday anniversary of Mikhail Kalashnikov, prominent designer of small arms
November 10, 1919 in the village of Kuria, Altai region, in a large peasant family was born a prominent Soviet and Russian designer of small arms, Hero of Russia, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Mikhail T. Kalashnikov.
After graduating from high school in 1936, he went to Kazakhstan, where he first went to work in the railway depot of the "Matay" station, and then for two years he had worked in the department of the Turkestan-Siberian railway in Alma-Ata. In the autumn of 1938, Mikhail was called to active duty and sent to the Kiev Special Military District. After finishing a training school of tank drivers, he served in one of the armored regiments stationed in the Western Ukraine. During the military service of Kalashnikov his inventive talent became clearly apparent - he developed a number of tools to enhance the effectiveness of the armor, in particular a metering device for the resource of tank engine. For this invention, in January 1941, Sergeant Kalashnikov by order of the District Commander G. K. Zhukov was sent to create prototypes of the device and to conduct cross-validation testing.
With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Sergeant Kalashnikov participated in operations as commander of a tank in the tank division of the Bryansk Front. In August 1941, in the battle of Bryansk he was seriously wounded and shell-shocked. He had been in hospital for six months, where he had an idea to create a sub-machine gun. Despite the negative review of the prototype given by the Committee of the General Artillery Department of the Red Army, Kalashnikov was soon sent to the Central Research polygon of small arms for further service.
In 1944, he developed a model of a self-loading carbine, which later served as the basis for the creation of a new submachine gun. In 1947, Kalashnikov perfected his automatic rifle and submitted it to the competitive tests in which the invention of the young designer defeated the models of more experienced and famous colleagues. In 1949, the new weapon was added to the Soviet Army’s armoury under the name of "7.62-mm Kalashnikov’s submachine gun of 1947" (AK).
Kalashnikov’s automatic rifle and its numerous modifications, as well as other models created on its basis (manual, single and tank guns and hunting rifles) are the most common small arms in the world and are adopted by the armies of over 50 countries worldwide. High reliability and easy both in manufacturing, and in operation, AK - "the weapon designed for soldiers by a soldier" - earned a huge recognition.
In 1958 and 1976 Mikhail Kalashnikov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor; by the Presidential Decree of 10 November 2009, for outstanding achievements in strengthening the country's defense, Lieutenant General Kalashnikov was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
Lit.: Жуков В. И. Второе рождение. М., 1977; Калашников М. Т. В вихре моей жизни. М., 2008; Он же. Всё нужное — просто. М., 2009; Он же. Записки конструктора-оружейника. М., 1992; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/kalashnikov_mt/index.html; Он же. От чужого порога до Спасских ворот. М., 1997; Он же. Я с Вами шёл одной дорогой: Мемуары. М., 1999; Соколов В. В. Калашников. Ижевск, 2001; Я — Калашников: Фотоальбом. Ижевск, 1999.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: