Mikhail Kalashnikov

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"The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics."

Born on November 10, 1919, into a large peasant family in Kurya, in the Atlai region of Russia, Mikhail Kalashnikov is perhaps the most well-known weapons designer of all time. He created the AK-47 rifle, one of the most widely used and distributed firearm in history.

In 1930, Kalashnikov and his family were forced to give up their possessions and move away from their village under the regime of Joseph Stalin. Kalashnikov originally aspired to become a poet, but went in a different direction after joining the military in 1938. Serving in a Russian tank division, he worked on several inventions to improve certain tank functions. In 1941, Kalashnikov was wounded in the Battle of Bryansk against the German Nazis. As he recovered from his injuries, he began working on creating new weapons. Kalashnikov desired to create a simple yet reliable defensive weapons to protect the "Motherland".

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Not long after the end of World War II, Kalashnikov completed work on a new type of automatic rifle, the AK-47. His design was selected from a number of entries in a competition and put into production. The AK-47 proved to be easy to use and clean, and worked well in a number of different environments, from deserts to jungles. The gun's initials stand for "Avtomat Kalashnikov," or "automatic Kalashnikov," and are often referred to as "Kalashnikovs", or simply "Kalash".

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Today, the gun remains one of Russia's most recognizable brands, and it is made in Russia and by licensees abroad. Roughly 100 million Kalashnikovs have been produced since the gun's initial release, and its reliability has made it a favorite weapon of many types of armed groups, from military personnel to terrorists. Kalashnikov later expressed some regret over who has used his prized invention. "It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon," he said, according to a Reuters report.

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Kalashnikov is considered a national Russian treasure. In 2004, a museum in his honor opened in Izhevsk, the Russian town where many Kalashnikov-designed arms are produced. The inventor sought to expand his brand that same year, lending his last name to a vodka line.

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Despite his advancing age, Kalashnikov worked as a consultant to promote arms deals. He also penned several books, including an autobiography. In 2009, Kalashnikov celebrated his 90th birthday at a special event held at the Central Russian Army Museum. According to a FOX News report, Vladimir Putin sent the inventor his regards in a written statement: "The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people," Putin wrote.

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Kalashnikov experienced a health crisis in late 2012, reportedly spending time in an intensive care unit at a cardiac hospital in Izhevsk,the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, that December. There were several conflicting reports on his condition at the time, but he was generally considered to be in fragile health. Mikhail Kalashnikov died on December 23, 2013 in Izhevsk at the age of 94.