kalashnikov dead at 94

[skypuppy 1]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rifle-designer-mikhail-kalashnikov-dead-94-21310543

from the story

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.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[kelpdiver 2]

he can't die - the Chinese will clone him.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

kelpdiver

he can't die - the Chinese will clone him.

And the Romanians, and the South Africans, and the Finns, and the Poles, and the Israelis, and the Czechs, and a lot of others.

The Yugoslavs and the East Germans can't, but that's only because they don't exist anymore.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[JerryBaumchen 1,436]

Hi puppy,

I read this last year, rather good IMO:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

JerryBaumchen

[strife 0]

skypuppy

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rifle-designer-mikhail-kalashnikov-dead-94-21310543



In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised him, saying "The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people.

.

Maybe more a symbol of Hugo Schmeisser

[GQ_jumper 4]

His creation allowed the people of so many countries to take their destiny in to their own hands. Whether people like to believe it or not every country that has undergone a great change for the good of the people has done it through blood shed. The AK-47 was and still is the weapon of the freedom fighter.

He was a great man and built the AK with the best of intentions. It was terrible to hear that he passed the other day, but he definitely left his mark on the world.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[ryoder 1,590]

JerryBaumchen

Hi puppy,

I read this last year, rather good IMO:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

JerryBaumchen

And anyone who has read the C.J. Chivers book knows that the idea Kalashnikov invented the gun by himself is a myth.

Quote

As you gather the materials, you set the statements against each other, and what you find is that Kalashnikov's own account shifts in the telling over the years, and that much of what he said was challenged by important peers who were there as the weapon took its shape. You also examine the weapon itself, closely, and set it against what is known about other weapons in the design pipeline at the time. In this way, you can see what features the Kalashnikov design team borrowed (some might say, lifted) from other weapons by other designers. And what you find is that the evidence strongly indicates that many of the ideas credited to Mikhail Kalashnikov do not appear to have been his own, or were outright claimed by others in his circle. Ultimately, the conclusion is inescapable: The automatic Kalashnikov, his namesake, resulted not from one man's epiphany, but from design convergence in a massive, state-directed pursuit, and that there is a sordid back story, including the fate of one man who was involved who was later swept away in the repression. This man's role was unremarked upon for decades. Further, Kalashnikov's own engineer, the man with whom he said he worked most closely, claimed that several of the main elements of the rifle -- the things that make it what it is -- were his ideas, and that Mikhail Kalashnikov opposed them and had to be convinced to allow these modifications to his penultimate prototype. All of this flies in the face of Soviet legend.

Ref: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/10/15/from_russia_with_blood

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[winsor 236]

ryoder

***Hi puppy,

I read this last year, rather good IMO:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

JerryBaumchen

And anyone who has read the C.J. Chivers book knows that the idea Kalashnikov invented the gun by himself is a myth.

Quote

As you gather the materials, you set the statements against each other, and what you find is that Kalashnikov's own account shifts in the telling over the years, and that much of what he said was challenged by important peers who were there as the weapon took its shape. You also examine the weapon itself, closely, and set it against what is known about other weapons in the design pipeline at the time. In this way, you can see what features the Kalashnikov design team borrowed (some might say, lifted) from other weapons by other designers. And what you find is that the evidence strongly indicates that many of the ideas credited to Mikhail Kalashnikov do not appear to have been his own, or were outright claimed by others in his circle. Ultimately, the conclusion is inescapable: The automatic Kalashnikov, his namesake, resulted not from one man's epiphany, but from design convergence in a massive, state-directed pursuit, and that there is a sordid back story, including the fate of one man who was involved who was later swept away in the repression. This man's role was unremarked upon for decades. Further, Kalashnikov's own engineer, the man with whom he said he worked most closely, claimed that several of the main elements of the rifle -- the things that make it what it is -- were his ideas, and that Mikhail Kalashnikov opposed them and had to be convinced to allow these modifications to his penultimate prototype. All of this flies in the face of Soviet legend.

Ref: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/10/15/from_russia_with_blood

'Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan.'

[JerryBaumchen 1,436]

Hi ryoder,

Quote

Kalashnikov invented the gun by himself

I've been an engineer ( and worked on numerous projects ) long enough to realize that very few devices are the work on one individual.

While it usually takes longer, IMO you get a better product when numerous eyes are looking, asking, probing, etc.

JerryBaumchen

[Nelyubin 0]

Do not talk nonsense.
Schmeiser and some do not lie.
For the overall development:
http://spec-naz.org/armory/automats_and_assault_rifles/akm_akms_ak_aks/
In the top photo
automatic sample Sudaeva 1944
And many other machines Soviet designers.