http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/europe/mikhail-kalashnikov-creator-of-soviet-era-ak-47-weapon-is-dead-at-age-94.html
QuoteLt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the arms designer credited by the Soviet Union with creating the AK-47, the first in a series of rifles and machine guns that would indelibly associate his name with modern war and become the most abundant firearms ever made, died on Monday in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic, where he lived. He was 94.
Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic's president, confirmed the death, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Born a peasant on the southern Siberian steppe, General Kalashnikov had little formal education and claimed to be a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weapons to conceive of a rifle that achieved battlefield ubiquity.
His role in the rifle's creation, and the attention showered on him by the Kremlin's propaganda machine, carried him from conscription in the Red Army to senior positions in the Soviet arms-manufacturing bureaucracy and ultimately to six terms on the Supreme Soviet.
Tens of millions of Kalashnikov rifles have been manufactured. Their short barrels, steep front-sight posts and curved magazines made them a marker of conflict that has endured for decades. The weapons also became both Soviet and revolutionary symbols and widespread instruments of terrorism, child-soldiering and crime.
The general, who sometimes lamented the weapons' unchecked distribution but took pride in having invented them and in their reputation for reliability, weathered the collapse of the Soviet Union to assume a public role as a folk hero and unequivocal Russian patriot.
A Soviet nostalgist, he also served as the unofficial arms ambassador of the revived Russian state. He used public appearances to try to cast the AK-47's checkered legacy in a positive way and to complain that knockoffs were being manufactured illegally by former Soviet allies and cutting into Russian sales.
The weapon, he said, was designed to protect his motherland, not to be used by terrorists or thugs. "This is a weapon of defense," he said. "It is not a weapon for offense."
Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose work as a weapons designer for the Soviet Union is immortalized in the name of the world's most popular firearm, died Monday at the age of 94.
Kalashnikov once aspired to design farm equipment. But even though his most famous invention – the AK-47 assault rifle – sowed havoc instead of crops, he often said he felt personally untroubled by his contribution to bloodshed.
"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence," he said in 2007.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/23/ak-47-inventor-mikhail-kalashnikov-dies-in-russia-at-94-100-million-of-the-guns-were-produced/ (http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/23/ak-47-inventor-mikhail-kalashnikov-dies-in-russia-at-94-100-million-of-the-guns-were-produced/)
merging and relocating - Wally beat me to it by a few minutes :)
I noticed you posted too.
Considering that this was just a small arms weapon, it really has made an impact on the world stage.
not many weapons on the national flags of entire countries. this is one of them
QuoteTuesday, February 17, 2009
Famous Soviet arms builder Mihail Kalasnikov recently acknowledged he didn't worked alone at the design and development of the AK-47 assault rifle, but he benefited from the help of Hugo Schmeisser, the most prolific small arms inventor of the Third Reich. Kalashnikov and Schmeisser meet each other at the small arms factory of Izhevsk, writes Life.ru as quoted by Agerpress, the Romanian national news agency.
According to the Russian historian Aleksei Korobeinikov, Schmeisser arrived in Ijhevsk immediately after the war. The city of Suhl, Schmeisser's hometown in defeated Germany, was situated in the Soviet occupation zone. Schmeisser and another couple of dozens German small arms specialists received from the Soviet occupiers an offer they "couldn't refuse": to work at a Soviet small arms factory in the Urals. How the Soviets were making these types of "generous offers" after the war isn't a secret for anyone anymore. So as a result of the Soviet "proposal" a train with German specialists arrived at Izhevs on October 24th 1946. Together with Schmeisser and his colleagues, the train carried all the blue prints and plans the Soviets could grab from their occupation zone. Truth be told, the Western Allies did exactly the same thing.
The Russian experts are claiming that it is pretty hard to determine Hugo Schmeisser contribution to the design and development of the AK-47 assault rifle because all official documents referring to this episode are still classified (gee, I wonder why?) and Schmeisser didn't left behind any kind of memoirs or letters about his life in the Soviet Union.
Referring to this period, Schmeisser evasively said "I gave the Russians some advice".
The German arms maker left behind in Izhevsk only a couple of letters and photographs. The house in which Schmeisser and his colleagues used to live is now in ruins. Aleksandr Ermakov, an employee of the Kalashnikov Museum declares: "only a few letters are in our possession in which Schmeisser is petitioning the Soviet Defense Minister for improving the substandard living conditions, complains about the food and asks for an increase in salary and a travel permit to visit his homeland.
Many historians are claiming Michail Kalashnikov has "stolen" the AK-47 design from the Germans. In opposition, the Russians claim that Schmeisser only role was to implement the new manufacturing technologies for mass producing the new assault rifle.
The assault rifle designed by Hugo Schmeisser during WWII (STG 44 - Sturmgewehr 44, also known as MP 43 and MP 44) looks very similar with the AK-47, designed by Kalasnikov. But the Russians are claiming that the similarities are stopping once you get to look inside the rifle. Kalashnikov is claiming he started work on his design in 1943 and by 1946 his rifle was already in the testing phase.
However, denying the German contribution to the mass production of the AK-47 rifle would be a another Soviet lie historians say; it is undeniable that at Ijhevsk, Schmeisser took care of the AK-47 stamped receiver manufacturing process. Moreover, the merit for the mass production of the stamped receiver, the ammunition magazine and other important parts of the rifle are undeniably the product of Schmeisser's efforts.
so Good Riddance !
Quote from: bayonetbrant on December 23, 2013, 12:36:53 PM
not many weapons on the national flags of entire countries. this is one of them
Quite an accomplishment for a guy who totally ripped off a design already proven by the Germans!
.
Quote from: MikeGER on December 23, 2013, 12:43:25 PM
so Good Riddance !
That's a bit harsh. The guy joins the ranks of Colt, Maxim, Browning, Mauser, Thompson, Schmeisser and countless others that have contributed to the advancement of modern weaponry.
RIP, Comrade.
I kinda have mixed emotions about that.
Over here, fellas!
http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=8730.msg218848#msg218848
Quote from: endfire79 on December 23, 2013, 03:25:35 PM
The guy joins the ranks of Colt, Maxim, Browning, Mauser, Thompson, Schmeisser and countless others that have contributed to the advancement of modern weaponry.
I'm not sure he belongs in that category. The AK was a modification of the Germans' Sturmgewehr 44: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StG_44
Colt, Maxim, Browning, et al created revolutionary designs that were unlike anything before. Kalashnikov? Not so much.
That isn't to say that his design(s) wasn't significant. But his designs were evolutionary, not revolutionary (no irony/pun intended).
RIP, Comrade.
I'll agree there's historians on both sides which will have their points of debate on that one. Perhaps it was evolutionary. In that case, he's up there with Stoner as well. I'm sure the old soviets loved to be evasive when confronted with those question, such was their style. But I think he deserved a bit more than 'Good Riddance', especially from a grog site.
Had no idea he was still alive, til I heard of his passing on NPR a few minutes ago. RIP.
Yeah I just assumed he died years ago. RIP you commie bastard.
the guy that gifted me a romanian ak-47 was telling me that the ak-47 was revolutionary in several ways:
1. easy to produce in huge numbers, not needing high tech equipment and having a lot less parts than the german counterpart.
2. mechanically extremely solid: proved itself from jungle to desert. low maintenance. according to him the weapon proved itself in combat: even non trained troops are able to keep the gun going.
3. weight: thats also an issue in combat, less in training. but it weighted almost half of the swiss counterpart during the 50's -80's.
the guy is a Jarhead like gun collector and trained swiss artillery Hauptmann: in his opinion the ak on paper is a very mediocre gun but during war it more than proved it's superior design.
NPR, mirth? So YOU're the liberal in the wood pile ;)
I'm sure its what his girlfriend wanted to listen to.
Quote from: MetalDog on December 23, 2013, 07:19:42 PM
NPR, mirth? So YOU're the liberal in the wood pile ;)
I listen, but I do not donate :P
Quote from: Gusington on December 23, 2013, 06:52:57 PM
Yeah I just assumed he died years ago. RIP you commie bastard.
Yeah, but what a nice piece of kit that he
stole designed.
Quote from: Centurion40 on December 23, 2013, 08:10:13 PM
Quote from: Gusington on December 23, 2013, 06:52:57 PM
Yeah I just assumed he died years ago. RIP you commie bastard.
Yeah, but what a nice piece of kit that he stole designed.
Oh that's not fair. Hugo Schmeisser can't take all the credit. Kalashnikov at least made it cheaper and easier to mass produce.
Quote from: mirth on December 23, 2013, 07:47:40 PM
Quote from: MetalDog on December 23, 2013, 07:19:42 PM
NPR, mirth? So YOU're the liberal in the wood pile ;)
I listen, but I do not donate :P
Is that like smoking but not inhaling, Bill?
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 23, 2013, 08:31:48 PM
Oh that's not fair. Hugo Schmeisser can't take all the credit. Kalashnikov at least made it cheaper and easier to mass produce.
Yes, he made a great evolutionary improvement to a revolutionary design.
Therein lies the difference. Great as his genius might have been, it was an evolutionary genius, not revolutionary.
If you insist on calling him "great" then so it is, but he is not "epic" like some were.
And while I don't know it for a fact, I believe he also qualifies as a plagiarist since he failed to credit the original genius upon whose design he improved.
it is closer to a m1 garand. it shares the look but not the mechanic of the Stgw. i wouldn't even call that a copy
Quote from: endfire79 on December 23, 2013, 04:58:43 PM
But I think he deserved a bit more than 'Good Riddance', especially from a grog site.
sure not from a Grog side! but from a German grog for sure... of course MK was a good engineer.
(or to put in war gaming terms ... a modder ;-) )
its like if the Americans had put some run out of the mill harvester engineer 'Joe Smith' to patron over and daily blackmail life threat over some now probally lesser known Wernher von Braun .... and 'Joe Smith' would now be
the all American patriot who single handed brought a man to the moon (and a nice arsenal of ICBMs to the USA too) in the history book
well, Wernher von Braun had the fortune to cut a lucky deal with the OSS early to finally concentrate on his space visions -he always had- in a free society, instead of being a slave switching from a Nazi dictatorship monster (he was smart and charismatic enuf to wiggle his ways between the different envious factions inside that regime -a thightropewalk) to a Commi dictatorship monster oppression
from another site:
To say he copied the design is like saying the Spitfire was 'copied' from the 109 (or vice versa) in as far as they are both Fighters that were developed at roughly the same time. Been re-reading and looking into it and the SU had no real need at all to copy the 44, fine heritage of automatic rifles in their own right and the AK was a fairly logical extension of these. The concept of the Intermediate round had also occured to them (and been adopted) long before. In fact you could say the arrangement of the 44 was an adaptation of the Russian Tokarev layout. The belief that the AK is a copy of the 44 seems to me to be a little lazy and based purely on their similar shapes... Remember if the Russians copied something, from Tank transmissions to cameras they tended to copy it exactly with modifications only to improve production efficiency. The Ak does not fit in this category.
Quote from: Keunert on December 24, 2013, 05:38:05 AM
from another site:
To say he copied the design is like saying the Spitfire was 'copied' from the 109 (or vice versa) in as far as they are both Fighters that were developed at roughly the same time. Been re-reading and looking into it and the SU had no real need at all to copy the 44, fine heritage of automatic rifles in their own right and the AK was a fairly logical extension of these. The concept of the Intermediate round had also occured to them (and been adopted) long before. In fact you could say the arrangement of the 44 was an adaptation of the Russian Tokarev layout. The belief that the AK is a copy of the 44 seems to me to be a little lazy and based purely on their similar shapes... Remember if the Russians copied something, from Tank transmissions to cameras they tended to copy it exactly with modifications only to improve production efficiency. The Ak does not fit in this category.
Thanks. I wasn't aware of that. I'll look more deeply into the subject and see what else I can learn.
There's a famous story about the 'designing' of the Tu-4. During the War a B-29 crash-landed in Soviet territory and the Russians, having no true heavy bomber, were very interested in it. Stalin ordered Tupolev to copy the aircraft exactly and they did just that (to the best of their abilities). Rumors floated around that Tupolev (supposedly at Stalin's insistence) even built their planes with matching repair patches similar to those which had been applied to the original B-29 to cover war-time damage and also matched the bullet holes visible in the original. The story is most likely not true but illustrates the view of the Soviet state-run design approach held by the West at the time.
Quote from: MikeGER on December 24, 2013, 05:06:51 AM
Quote from: endfire79 on December 23, 2013, 04:58:43 PM
But I think he deserved a bit more than 'Good Riddance', especially from a grog site.
sure not from a Grog side! but from a German grog for sure... of course MK was a good engineer.
(or to put in war gaming terms ... a modder ;-) )
its like if the Americans had put some run out of the mill harvester engineer 'Joe Smith' to patron over and daily blackmail life threat over some now probally lesser known Wernher von Braun .... and 'Joe Smith' would now be the all American patriot who single handed brought a man to the moon (and a nice arsenal of ICBMs to the USA too) in the history book
well, Wernher von Braun had the fortune to cut a lucky deal with the OSS early to finally concentrate on his space visions -he always had- in a free society, instead of being a slave switching from a Nazi dictatorship monster (he was smart and charismatic enuf to wiggle his ways between the different envious factions inside that regime -a thightropewalk) to a Commi dictatorship monster oppression
It's an interesting analogy and that was funny though :)
Yes MK was in a monster system but he wasn't the one in charge of that, he helped design weapons. Many of which are still used today. He didn't have a PHD, but neither did Browning. I say RIP to the guy, he deserved at least that much.
Prost (hope I got it right!).
Quote from: Staggerwing on December 24, 2013, 08:04:20 AM
There's a famous story about the 'designing' of the Tu-4. During the War a B-29 crash-landed in Soviet territory and the Russians, having no true heavy bomber, were very interested in it. Stalin ordered Tupolev to copy the aircraft exactly and they did just that (to the best of their abilities). Rumors floated around that Tupolev (supposedly at Stalin's insistence) even built their planes with matching repair patches similar to those which had been applied to the original B-29 to cover war-time damage and also matched the bullet holes visible in the original. The story is most likely not true but illustrates the view of the Soviet state-run design approach held by the West at the time.
I've read some on this too. While they probably weren't matching bullet holes, I think there were specific things that the Soviets knew they could improve upon, but because of the time table and pressure from the top (meaning you'd better meet the deadline or you'll be counting trees in Siberia - if you're lucky) they skipped any kind of improvements and went for a pretty much straight copy.
I have a book somewhere that briefly covers the development of the Tu-4. I'll have to see if I can find it and locate the chapter.
RIP. From what I know he seemed a decent person. Never got a patent for his design, being in the Soviet Union and all. I seem to recall an interview I saw a few years ago where he was still living in a small apartment in his hometown. He didn't grow rich off his design but was obviously proud of his work. Something to be admired there I think.
i think there is an entire history of underestimating soviet engineering that probably started with the OKH. their weapons were in some regards top notch. the same applies to mathematics, programming, physics and aerospace. to work with economical and political restrictions seems to support some creative thinking. at least some times.
i recommend the book 'Red Plenty' on Chrustchovs time and the soviets hope to economically surpass the west.
Soviet/Russian design usually follows the simple, brute force approach.
Much like the quality of quantity.
Dead AK-47 Inventor To Be Buried In Mud For A Week, Cleaned Off, Then Put Back To Work (http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/12/mikhail-kalashnikov-dead/)
QuoteRussia has announced funeral arrangements for Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle.
"Comrade Kalashnikov will be buried in a pit of mud with full military honors," said General-Major Saiga Molot, a spokesman for the Russian army. "After a week, we will exhume his body, clean it off, and put him back to work. We expect that there shall be no issue with his functions."
Kalashnikov died of complications from a liver transplant operation. The liver Kalashnikov received was allegedly Romanian, but turned out to be a substandard Albanian version.
"It was a successful substitution, but it made him inaccurate and prone to blockage," said his son, Victor.
While praised for his simple operation and ruggedness, Kalashnikov is also being remembered for his contributions to over 300 insurgencies, 524 known terrorist groups and at least 18 hostile regime changes.
"We will always be grateful to General Kalashnikov for giving us the inspiration for Kevlar," said DuPont President and CEO Ellen Kullman.
An outpouring of support came from some unexpected areas, including Hollywood, which gave him a star on the walk of fame for his contribution to action films which "helped the audience identify the bad guys without further visual or audio cues" as well as the music industry.
"You can rhyme about a MAC-10 or Uzi, but they know you're serious when you start pulling out that AK," said rapper Banana Clip. "Think of what rhymes with 47 – heaven, um... Devon? 7-11? Yeah."
Kalashnikov is survived by 21 major variants and 31 national operators in addition to several unknown and unidentified versions.
The comments on the duffelblog article are hilarious.
.