alashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in the village of Kurya,
Altai Territory, to a large peasant family. After finishing the 9-th form of
a secondary school M T. Kalashnikov went to work in the Matai depot as an
apprentice and was subsequently a technical clerk in the employ of a
Turkistan-Siberian railway department. In 1938 M T. Kalashnikov was called
up for Red Army, served in a special military region in Kiev, there he
finished the tank mechanical school.
During the service in army he devised an inertia revolution counter to
register the number of actual shots from a tank gun, made a special
appliance for the "TT" pistol to inhance fire effectiveness through tank
turret slits and designed a tank running time meter.
In June, 1941 Mikhail Timofeevitch with his last invention was directed
by the Commander-in-Chief general G.K. Zhukov to Leningrad to implement his
recent invention. With the beginning of The Great Patriotic War senior
sergeant M T. Kalashnikov participated in battles with fascists as a
commander of the tank. In October, 1941 in fierce battles under Bryansk he
was heavily wounded and shell-shocked. While in hospital, Mikhail
Timofeevitch concieved the idea of a submachine gun. Later while on a
six-month sick leave he arrived at the station Matai. He carried out his
idea in depot's workshops with the help of the leadership and comrades. When
the submachine gun was ready M T. Kalashnikov was directed to Moscow
Aviation Institute, which had been evacuated to Alma-Ata.
In June, 1942 the second model of a Kalashnikov submachine gun was
developed in workshops of the institute. This very model was sent for a
reference to Dzerzhinsky Ordnance Academy. The outstanding soviet scientist
in the field of shooting arms A. A. Blagonravov took an interest in the
Kalashnikov submachine gun. Though he didn't recommend the submachine gun
for service, the talent of the inventor, originality in the decision of a
lot of technical questions were highly estimated by him and as a result
Blagonravov made everything to direct the self-taught-designer to study.
Since 1942 M. T. Kalashnikov served in Central Research Small Arms Range of
the Main Ordnance Directorate of the Red Army.
In 1944 Kalashnikov developed an experimental model of the self-loading
carbine, it's main units became the base for a creation of a new submachin
gun in 1946 which gained a brilliant victory in difficult competitive tests.
In 1949 after completion the automatic device was adopted by the Soviet
Army, and senior sergeant M.T. Kalashnikov was awarded by the Stalin Price
First Class.
 |
 |
 From the left to the right: |
| V.Krupin, P.Zorin, M.Kalashnikov |
|
Since 1949 Mikhail Timofeevitch has been living and working in Izhevsk.
He went through a way from a self-taught-inventor up to the General Designer
of small arms in the Soviet Army.
A range of the unified models of automatic small arms developed
by Kalashnikov was addopted by the Soviet Army in 1950.
The Goverment highly estimated M. T. Kalashnikov's serveces to the
country. He was twice honoured as Hero of Socialist Labour (1958 and 1976)
and became Stalin Prize (1949) and Lenin Prize (1964) laureate. In 1969 he
was given the rank of Colonel and in 1971 awarded degree of Doctor of
engineering science. M. T. Kalashnikov was decorated with three Orders of
Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the Great Patriotic War
of the First Class, Order of the Red Star and many medals.
Since 1980 M. T. Kalashnikov has been a citizen of honour in his native
village of Kurya. His bronze bust was placed there as he was twice awarded
Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1987 he became a honourable citizen of Izhevsk.
The President of Russia B.N. Eltsin personally decorated the outstanding
designer M. T. Kalashnikov with the Order "For Distinguished Services for
the Motherland" Second Class and promoted him to Major-General to his 75th
anniversary.
The submachine guns of the Kalashnikov system are widespread all over
the world. Some countries have included its image in the State Emblem. Under
the items of information available in the literature to the midst of 1990
there were made about 70 millions units of Kalashnikov submachine guns of
various modifications both in our country and abroad including those made
under license and piratically (till nowadays the invention has not been
patented).
Since 1949 Mikhail Timofeevitch has been living and working in Izhevsk.
He went through a way from a self-taught-inventor up to the General Designer
of small arms in the Soviet Army.
 
|
|
| Kalashnikov's 75th |
| anniversary medal |
|
A range of the unified models of automatic small arms developed
by Kalashnikov was addopted by the Soviet Army in 1950.
The Goverment highly estimated M. T. Kalashnikov's serveces to the
country. He was twice honoured as Hero of Socialist Labour (1958 and 1976)
and became Stalin Prize (1949) and Lenin Prize (1964) laureate. In 1969 he
was given the rank of Colonel and in 1971 awarded degree of Doctor of
engineering science. M. T. Kalashnikov was decorated with three Orders of
Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the Great Patriotic War
of the First Class, Order of the Red Star and many medals.
Since 1980 M. T. Kalashnikov has been a citizen of honour in his native
village of Kurya. His bronze bust was placed there as he was twice awarded
Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1987 he became a honourable citizen of Izhevsk.
The President of Russia B.N. Eltsin personally decorated the outstanding
designer M. T. Kalashnikov with the Order "For Distinguished Services for
the Motherland" Second Class and promoted him to Major-General to his 75th
anniversary.
The submachine guns of the Kalashnikov system are widespread all over
the world. Some countries have included its image in the State Emblem. Under
the items of information available in the literature to the midst of 1990
there were made about 70 millions units of Kalashnikov submachine guns of
various modifications both in our country and abroad including those made
under license and piratically (till nowadays the invention has not been
patented).
The cause of such great popularity of Kalashnikov submachine guns
is in fact that Mikhail Timofeevitch has achieved an optimum combination
of a number of qualities which provide the usage of guns with high efficiency
of application and exclusive reliability in battles.
