Mikhail
Kalashnikov, inventor of the world's most popular assault rifle, the AK-47, a simple and durable weapon of
war used by tens of millions in about 100 countries, has died. He was 94.
He
died today after a long illness, Elena Filatova, a spokeswoman at Kalashnikov
Concern, the plant named after the inventor, said in an interview. He lived in
Izhevsk in the Ural Mountains, the town that produces his rifles.
The
Automatic Kalashnikov - Avtomat Kalashnikova, or AK-47, for the year its design
was finalised - became prized by governments and rebels alike for its low cost,
ease of use, light weight and resistance to corrosion and jamming. The Soviet
Army made the weapon standard issue in 1949, as did most Warsaw Pact countries
and dozens of liberation armies in Africa, Asia and Latin America during the
Cold War.
The AK-47 was used in at least 40 of 60
large armed conflicts since 1945, Alexander Uzhanov, an associate fellow at the
Academy of Military Science in Moscow, wrote in a 2009 biography of
Kalashnikov. More than 100 million AK-47s have been sold worldwide, half of
them counterfeit, according to Rosoboronexport, Russia's state arms exporter.
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated
7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail
Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat
Kalashnikova. It is also known as Kalashnikov, AK, or in
Russian slang, Kalash.
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