Mikhail Kalashnikov - Early Life

Early Life

Kalashnikov was born on 10 November 1919 in Kurya, Altai Krai, Russian SFSR, one of nineteen children to Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov (1883-1930) and Aleksandra Frolovna Kalashnikova (1884-1957). Timofey Kalashnikov was deported when Mikhail was still a boy. In his youth, Kalashnikov wrote poetry, and his dream was to become a poet. He went on to write six books and has continued to write poetry all his life.

In 1938, Kalashnikov was conscripted into the Red Army, and became a tank driver and mechanic, achieving the rank of senior sergeant tank commander serving on the T-34s of the 24th Tank Regiment, 12th Tank Division stationed in Stryi before the regiment retreated after the Battle of Brody in June 1941. He was wounded in combat during the Battle of Bryansk in October 1941, and got released for six months recuperation due to illness. While in the hospital, he overheard some fellow soldiers complaining about the Soviet rifles of the time.

He also had difficulties with the standard infantry weapons at the time, and so he decided to construct a new rifle for the Soviet military. During this time Kalashnikov began designing a submachine gun.

Although his first submachine gun design was not accepted into service, his talent as a designer was noticed. From 1942 onwards Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central Scientific-developmental Firing Range for Rifle Firearms of the Chief Artillery Directorate of the Red Army (RKKA). Later in life he claimed that the priority of simplicity and dependability in his designs was influenced by principles he had gained from reading of Russian literature and the Bible.

In 1944, he designed a gas-operated carbine for the new 7.62x39 mm cartridge. This weapon, influenced by the M1 Garand rifle, lost out to the new Simonov carbine which would be eventually adopted as the SKS; but it became a basis for his entry in an assault rifle competition in 1946. His winning entry, the "Mikhtim" (so named by taking the first letters of his name and patronymic Mikhail Timofeyevich) became the prototype for the development of a family of prototype rifles.

This process culminated in 1947, when he designed the AK-47 (standing for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947). In 1956, the AK-47 assault rifle became the standard issue rifle of the Soviet Army and went on to become Kalashnikov's most famous invention.