Kalashnikova biography automatic

In memory of the legendary designer, creator of the famous AK AK photo: Kalashnikov Museum Museum-MTK. Many, perhaps, are said about Kalashnikov about Kalashnikov than any other Russian gunsmith. Mikhail Timofeevich willingly talked with journalists and published several books about his fate. Without trying to say something new, for the Day of the memory of an outstanding designer, we have collected some interesting and little-known facts related to his life.

There are many legends about Mikhail Kalashnikov, and one of the not yet resolved riddles - this is the year of his birth. In some documents, instead of an officially recognized year, it costs a year. The designer himself did not like to talk about this topic, but it is quite possible that he had to reduce himself for two years when receiving a passport in order to leave the place of exile of his parents without obstacles.

Mikhail was born in Altai in a large peasant family - besides him, Timofei Alexandrovich and Alexandra Frolovna Kalashnikov had 18 children, however, only eight survived of them. Michael himself at the age of six also almost died of illness. Kalashnikovs are a fairly common Russian surname. So in the family of the famous gunsmith, most likely there were quite peaceful bakers.

At the age of six, Mikhail tried to make wooden skates. At ten, he managed to construct the first pistol firing his heads from matches. He was going to “invent” from improvised means and the first bicycle in the village. At school, Kalashnikov came up with an eternal engine, for the launch of which only a special bearing was not enough. Along with the craving for invention at the school, Kalashnikov also turned out well poems.

He began to write in the third grade, then there were friendly cartoons, lyrical messages to classmates, even plays and scripts for school holidays. The nickname "Poet" was assigned to Mikhail at school. Being already a well -known designer, he did not lose his passion for literature, wrote poetry, and later prose, published several books of memoirs. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War prevented the latter in the series, although the device received the approval of General Zhukov himself.

Having received rehabilitation leave, Mikhail finalized the weapon to the prototype. Interestingly, the masters of the Altai railway depot, where Kalashnikov worked before the army, helped him in this. To participate in the competition of the year to design the machine, it was necessary to prepare a lot of drawings. When AK was already adopted and Kalashnikov received the Stalin Prize and the Order of the Red Star, he was still in the rank of senior sergeant.

Later, Mikhail Timofeevich explained his success by the fact that "a soldier made a weapon for a soldier." At the summer, Kalashnikov was awarded the title of Lieutenant General. The day of the gunsmith, which is celebrated in our country on September 19, appeared in the year thanks to the initiative of Mikhail Timofeevich. It is symbolic that on this day the Orthodox Church venerates the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of all gunsmiths and Kalashnikov himself.

The author of the monument was the sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov. In total, eight monuments were installed in the country to the designer, of which three were in Izhevsk, where Kalashnikov lived and worked most of his life. It is interesting that although the Kalashnikov assault rifle was shot in the cinema, if not thousands of times, until recently, not a single artistic tape came out about the designer.

He worked on Izhmash all his life, was engaged in improving the parental AK, and developed the Bason and Vityaz machine guns adopted. Kalashnikov with the family. Photo: Kalashnikov Museum Museum-MTK.