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Title: AK-47 designer Mikhail Kalashnikov dead at 94
Source:
SLT
URL Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/ ... designer-rifle-soviet.html.csp
Published: Dec 23, 2013
Author: Jim Heintz
Post Date: 2013-12-23 16:54:22 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 113
Comments: 3
Moscow • 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. Kalashnikov died in a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic where he lived, said Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic’s president. He did not give a cause of death. Kalashnikov had been hospitalized for the past month with unspecified health problems. The AK-47 — "Avtomat Kalashnikov" and the year it went into production — is the world’s most popular firearm, favored by guerrillas, terrorists and the soldiers of many armies. An estimated 100 million guns are spread worldwide. Though it isn’t especially accurate, its ruggedness and simplicity are exemplary: it performs in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons such as the U.S. M-16. "During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers," Kalashnikov said in July 2007 at a ceremony marking the rifle’s 60th anniversary. The weapon’s suitability for jungle and desert fighting made it nearly ideal for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union, and Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries. The gun’s status among revolutionaries and national-liberation struggles is enshrined on the flag of Mozambique. Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, began his working life as a railroad clerk. After he joined the Red Army in 1938, he began to show mechanical flair by inventing several modifications for Soviet tanks.
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
RIP “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Shit, 94? I'm struggling to make 53.
Godfrey Smith: Mike, I wouldn't worry. Prosperity is just around the corner. You'll make it, my friend. Heal! “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
#2. To: X-15 (#0)
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#3. To: Esso (#2)
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