Legendary Small-arms Inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the 94-year-old inventor of the world’s most popular firearm, the AK-47, died Monday in a Russian hospital.

Kalashikov developed the concept of a reliable assault rifle for the Soviet infantry during the Second World War.

During his convalescence stay in Kazakhstan in 1941, he quickly produced a prototype version of his assault rifle at a local train depot workshop. Fine-tuning the experimental model took five years, and in 1946 it successfully passed the last of a series of firing tests.
Photo: Mikhail Kalashnikov working on the AK-47 assault rifle’s design in 1947.

"I was told that when Stalin was shown the AK-47 for the first time, he took it in his hand and didn't put it down while walking around his Kremlin office for the rest of the day," Kalashnikov wrote in his memoirs.
Photo: Mikhail Kalashnikov on vacation in 1965.

The AK-47 went into mass production in February 1947. In 1949, the weapon was adopted by the Soviet Army and Kalashnikov, then 30, was awarded the Stalin Prize. It was one of many awards he was to be given, including three Orders of Lenin and the Hero of Socialist Labor.
Photo: Mikhail Kalashnikov hunting with his dog in 1965.

Mikhail Kalashnikov with his wife and children in 1959.

Mikhail Kalashnikov taking a walk in Izhevsk where he lived and worked from 1948.

The rugged, reliable and easy-to-use AK-47 is still favored by an assortment of armed forces, guerrilla groups, terrorists and even common thugs in at least 55 countries.
Photo: Mikhail Kalashnikov with an Ak-47 in 1997.