Produced by Gerta S. & Anna N.

KALASHNIKOV MIKHAIL TIMOFEEVITCH was born November 10, 1919 in the village of Kurya, Northern Siberia. He started his engineering career working at a train depot, where he was able to learn much about mechanics.

In 1938 he was drafted into the Red Army and served as a tank commander during the first months of the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941 Kalashnikov was heavily wounded in combat and sent home from the frontlines. He started to create his first gun designs in a hospital and soon joined a depot's workshop of the Moscow Aviation Institute. While working there Kalashnikov produced a number of innovations for tanks, including a mechanism that would count the number of shots fired. Within several years, he was promoted to the position of chief engineer and given far more resources. In 1947, he designed the AK-47 (an acronym for "Avtomat Kalashnikov model 1947"). In 1949 the AK-47 assault rifle became operational in the Red Army; after this the design would become Kalashnikov's most famous invention. He bacame General Designer of small arms for the Soviet Army.

Later in his career he developed a squad automatic weapon variant of the AK-47, known as the RPK (Ruchnoi Pulemyot Kalashnikova - Kalashnikov's Light Machinegun), and also the PK (Pulemyot Kalashnikova - Kalashnikov's Machinegun), which used a much larger cartridge (the same full-powered rifle cartridge as employed in the Mosin-Nagant rifle). The cartridge was belt-fed rather than magazine-fed. In other respects, it was nearly the same design. These designs both saw widespread adoption in their respective roles, though the AK-47 still served as the primary infantry weapon

Since 1949 Mikhail Timofeevitch has been living and working in Izhevsk. He went through a way from a self-taught-inventor up to the General Designer of small arms in the Soviet Army. A range of the unified models of automatic small arms developed by Kalashnikov was adopted by the Soviet Army in V.Krupin, P.Zorin, M.Kalashnikov

The Government highly estimated M. T. Kalashnikov's services to the country. He was twice honoured as Hero of Socialist Labour (1958 and 1976) and became Stalin Prize (1949) and Lenin Prize (1964) laureate. In 1969 he was given the rank of Colonel and in 1971 awarded degree of Doctor of engineering science. M. T. Kalashnikov was decorated with three Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the Great Patriotic War of the First Class, Order of the Red Star and many medals.

Since 1980 M. T. Kalashnikov has been a citizen of honour in his native village of Kurya. His bronze bust was placed there as he was twice awarded Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1987 he became a honourable citizen of Izhevsk. The President of Russia B.N. Eltsin personally decorated the outstanding designer M. T. Kalashnikov with the Order "For Distinguished Services for the Motherland" Second Class and promoted him to Major-General to his 75th anniversary.

The submachine guns of the Kalashnikov system are widespread all over the world. Some countries have included its image in the State Emblem. Under the items of information available in the literature to the midst of 1990 there were made about 70 millions units of Kalashnikov submachine guns of various modifications both in our country and abroad including those made under license and piratical (till nowadays the invention has not been patented).

1947 Base model for all AK's entered service. This submachine gun have been manufactured up to In several countries it is being manufactured modernized to some extent nowadays. In 1959 there was a modernization of the submachine gun aimed to increase its technical and operating characteristics. At the same time there were developed the light machine guns with a fixed and folding butt on the basis of the submachine gun "RPK-47".

In 2004, he began promoting his own brand of vodka. He told Reuters Television, "I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things." The new brand is 41% alcohol and sold worldwide with his seal of approval. His son Viktor later became a weapons designer too, his most famous design is the Bizon. Viktor Kalashnikov with Bizon.

Since 2004 the museum of M. T. Kalashnikov has been working. In 2006 the President of Russia V. V. Putin visited this museum.