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AK-47 inventor Kalashnikov tormented by feelings of guilt

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Kalashnikov designerMikhail Kalashnikov denied throughout his long life that he bore any responsibility for the millions of deaths caused by his namesake invention, the 100 million-plus AK-47 assault rifles that have been the weapon of choice for guerrillas, terrorists and kidnappers as well as standing armies.

But the soldier-turned-inventor who died last month at age 94 apparently was tormented by feelings of guilt at the end of his life and wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church last April to confess his anguish, the Izvestia daily newspaper reported Monday.

“My soul ache is unbearable and has one irresolvable question: if my rifle took lives, does it mean that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, aged 93, a peasant woman’s son, an Orthodox Christian in faith, is guilty of those people’s deaths, even if they were enemies?” reads the letter, according to the Russia Today translation of the Izvestia story.

“Good and evil coexist side by side, fighting and, worst of all, they resign themselves to each other in the hearts of people – that is what I have come to at the end of this earthly life,” Kalashnikov reportedly wrote to Patriarch Kirill.

A spokesman for the patriarch’s office confirmed the letter dated April 7, 2013, was authentic and that Kirill replied to the vaunted inventor that the church regarded the AK-47 as a weapon that justifiably defended the country during World War II and post-Soviet conflicts.

“The church has a very definite position: when weapons serve to protect the fatherland, the church supports both its creators and the soldiers who use it,” patriarchy spokesman Alexander Volkov told Izvestia [link in Russian]. “He designed this rifle to defend his country, not so terrorists could use it in Saudi Arabia.”

Kalashnikov, who was an atheist throughout his adult life until embracing the Orthodox faith of his peasant parents at age 91, had previously rejected the notion that he bore responsibility for the use to which militants and terrorists put his sturdy automatic rifles with the signature banana-shaped magazines.

“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” Kalashnikov told the Associated Press in a 2007 interview on the 60th anniversary of the AK-47’s production.

Kalashnikov is credited with designing the AK-47 — short for Avtomat Kalashnikova, first produced in 1947 — while recuperating in a hospital after being wounded in the 1941 Battle of Bryansk.

Historians claim the AK-47 changed the nature of combat, as the weapon is relatively light, has few moving parts, remains operable even in sand, mud and humidity and is equally functional in the jungle as on urban streets.

LA Times

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10 responses to “AK-47 inventor Kalashnikov tormented by feelings of guilt”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Wow .. near the end, saw the light.
    But the one who invents a viable reliable machine, or discovers how to utilize a property of physics, is not usually the one who uses the same thing for evil purposes. The ‘human’ discovered how to make fire, good for cooking and pottery-making. Only a few decided to throw other humans into it.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Wow .. near the end, saw the light.
    But the one who invents a viable reliable machine, or discovers how to utilize a property of physics, is not usually the one who uses the same thing for evil purposes. The ‘human’ discovered how to make fire, good for cooking and pottery-making. Only a few decided to throw other humans into it.

  3. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
    Maborlz Ez-Hari

    Same principle applies to many inventions that aren’t used for their intended purpose. He can’t help the fact that many human scum adore his invention and carry it like it’s their right. If he felt guilty it’s only because of the zombies that continued to use them. He was a clever engineer you won’t find his type anywhere near the middle east, but zombies on the otherhand are plentiful. AK-47 is the weapon of the era, and it won’t be retired too soon not while some monkeys have them emblazoned on their flags.

  4. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
    Maborlz Ez-Hari

    Same principle applies to many inventions that aren’t used for their intended purpose. He can’t help the fact that many human scum adore his invention and carry it like it’s their right. If he felt guilty it’s only because of the zombies that continued to use them. He was a clever engineer you won’t find his type anywhere near the middle east, but zombies on the otherhand are plentiful. AK-47 is the weapon of the era, and it won’t be retired too soon not while some monkeys have them emblazoned on their flags.

  5. Btru2u Avatar
    Btru2u

    This guys soul knows what it has done , and admits to feeling guilty. How he will be judged will be based on his original intentions . He first says his soul aches then later says he sleeps well. So I’m not sure where his conscience is at .
    He doesn’t sound too sincere to me. He made his money , and lived a long life, that’s all he wanted , right.
    Well now it’s time for the devil to cash in on his soul. That’s the feeling I get .

    1. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
      Maborlz Ez-Hari

      Ok he feels regret we can’t judge him but how about the likes of Osama bin zubri and hezbshaiton and the psycho jihadist that worship the things.

  6. Btru2u Avatar
    Btru2u

    This guys soul knows what it has done , and admits to feeling guilty. How he will be judged will be based on his original intentions . He first says his soul aches then later says he sleeps well. So I’m not sure where his conscience is at .
    He doesn’t sound too sincere to me. He made his money , and lived a long life, that’s all he wanted , right.
    Well now it’s time for the devil to cash in on his soul. That’s the feeling I get .

    1. Maborlz Ez-Hari Avatar
      Maborlz Ez-Hari

      Ok he feels regret we can’t judge him but how about the likes of Osama bin zubri and hezbshaiton and the psycho jihadist that worship the things.

  7. Btru2u Avatar
    Btru2u

    Here Hassani shares his top 10 outstanding Muslim inventions:
    1. Surgery
    Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a medical reference for the next 500 years. Among his many inventions, Zahrawi discovered the use of dissolving cat gut to stitch wounds — beforehand a second surgery had to be performed to remove sutures. He also reportedly performed the first caesarean operation and created the first pair of forceps.
    2. Coffee
    Now the Western world’s drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey, but not until the 16th century did the beans start boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian trader.
    3. Flying machine
    “Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly,” said Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before falling to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci’s hundreds of years later, said Hassani.
    4. University
    In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the center will remind people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around the world today.
    5. Algebra
    The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician’s famous 9th century treatise “Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala” which translates roughly as “The Book of Reasoning and Balancing.” Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.
    6. Optics
    “Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world,” says Hassani. Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that humans see objects by light reflecting off of them and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and Ptolemy’s theories that light was emitted from the eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains how the eye sees images upright due to the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.
    7. Music
    Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba, according to Hassani. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.
    8. Toothbrush
    According to Hassani, the Prophet Mohammed popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.
    9. The crank
    Many of the basics of modern automatics were first put to use in the Muslim world, including the revolutionary crank-connecting rod system. By converting rotary motion to linear motion, the crank enables the lifting of heavy objects with relative ease. This technology, discovered by Al-Jazari in the 12th century, exploded across the globe, leading to everything from the bicycle to the internal combustion engine.
    10. Hospitals
    “Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt,” explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it — a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.

  8. Btru2u Avatar
    Btru2u

    Here Hassani shares his top 10 outstanding Muslim inventions:
    1. Surgery
    Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a medical reference for the next 500 years. Among his many inventions, Zahrawi discovered the use of dissolving cat gut to stitch wounds — beforehand a second surgery had to be performed to remove sutures. He also reportedly performed the first caesarean operation and created the first pair of forceps.
    2. Coffee
    Now the Western world’s drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey, but not until the 16th century did the beans start boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian trader.
    3. Flying machine
    “Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly,” said Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before falling to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci’s hundreds of years later, said Hassani.
    4. University
    In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the center will remind people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around the world today.
    5. Algebra
    The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician’s famous 9th century treatise “Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala” which translates roughly as “The Book of Reasoning and Balancing.” Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.
    6. Optics
    “Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world,” says Hassani. Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that humans see objects by light reflecting off of them and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and Ptolemy’s theories that light was emitted from the eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains how the eye sees images upright due to the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.
    7. Music
    Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba, according to Hassani. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.
    8. Toothbrush
    According to Hassani, the Prophet Mohammed popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.
    9. The crank
    Many of the basics of modern automatics were first put to use in the Muslim world, including the revolutionary crank-connecting rod system. By converting rotary motion to linear motion, the crank enables the lifting of heavy objects with relative ease. This technology, discovered by Al-Jazari in the 12th century, exploded across the globe, leading to everything from the bicycle to the internal combustion engine.
    10. Hospitals
    “Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt,” explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it — a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.

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