Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was a Russian Lieutenant-General, inventor, military engineer, writer and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the PK machine gun and RPK light machine gun.
Kalashnikov had said he never intended for the rifle to become the preferred weapon in conflicts around the world.
He wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in May 2012, wondering if he was responsible for the many deaths caused by the weapon he had created.
Before his death on the 23 of December 2013, he wrote a letter to the Russian Patriarch, Kalashnikov wrote that one question was causing pain to his soul. He wrote this:
“I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people’s lives, then can it be that I… a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?” he wrote.
“The longer I live, the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression.”
Today, AK-47 has become a global terrorist arm choice. the rifle and its variants are the weapons of choice for dozens of armies and guerrilla groups around the world.
More than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have been sold worldwide and are wielded by fighters in conflict zones as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
He never invented it with a wrong motive.
