The biography of Kalashnikov Mikhail Timofeevich personifies a certain image of the Soviet dream. His life path is the road of a man who, being one of the children of a large family, at the cost of his work and design talent created his own name in his own country and around the world.
Kalashnikov Mikhail. Biography. Childhood and youth
Mikhail Timofeevich became the seventeenth child in the family of a peasant from a small village in the Altai Territory. It happened in November 1919. Subsequently, of all the children, only eight survived. When Misha was only ten years old, his family was recognized by the Soviet authorities as kulaky and exiled to an even more deaf village in the Tomsk region. From an early age, the future designer was fond of technology, geometry, physics. A lot has succeeded in this on the school bench. Already in his teens, he first became acquainted with weapons, when he personally disassembled an American-made Browning pistol.
Kalashnikov Mikhail. Biography. Army service
After leaving school, the young man worked for some time in a railway depot, but at the age of nineteen, in 1938, he was drafted into the Red Army. Here he takes an army course of junior commanders and receives the specialty of a tank driver-mechanic. His service took place in the Kiev military district. It was here that in the prewar years he began to show outstanding inventive abilities. For example, he developed an inertial counter that counted the number of shots of a tank gun, and he also improved the then widely used TT pistol.
Kalashnikov Mikhail. Biography. Years of World War II
The young officer by chance turned out to be one of those who were destined to be on urgent
service just at the time of German aggression (and among these children born in 1918-1922 subsequently the highest proportion of those killed was noted, since they were the first on behalf of an unprepared army to restrain the onslaught of Blitzkrieg). In the first months of the war, the
senior sergeant was a member of the
tank division. However, in the defense of Bryansk in the fall of 1941, he was seriously wounded and was shell-shocked. But, even while in the hospital, he found an opportunity to contribute to the liberation of the country. Here he conceived and, being in the rear, brought to life the design of a new submachine gun. Unfortunately, the sample, although it was made, but did not enter service. However, the undoubted talent of Kalashnikov was sufficiently manifested. Since 1942, he has served at the Central Research Range of Small Arms at the Main Artillery Directorate. In particular, by 1944 he had developed a self-loading carbine, which later formed the basis of the world famous assault rifle.
Kalashnikov Mikhail. Biography. Post-war years
In 1947, the first version of the Kalashnikov assault rifle appeared, which immediately became the best according to the results of field competitive tests among similar
projects. By 1949, the machine was finally finalized and entered service with the
Soviet army. Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose biography was an eloquent example of dedication and work for the good of the motherland, was deservedly assigned to the
Stalin Prize of the first degree. And his brainchild in the 1950s and 70s gained tremendous popularity around the world, becoming one of the main symbols of the power of the Soviet state. The designer continued to optimize and improve small arms. In particular, the Kalashnikov assault rifle has survived several major modernizations for half a century. And its creator was awarded the titles of the Hero of Soc. Labor (in 1958 and 1976), the orders "For Merit to the Fatherland", "St. Andrew the First-Called" (1999) and many others.