Summary and Key Points: Mikhail Kalashnikov created the iconic AK-47 after experiencing the inadequacy of Soviet bolt-action rifles against German automatic weapons in World War II. Some experts claim as many as 100 million weapons have been built over the decades.
-Despite lacking formal engineering training, Kalashnikov synthesized elements from existing weapons, notably the American M1 Garand and Germany’s StG 44, producing a durable, reliable assault rifle introduced in 1949.
-Kalashnikov eventually expressed regret as the AK-47 became synonymous with terrorism and global conflict.
-Though Russia produces only a fraction of AK-47s today, unlicensed copies flood international markets, reflecting the weapon’s simple yet effective design. Kalashnikov himself became an international celebrity in later life, known widely for his invention.
How Mikhail Kalashnikov’s AK-47 Changed Warfare Forever
While he lay in a military hospital for six months, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov spent much of his time processing what he was hearing from fellow Soviet soldiers who had faced Hitler’s Wehrmacht in battle.
A few months before, Kalashnikov had been part of a tank crew at the June 1941 Battle of Brody, serving with the Russian 5th and 6th mechanized armies.
These units suffered staggering losses, and Kalashnikov’s tank crew were among them. His tank was set on fire, and the young soldier took a bullet through his shoulder.
While hospitalized with this wound, Kalashnikov began reflecting on what he had learned about German soldiers armed with the famous MP40 machine pistol, and the significant advantage it gave the Germans over the Soviet troops.
Soviet units were equipped with old, and in fact by that point obsolete, bolt-action rifles. These were the standard-issue weapons for troops in the First World War, but by 1941 they were completely inadequate to face off against Hitler’s legions. Among other shortcomings, these rifles were prone to jamming.
As soon as he was released from the hospital, Kalashnikov, despite having no training as an engineer, began to design what became the AK-47 assault rifle. Given this designation because the design process was completed in 1947, the weapon became the standard issue for the Soviet Army in 1949 and is now known throughout the world as the “preferred weapon of the enemy.”
Hybrid of Innovations and AK-47
Analysts of small-arms design call the AK-47 “a hybrid of previous rifle technology innovations.” Kalashnikov, borrowing ideas from the work of other designs, devised an automatic rifle that incorporated the most capable aspects of the American M1 Garand and the German designer Hugo Schmeisser’s StG 44.
Other analysts assess that Kalashnikov copied the work of other Soviet designers as well, such as Tula TsKB-14 design bureau engineer Aleksei Alekseevich Bulkin’s TKB-415 or Sergei Siminov’s AVS-36. David Bolotin’s 1995 book The History of Soviet Small-arms and Ammunition states Kalashnikov had free access to these weapons and their design particulars and saw that he could utilize a number of innovations in them. There was no need to “reinvent the wheel”, which was also a great time-saver.
Rising on the merits of his achievements, Kalashnikov eventually became a Lieutenant General in the Soviet military. His principles, as he described them, required adherence to the concepts of “simplicity of design, ruggedness and ease of maintenance in all conditions.”
A Victim of Success
But by always making these engineering principles the bedrock of any new design, and of all upgrades to an existing weapon, Kalashnikov ended up being described as a victim of his own success. In later years, he confessed to a certain sense of guilt or regret about how the design of his weapon had spread around the world.
“Whenever I look at TV and I see the weapon I invented to defend my motherland in the hands of these bin Ladens, I ask myself the same question: ‘How did it get into their hands?’” he explained. “I didn’t put it in the hands of bandits and terrorists…Can I be blamed that they consider it the most reliable weapon?”
Kalashnikov spent most of the first 70 years of his life living and working in obscurity, and he did not travel outside of Russia until after the fall of Communism. When he began making appearances abroad, it was mostly due to the export of Russian weapons, which became big business in the 1990s.
By 2006, he had become a celebrity who often traveled to international arms expos as part of a Russian delegation. By the age of 86, he was being treated like a combination rock star and elder statesman at these events. He would wear a regular suit jacket, but with his Hero of the Soviet Union and other medals and decorations pinned to it. He also ended up launching his own brand of vodka.
But Kalashnikov’s success elevating the AK-47 brand name did not translate into record sales of the weapon at the Russian production facility, IzhMash. Two decades ago, Vladimir Grodetsky, the CEO of the IzhMash factory, revealed that Russia produces only 10 to 12 percent of the more than 1 million AK-47s purchased on the world market each year.
“The rest are unlicensed copies,” he said in a press conference at the time. All the places now making copies of the AK-47 have made the weapon a symbol synonymous with the conflicts that have erupted across the globe in the past three decades.
“We all thought the fall of communism meant we would see less rather than more of these weapons in use,” said a former special forces operator from a NATO nation. “Now there are ten, twenty, a hundred times more of the AK-47 or its illegal copies floating around. The world is awash in them.”
About the Author and Expertise
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
