• Assault mowers Assault mowers Fifty-six years ago, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov of Izhevsk, U.S.S.R., designed a dependable, lightweight 7.62 mm rifle for the Red Army. It was designated the Automatic Kalashnikov-1947 model — AK-47, for short. Since it went into
• Assault mowers
Assault mowers
Fifty-six years ago, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov of Izhevsk, U.S.S.R., designed a dependable, lightweight 7.62 mm rifle for the Red Army. It was designated the Automatic Kalashnikov-1947 model — AK-47, for short.
Since it went into production in 1949, more than 100 million AK-47 variants have been manufactured around the world. Lighter and more dependable than the U.S.-made M-16, the Kalashnikov rifles almost never jam and can withstand massive abuse. They have become the weapon of choice for war, revolution and terrorism, carried by professional warriors and 12-year-old children alike.
Reporter Mark McDonald of the Detroit Free Press recently traveled to Izhevsk to look up the AK’s inventor and namesake. Mr. Kalashnikov, now 84, still puts in a full day’s work at the Izhmash weapons factory, though the plant is now making hunting rifles, burglar alarms and cheap cars. Asked about what he thought about the uses his invention has been put to, Mr. Kalashnikov said, “I’d much rather have invented a machine to make life easier for farmers and peasants — something like a lawn mower.”
