Mikhail Kalashnikov, credited with creating the AK-47, is dead at 94

By Bob Owens | 12:28 PM | December 23, 2013

Famous Siberian-born gun designer Mikhail Kalashnikov has died.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose work as a weapons designer for the Soviet Union is immortalized in the name of the world’s most popular firearm, has died at the age of 94.

The AK-47 — “Avtomat Kalashnikov” and the year it went into production — is favored by guerrillas, terrorists and the soldiers of many armies. An estimated 100 million guns are spread worldwide. The AK-47 has been used to kill more people than any other firearm in the world.

Kalashnikov died Monday in a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic where he lived, said Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the Ural republic’s president.

The mythology surrounding Kalashnikov’s creation of the AK-47 is likely as much propaganda as fact, but he nonetheless created the most often copied firearm in world history, and his signature weapon helped shape the world we live in.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun. He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.