Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of AK-47, dies at 94

Chivers, who interviewed Mr. Kalashnikov several times, noted that one of the keys to the designer’s success was his natural charm and cooperative attitude. He was helped along by Communist Party ties. He joined the Komsomol, the young communist league, at the railway yard in Kazakhstan and went on to full party membership. Years later he was made a member of the Supreme Soviet, Moscow’s purely ceremonial parliament.

He formed friendships with senior Soviet generals and officials and with his fellow weapons workers, who seemed fond of him. He did confide that he concealed his kulak background for many years. “I was haunted by the fear that someone might find out about my past as a deportee,” he said.

Interviewers regularly asked him what he thought of the damage and suffering his weapons had caused. He usually answered with some variation of what he said in the Kremlin after a celebration of his 90th birthday in 2009.

“I sleep soundly,” he said. “I created a weapon to defend the motherland. It was not my fault that it was sometimes used where it should not have been. That is the fault of politicians.”

Article Appeared @http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mikhail-kalashnikov-inventor-of-ak-47-dies-at-94/2013/12/23/624e40be-6bf5-11e3-b405-7e360f7e9fd2_story.html?hpid=z3

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