A LOT OF PEOPLE ASK ME HOW I SLEEP - AK-47 Designer Mikhail Kalashnikov

'A LOT OF PEOPLE ASK ME HOW I SLEEP': Designer of the AK47 says he gets ample rest -

IZHEVSK, Russia -- The first snow of the season was pelting his country cottage -- too cold and wet for hunting -- so the dapper little general had retreated to the warmth of his kitchen. There was a wheel of Camembert on the table, some dark bread and sliced pears, and a bottle of Armenian brandy. He swirled some of the brandy in a snifter and tried to explain about all the blood and tears of the past half-century.

"A lot of people ask me how I sleep, because of all the people who've been killed with my guns," said Mikhail Kalashnikov, 84, designer of the renowned AK47 assault rifle.

His light, inexpensive, virtually indestructible guns -- "they're like my children," he said recently -- long have been the weapons of choice for armies from Vietnam to China and from Angola to Cuba. They've also been used by terrorists, freedom fighters, guerrillas and gangsters.

The Kalashnikov has been the primary weapon -- often for both sides -- in most of the 40-odd wars of the past decade. Military historians say there are 100 million AKs in the world today.

"But it's not the designer's fault or the weapon's fault when terrible things happen; it's the politicians'," said Kalashnikov, a former major general. "It's because the politicians are unable to reach peaceful agreements. I must say I sleep quite soundly."

But what does he think about the ruthless Russian mafiosi who also use his AKs? What about the Chechen terrorists, the Taliban, the drug-addled boy-soldiers of Liberia and Sierra Leone?

"I'd much rather have invented a machine to make life easier for farmers and peasants -- something like a lawn mower," he said.

During the Vietnam War, many U.S. soldiers admired the enemy's lighter guns. They almost never jammed, even in wet, muddy or sandy conditions. They were easier to carry, clean and shoot.

"The AK is in some way 'the equalizer,' a tag attached to various firearms in the Wild West," said Max Boot, author of "The Savage Wars of Peace."

For all the gun's global success, the Russian military thinks it's finally found a new assault rifle for the 21st Century. It's called the AN94, nicknamed the Nikonov, after its designer.

"There's less recoil, so it's much more accurate," said Maxim Pyadushkin, a Russian military expert. "The Kalashnikov era is about to be over."

But the Russian military has been field-testing the Nikonov, and the reviews from paratroopers and commandos have been decidedly mixed. Also, since the Russian army is largely broke and can't afford 300,000 new guns, the Kalashnikov could well be around for another generation.

Concern for hedgehogs Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov is a snub-nosed pistol of a gentleman, with hair so silver it looks nickel-plated. Six decades of test firings have left him half-deaf, but he's got a ready smile, almost boyish, and a handshake that's just right.

The long-widowed general keeps a modest apartment on Soviet Street in downtown Izhevsk, a drab industrial city in central Russia, and he has a tidy lakeside cottage just outside of town.

His latest inventions include a new kind of hidden lock for his tool shed, a simple but deadly contraption for killing moles in his garden, a collapsible canvas boat, a portable grill he takes on fishing trips and a new shelter for the hedgehogs.

Kalashnikov still heads the team of small-arms designers at the Izhmash weapons complex, though the government-owned factory makes few military weapons these days. The plant is trying to finance itself by making hunting rifles, burglar alarms and a tinny $3,000 car called the Oda.

Very few AK47s actually were made. The original gun -- the name is an abbreviation of Automatic Kalashnikov 1947 -- was designed that year and went into production in '49. It was soon tweaked and became the AKM. The M stands for modernized.

There have been subsequent modifications; the current AK100 series can carry grenade launchers and night sights. Also, in a nod to real commerce and realpolitik, the AK101 has been designed to fire the 5.56mm NATO cartridge. So, East meets West.

Kalashnikov clothes for kids Kalashnikov's relations with Izhmash managers have become strained. They refuse to make a hunting rifle he's designed, and they're unhappy about his family's demands for compensation.

The company owns the patent on the Kalashnikov designs, and its designer has never received a single ruble in royalties.

"People say to me, 'Aren't you angry that you're not a millionaire? In the West, you'd be rich,' " said the former major general.

"But why do people always render things in terms of dollars? I was decorated by our leaders. And what other designer has a monument to him? Who has a museum built in his name while he's still alive? Aren't these things of value, too?"

Finally, though, there's some real money in his bank account: His grandson, a budding MBA, recently struck a deal to put the Kalashnikov name on a new line of everyday products.

The first items: a German-made pocketknife and a Swiss-made military-style watch. On the drawing boards: an umbrella, clothes for children and hunters, and a vodka.

Bio

Mikhail Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in the village of Kurya, Altai Territory, to a peasant family. Mikhail was the seventeenth child of Timofel and Alexandra Kalashnikov. On finishing the 9th form of a secondary school, Kalashnikov went to work in the Matai depot as an apprentice and was subsequently a technical clerk in the employ of a Turkistan-Sibenan railway department.

In 1938, Kalashnikov was called up for military service, served in the Kiev special military district and graduated from a school of tank drivers. During his service, Kalashnikov showed his worth in invention. He devised an inertia revolution counter to register the number of actual shots from a tank gun, made a special appliance for the TT pistol to enhance fire effectiveness through tank turret slits and designed a tank running time meter.

In June I94I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, as an inventor, was sent by military district commander General of the Army G.K. Zhukov to Leningrad to implement his recent invention. From the outset of the Great Patriotic War senior sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov fought against fascist invaders as a tank commander. In October 1941 he was seriously wounded in the violent battle of Bryansk.

While in hospital, Kalashnikov conceived the idea of a submachine gun. Later, while on a six-month sick leave, he came to the Matai depot and, assisted by the depot personnel, realized his invention is the depot shops. With the submachine gun he left for Alma-Ata. Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Kaishingulov sent the inventor to the Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute which had been evacuated to Alma-Ata. A second model of Kalashnikov's submachine gun was devised and made in the shops of the Institute aviation ordnance department. In June 1942 the model was sent for reference to the Dzerzhinsky Ordnance Academy located in Samarkand.

A.A Blagonravov, an outstanding Soviet small arms specialist, displayed interest in senior sergeant Kalashnikov's submachine gun, Although the submachine gun was not recommended for service, the talent, efforts and original design approaches of the self-taught designer were highly appreciated. In 1942 Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central Research Small Arms Range of the Main Ordnance Directorate of the Red Army.

In 1944 Mikhail Kalashnikov devised a prototype of the self-loading carbine; its main assemblies were used as a basis for an assault rifle made in 1946. In 1947, Kalashnikov's updated assault rifle displayed high reliability and fire effectiveness during arduous competitive tests and was found best. In 1949, after modifications, the assault rifle, designated "Kalashnikov 7.62mm assault rifle, make 1947 (AK)," became operational in the Soviet Army and Mikhail Kalashnikov received the Stalin Prize First Class.

Since 1949 Mikhail Kalashnikov has been living and working in Izhevsk. He worked his way up from soldier to General Designer of small arms in the Soviet Army.

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