This Man Invented The Deadliest Weapon of The 20th Century, And Was Tortured by It

What’s the deadliest weapon of the 20th century?

Maybe you suppose first of the atomic bomb, estimated to have killed as many as 200,000 individuals when america dropped two on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

However one other weapon is answerable for way more deaths – numbering up into the tens of millions. It is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, generally often called the AK-47.

Initially developed in secrecy for the Soviet navy, an estimated 100 million AK-47s and its variants have been produced so far. This gun is now discovered all through the world, together with within the fingers of many American civilians, who in 2012 purchased as many AK-47s because the Russian police and navy.

As a doctor, I’ve witnessed the destruction this weapon can wreak on human flesh.

Kalashnikov’s invention

Russian Mikhail Kalashnikov invented the weapon that bears his title in the midst of the 20th century. Born on Nov. 10, 1919, Kalashnikov was a tank mechanic within the Soviet navy throughout the Second World Battle. He was wounded throughout the German invasion of the us in 1941.

Having seen firsthand the fight benefit conferred by Germany’s superior firearms, Kalashnikov resolved to develop a greater weapon. Whereas nonetheless within the navy, he produced a number of designs that misplaced out to opponents earlier than finally producing the primary AK-47.

The title of Kalashnikov’s best invention stands for Automat Kalashnikova 1947, the 12 months it was first produced.

In 1949, the AK-47 grew to become the assault rifle of the Soviet Military. Later adopted by different nations within the Warsaw Pact, the weapon shortly unfold around the globe, changing into an emblem of revolution in such far-flung lands as Vietnam, Afghanistan, Colombia and Mozambique, on whose flag it figures prominently.

Over the course of his lengthy life, Kalashnikov continued to tweak his traditional design. In 1959, manufacturing started on his AKM, which changed the AK-47’s milled receiver with one made from stamped metallic, making it each lighter and cheaper to provide.

He additionally developed the cartridge-fed PK machine gun. Modified AK-47s are nonetheless in manufacturing in nations around the globe.

The AK-47’s benefits and abundance

Why was the AK-47 such a revolutionary rifle?

It’s comparatively cheap to provide, quick and light-weight to hold, and simple to make use of, with little recoil. It additionally boasts legendary reliability underneath harsh circumstances starting from waterlogged jungles to Center Japanese sandstorms, in each excessive chilly and warmth.

It additionally requires comparatively little upkeep. This stems from its giant fuel piston and broad clearances between transferring components, which assist to stop it from jamming.

Kalashnikov preferred to boast in regards to the rifle’s superiority to the American navy’s M-16 rifle.

“Throughout the Vietnam Battle,” he stated in a 2007 interview, “American troopers would throw away their M-16s to seize AK-47s and bullets for it from useless Vietnamese troopers. And I hear American troopers in Iraq use it very often.”

The world’s most plentiful firearm can be properly suited to crime and terrorism. The hostage-takers who stormed the Olympic Village in Munich in 1972 had been armed with Kalashnikovs, and mass shooters within the U.S. have used semi-automatic variations of the weapon in killings in Stockton, California, and Dallas.

The US navy has acted as a distributor of the weapon in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. With a service lifetime of 20 to 40 years, AKs are simply relocated and repurposed.

As we speak, world costs typically run within the tons of of , however some AK-47s may be had for as little as US$50. The massive worldwide manufacturing of the weapon, notably in nations with low labor prices, has pushed costs downward.

Kalashnikov’s legacy

For his labors, the Soviet Union awarded Kalashnikov the Stalin Prize, the Pink Star and the Order of Lenin. In 2007, President Vladimir Putin singled out the Kalashnikov rifle as “an emblem of the artistic genius of our individuals.”

Kalashnikov died a nationwide hero in 2013 on the age of 94.

All through most of his life, Kalashnikov rebuffed makes an attempt to saddle him with guilt over the huge variety of killings and accidents inflicted together with his invention. He insisted that he had developed it for protection, not offense.

When a reporter requested in 2007 how he may sleep at night time, he replied, “I sleep properly. It’s the politicians who’re responsible for failing to come back to an settlement and resorting to violence.”

But within the last 12 months of his life, Kalashnikov might have skilled a change of coronary heart. He wrote a letter to the top of the Russian Orthdox Church, saying, “The ache in my soul is insufferable. I preserve asking myself the identical unsolvable query: If my assault rifle took individuals’s lives, that implies that I’m answerable for their deaths.”

It is a perennial debate: What kills? Weapons, or those that carry them? On the backside of the letter, he signed it, “a slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.”

Richard Gunderman, Chancellor’s Professor of Medication, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana College.

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