Kalashnikov: A weapon of choice

By Maharaj K. Koul

"It (AK-47) is a means of securing peace. I feel sad when I hear about its misuse."

— Gen Mikhail Kalashnikov

FROM the killing fields of Grozny to the murderous snow-clad valleys of Jammu and Kashmir, or for that matter, a gun-toting Sean Connery in a 007 Bond movie, you have got to have a Kalashnikov to make the picture absorbing. There are more than 700 million Kalashnikovs in every violence-marred street of the globe, and it won’t be an exaggeration to say that till date the gun has probably killed more people across the globe than the two atom bombs.

The Russian military is celebrating the 50th anniversary of General Kalashnikov’s child, the AK-47, this year. The Museum of Armed Forces in the national capital, Moscow, recently organised an exhibition on this light weapon that was once famously used by a North Vietnamese soldier to kill 78 Americans in the Vietnam war.

Very few weapons have become as famous as the AK-47. Part of the reason is the need for it. Nearly two - thirds of the world’s nations are experiencing domestic or inter-state armed conflicts that have resulted in more casualties than were recorded in World War II. And the nations which are not affected by ethnic or separatist movements are facing newer forms of violence like socio-religious disturbances.

During the last five decades of wars, uprisings and lesser forms of violence, the AK-47s has proved to be the most effective weapon of choice not only in the erstwhile Soviet Union and its allies but throughout the world. One-third of all nations possess it. And according to defence experts, every 45th person in the world carries an AK-47. Nearly 15 countries have licensed production rights of this gun in some form or the other.

Kalashnikovs have been hailed for their simplicity and ruggedness as much as their fire power. In tests these have performed flawlessly after being buried in muck or sand. This easy-to-carry 4.5 kg lethal weapon is not only highly mobile and thus preferred by the infantry but also has a minimum fire power of 600 rpm. A high degree of mobility is ensured from the fact that its parts can be carried in a small briefcase and a trained gunman can assemble it in half an hour. Its accuracy is above average, and besides being easily available, is moderately priced.

The story of the Kalashnikov’s birth goes like this. As a 22-year-old tank Sergeant in the Red Army, Mikhail Kalashnikov, was thrown into the thick of battle at Bryansk against the seemingly invincible Nazis in 1941, he was injured and it was while lying on the hospital bed that the fluid idea of a Kalashnikov took shape to make history.

The Russians had no answer to the Nazis’ superior Schmeisser. Kalashnikov, a civil designer by profession, did not have any formal training in weaponry. He had assembled pistols as a kid. After coming out of the hospital he racked his brains, and after almost five years of painstaking efforts came out with the first prototype of the Kalashnikov.

Since then, the crude, if one may call it thus, AK-47 has seen many improvements. The Avtomat Kalashnikov (AK-47) was commissioned into the Soviet Army in 1951. Today, there are dozens of members of the AK clan — namely AK-52, AK-56, AK-57 and AK-72, that have entered the weapons market.

To this date General Kalashnikov himself has introduced more than a 100 modifications in the AK-47. Even the calibre of the original AK-47 has been changed from 7.62 mm to 5.45 mm. "The use of guns with smaller calibre in the Vietnam war by the Americans forced me to reduce the calibre to make the gun effective in those circumstances. But I would still prefer the 7.62 mm calibre for the AK-47," the General reasons. Recently, he came out with an album of his guns, which depicts over 100 modified versions of the AK-47, which in its original form could fire more than 100 shots a minute.

General Mikhail Kalashnikov, the ‘father of machine gun’, if one may call him thus, was in New Delhi recently. He had come to attend the India International Civil and Defence Equipment and Systems Exhibition. At 77 the General is a picture of enthusiasm and hyperactivity. The man who first gave us the scourge called AK-47 Assault Rifle 50 years ago is bubbling with ideas even today. He is either working on new ways to improve his already improved design or is attending arms bazaars all over the world, with a gleam of pride in his small eyes whenever he finds a gun based on his masterpiece.

Designers, says the General, are like a tree and its branches, working on new ideas till the end. His latest invention is the Saig MK No. 2, a hunting rifle, and is very much modelled after his AK-47.

A man of few words, General Kalashnikov is reluctant to talk about his background. "Wait for my biography to come out. It will detail my life, my work and my passion," he told reporters in New Delhi. "All I have to say is that my father was a simple farmer. I spent 10 years in school. Then it all ended for me," he adds. "I learnt mechanical acumen from my life. I am a technical doctor, a professor and an academician," the General says.

Though the invention of AK-47 did not fetch General Kalashnikov much in terms of money, it did get him three Orders of Lenin. He has now been awarded one of the Yeltsin Government’s highest decorations for Service to the Fatherland. The retired General lives frugally in the remote town of Izhevsk in Siberia on the government’s modest pension.

No gun, in the history of weaponry, has enjoyed the kind of glamour that one usually associates with a Kalashnikov. And, Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s acknowledgement that it is perhaps the greatest gun ever made does not seem out of place.

The General himself is not perturbed by the trail of destruction that his invention has left behind. He says: "I have nothing to do with destruction that my invention carries with it. An armament in itself never kills anybody. It is the people using it who have to decide and that is where the fault lies. I will again repeat that I never made the machine gun for people to fight with each other."

Unlike Alfred Nobel, Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, General Kalashnikov has "no qualms" about inventing a deadly weapon. "Arms-making is my occupation, hobby and future," he declares.

Right now he is busy working on hunter guns. As if to atone for a sin that he has not done, General Kalashnikov is concentrating on designing such harmless guns that cannot be used for any military purposes. Meanwhile, his clan of AKs continues to spill blood all over the earth!