The gunsmith who changed the world

Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov died on the evening of December 23 at the 95th year of his life in the clinical and diagnostic center of Udmurtia on the evening of December 23. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health of the Republic reported the exact time of the death of the legendary gunsmith - it was not at 19 hours 14 minutes.

Kalashnikov died after a long illness, but the exact causes of death are still unknown - they will be announced only after opening the body, which is necessarily carried out in the event of the death of patients in intensive care.

The Kremlin’s website has already published condolences from President Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev commented on the sad news on his Facebook page.

On Tuesday night, the police took under guard all the entrances to the hospital, where he spent the last days of his life Kalashnikov. Police also bypassed the territory adjacent to the hospital.

Elena Kuznetsova, deputy head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Udmurtia, explained to Interfax that posts were exhibited at the request of the medical staff to preserve the peace of patients. In particular, the police do not let journalists into the hospital.

Kalashnikov was in the intensive care unit of the clinical and diagnostic center of Udmurtia since November 17. This was his third hospitalization over the past six months. The gunsmith went to the hospital a few days after his birthday - he was hospitalized with gastric bleeding. The son of the designer Victor then noted that his father’s health worsened due to his birthday experiences, which was celebrated on November 10. The last few days, even their relatives have not been allowed to Kalashnikov. It was reported that he is in serious condition.

After it became known about the death of the gunsmith, the police asked the Izhevsk residents to carry flowers to the museum named after Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, who is located near the Holy Mikhailovsky Cathedral in the capital of Udmurtia. Flowers can also be carried to the Axion, Izhmash plant, Kalashnikov IZHSTU and the Izhevsk Monument.

Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919 in the Altai village of Kurya and was the seventeenth child in a peasant family. Kalashnikov thought about the invention of the new model of the machine gun during the war, in the hospital, after he was wounded near Bryansk in 1941. In 1947, the machine, later named after him, won the competition and was adopted as AK-47. Subsequently, the weapon was modified several times, and in total over 70 million machine guns were collected in the world. Now the designer is named the concern “Kalashnikov”, which includes the Izhmash and Izhevsk Mechanical Plant factories.

It is already known that the leadership of the Kalashnikov concern plans to arrange a museum in the former office of the famous gunsmith.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, in 2009 he became the hero of the Russian Federation. In addition, the designer is a laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes.

According to the estimates of the International Research Organization, Small Arms Survey, the Kalashnikov and Kalashnikovization Cult became common terms describing the weapons traditions of many countries of the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa. AK-47 adorns the coats of arms of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Burkina-Faso (from 1984 to 1997) and East Timor, RBC reports.

In 2012, the Kalashnikova assault rifle, painted by the British artist Damien Hurst, was sold at a charity auction in London for 89 thousand dollars.

In addition, the Kalashnikov assault rifle got into the Guinness Book of Records as the most common small arms in the world, and Playboy magazine put the AK-47 in fourth place in the list of 50 products that changed the world. Only the Apple Macintosh computer, a contraceptive tablet and a Sony Betamax video recorder were ahead.

Not only Russian, but also foreign media reacted to the death of the gunsmith. True, they are quite ambiguous in assessments. Remembering Kalashnikov, Washington Rost writes about him as a creator of deadly weapons, which was adopted by "national armies, terrorists, dragon-lodges, banks, revolutionaries and jihadists." Kalashnikov himself said: “Sometimes I am deeply upset, seeing how my weapons designed is used in international military conflicts. But this cannot be an excuse to stop production. If we do not produce machine guns, someone else will do it. ”

Kalashnikov will be buried in Izhevsk. His relatives have already addressed the republican authorities with a proposal to bury the gunsmith near the Holy Mikhailov Cathedral. According to the Christian tradition, the funeral should be scheduled for December 25, however, according to preliminary information, they will take place on December 26 - this is done so that foreign guests are able to say goodbye to the designer who are going to come to Udmurtia.

The press secretary of the President of Udmurtia, Viktor Chulkov, added that the funeral will most likely be held in one of the Izhevsk cemeteries. The entire organization will take over the authorities of the republic.