Fox Mulder
Mosca (Russia) | Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventore del noto fucile d’assalto AK-47, è morto in ospedale a Izhevsk, in Russia, all’età di 94 anni. Lo rende noto Viktor Chulkov, portavoce del presidente della repubblica dell’Udmurtia, dove Kalashnikov viveva. L’AK-47, nome composto dalle parole ‘Avtomat Kalashnikov’ e dall’anno in cui venne messo in produzione, viene utilizzato da eserciti, guerriglieri e terroristi in tutto il mondo. Al momento si stima che siano oltre cento milioni gli AK-47 in circolazione. Più volte Kalashnikov ha dichiarato di non sentirsi toccato dal contributo che ha dato alle guerre e ai conflitti nel mondo. “Dormo bene. Sono i politici quelli da biasimare perché non si trova un accordo e si ricorre alla violenza”, disse nel 2007.
Sebbene non sia noto per la sua precisione, la resistenza e la semplicità dell’AK-47 sono esemplari: continua infatti a funzionare anche se pieno di acqua o sabbia, condizioni che provoca invece l’inceppamento di armi più sofisticate come l’M-16 statunitense. “Durante la guerra del Vietnam, i soldati americani spesso abbandonavano gli M-16 per prendere ai vietnamiti uccisi i loro AK-47 e le munizioni”, disse Kalashnikov nel luglio 2007, durante una cerimonia per il 60esimo anniversario del suo fucile. L’adattabilità dell’arma ai conflitti nella giungla e nel deserto la resero quasi perfetta per gli insorti del terzo mondo appoggiati dall’Unione Sovietica, che non solo esportava il fucile, me ne concesse la licenza di produzione in circa 30 Paesi. Lo status dell’arma è talmente celebrato dai rivoluzionari e dai movimenti di liberazione nazionale nel mondo che sulla bandiera del Mozambico è raffigurato un AK-47. Kalashnikov si unì all’Armata rossa nel 1938, mostrando subito le sue doti meccaniche mettendo a punto varie modifiche per i carri armati sovietici.
Nel corso della convalescenza dopo essere stato ferito nel 1941 nella battaglia di Bryansk contro i nazisti, Kalashnikov iniziò a pensare ai fucili automatici che aveva visto in dotazione ai tedeschi, creando una personale versione dell’arma nel 1947 (da qui il nome). “È colpa dei nazisti se sono diventato un progettista di armi, io ho sempre voluto costruire macchinari agricoli”, disse Kalashnikov. Nel 2007 il presidente Vladimir Putin lo elogiò affermando che “il fucile Kalashnikov è un simbolo del genio creativo del nostro popolo”. Nel corso della sua carriera, il progettista venne decorato con diversi riconoscimenti, come quello di eroe del lavoro socialista e il premio Stalin. Tuttavia, non essendo state brevettate, le sue invenzioni non lo resero ricco.[sc:BR]
Russia’s Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of AK-47, dies at 94.
MIKHAIL Kalashnikov, the designer of fabled AK-47 automatic rifle, has died. He was 94.
Kalashnikov once aspired to design farm equipment. But even though his most famous invention – the AK-47 assault rifle – sowed havoc instead of crops, he often said he felt personally untroubled by his contribution to bloodshed.
“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” he said in 2007.
Kalashnikov died in a hospital in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic where he lived, said Viktor Chulkov, a spokesman for the republic’s president. He did not give a cause of death.
Kalashnikov had been hospitalised for the past month with unspecified health problems.
The AK-47 – “Avtomat Kalashnikov” and the year it went into production – is the world’s most popular firearm, favoured by guerrillas, terrorists and the soldiers of many armies. An estimated 100 million guns are spread worldwide.
Though it isn’t especially accurate, its ruggedness and simplicity are exemplary: it performs in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons such as the US M-16.
Mikhail Kalashnikov shows a model of his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle at home in the Ural Mountains city of Izhevsk, east of Moscow, in 2007. Russian media reports that he had died aged 94.
“During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers,” Kalashnikov said in July 2007 at a ceremony marking the rifle’s 60th anniversary.
The weapon’s suitability for jungle and desert fighting made it nearly ideal for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union, and Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries.
The gun’s status among revolutionaries and national-liberation struggles is enshrined on the flag of Mozambique.
Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, began his working life as a railroad clerk. After he joined the Red Army in 1938, he began to show mechanical flair by inventing several modifications for Soviet tanks.
The moment that firmly set his course was in the 1941 battle of Bryansk against Nazi forces, when a shell hit his tank. Recovering from wounds in the hospital, Kalashnikov brooded about the superior automatic rifles he’d seen the Nazis deploy; his rough ideas and revisions bore fruit five years later.
“Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer,” said Kalashnikov. “I always wanted to construct agricultural machinery.”
Mikhail Kalashnikov (R), the Russian inventor of the globally popular AK-47 assault rifle, toasts with then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) during festivities to celebrate his 90th birthday at the Kremlin in 2009. Kalashnikov declared himself a happy man with few regrets.
In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised him, saying “The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people.”
Over his career, he was decorated with numerous honours, including the Hero of Socialist Labor and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize. But because his invention was never patented, he didn’t get rich off royalties.
“At that time in our country patenting inventions wasn’t an issue. We worked for Socialist society, for the good of the people, which I never regret,” he once said.
Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer of the Izmash company that first built the AK-47.
He also travelled the world helping Russia negotiate new arms deals, and he wrote books on his life, about arms and about youth education.
“After the collapse of the great and mighty Soviet Union so much crap has been imposed on us, especially on the younger generation,” he said. “I wrote six books to help them find their way in life.”
Video grab shows Osama Bin Laden firing a AK-47 sub-machine gun at an Al-Qieda base in Afghanistan in 2001.
He said he was proud of his bronze bust installed in his native village of Kurya in the Siberian region of Altai. He said newlyweds bring flowers to the bust.
“They whisper ‘Uncle Misha, wish us happiness and healthy kids,”’ he said. “What other gun designer can boast of that?”
A pre-1991 file photo shows former Iraqi dictatorc smilingly instucting an elderly Kurdish man how to carry his AK-47 assault rifle. Source: news, lapresse
