AK-47 Designer Kalashnikov Wrote Penitent Letter

In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.

The Russian daily Izvestia on Monday published the letter, in which Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, he writes that he kept asking himself if he was responsible. The AK-47 is the world’s most popular firearm, with an estimated 100 million spread around the world.

“The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people’s lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, … am responsible for people’s deaths,” he said in the letter.

Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind.

Kalashnikov’s daughter, Elena, was quoted by Izvestia as saying that a local priest could have helped her father write the two-page letter, which was typed and carried his signature.

The rifle’s simplicity and reliability made it a weapon of choice for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union. Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries.

The letter, which was sent in April, contrasted sharply with past statements by Kalashnikov, who had repeatedly said in interviews and public speeches that he created the weapon to protect his country and couldn’t be blamed for other people’s action.

“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” the designer told The Associated Press in 2007.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the January 14th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.