Mikhail Kalashnikov

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Mikhail Kalashnikov bigraphy, stories - Heroes

Mikhail Kalashnikov : biography

10 November 1919 –

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov ( born 10 November 1919) is a Russian small arms designer, most famous for developing the AK-47, AKM, and AK-74 assault rifles.

Family

Kalashnikov’s father, Timofey Aleksandrovich Kalashnikov (1883–1930), was a peasant. He completed two grades of parochial school and could read and write. In 1930, he was named a kulak, deprived of property and deported to Siberia, where he died shortly thereafter. In 1901 he married Aleksandra Frolovna Kaverina (1884–1957), who was illiterate through her life. They had 19 children, but only eight survived to the adult age; Kalashnikov was born 17th, and was close to death at age six. The eldest three offsprings, daughters Agasha (b. 1905) and Anna and son Victor, were already married by 1930, and remained in Kuriya when the rest of the family was deported to Siberia. After the death of Timofey Aleksandrovich in 1930, Aleksandra Frolovna remarried Efrem Kosach, a widower who had three children of his own.

Mikhail Kalashnikov married Ekaterina Viktorovna Kalashnikova (1921–1977). She was an engineer and did much technical drawing work for her husband. They had four children: daughters Nelli (b. 1942), Elena (b. 1948) and Natalya (1953–1983), and a son Victor (b. 1942). Victor also became a prominent small arms designer.

Awards

Incorporates information from the corresponding article in the Russian Wikipedia

Mikhail Kalashnikov was twice named Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1998, he was awarded an Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclete.

On his 90th birthday on 10 November 2009, Kalashnikov was named a "Hero of the Russian Federation" and presented with a medal by President Dmitry Medvedev who lauded him for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of."

In 2012, Izhevsk State Technical University was named after Kalashnikov.

Russian Federation

Decorations

  • Hero of the Russian Federation (2009)
  • Order of St. Andrew (2008)
  • Order For Merit to the Fatherland, Second Class (1994)
  • Order of Military Merit (Russia) (2004)

Awards

  • State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of design (1997)
  • Award of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of education (2003)
  • All-Russian Literary Prize of Suvorov (2009)

Honourary diplomas

  • Diploma of the Government of the Russian Federation (1997, 1999)

Medals

  • Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945."
  • Medal "Symbol of Science" (2007)
  • Gold Medal of Zhukov
  • Medal "For outstanding contribution to the development of the collection business in Russia"

Acknowledgements

  • Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (1997, 1999, 2002, 2007)

Soviet

Honours

  • Order of Lenin (1958, 1969, 1976)
  • Order of the October Revolution (1974)
  • Order of the Red Star (1949)
  • Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (1985)
  • Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1957)
  • Order of Friendship of Peoples (1982)

Medals

  • Medal "Hammer and Sickle" (1958,1976)
  • Medal "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
  • Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945."
  • Medal "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
  • Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945."
  • Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945."
  • Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
  • Medal "Veteran of Labor" on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
  • Jubilee Medal "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
  • Jubilee Medal "40 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
  • Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
  • Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
  • Jubilee Medal "70 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
  • Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow"