A Russian general, inventor, military engineer and writer, Mikhail Kalashnikov (1919-2013) is best known for inventing the AK-47 assault rifle.
Born in a peasant family in Kurya in the Altai region of Russia, Kalashnikov enlisted in the Russian army in 1938.
In 1941, during the Second World War, he was injured in the Battle of Bryansk. From his hospital bed, he started working on an automatic rifle design. He then won a weapons design contest that led to the development of the AK-47, which since 1947 has become one of the most sought after assault rifles around the world.
Today, over 100 million AK-47s have been manufactured and is the weapon of choice for both the military personnel across the world as well as terrorists - which led the inventor to once remark that it was "painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon".
The "AK" in AK-47 stands for "Avtomat Kalashnikov" or "Automatic Kalshnikov".
