The story of "Kalashnikov" .. Poet turned into a gun and died regretfully

Dozens of children from the Russian "Youth Army" with their light brown uniforms and red hats tour the exhibition dedicated to Mikhail Kalashnikov, watching through glass facades on the first models of the "AK-47", the most famous gun in the world.

Russia is celebrating the centenary of Mikhail Kalashnikov, a simple Soviet soldier who dreamed of being a poet before designing his rifle of unprecedented lightness and ease of use even for a relatively long time.

In order to celebrate the occasion, the Russian authorities brought to Moscow the collection displayed in the Kalashnikov Museum in the city of Izhevsk (Ural), where the factory bearing the name of the man and his hometown.

The exhibition "Kalashnikov; soldier - designer - legend" will remain in the Museum of Victory in the Russian capital until November 20, and later transferred to the Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Kalashnikov died in 2013 (born 1919), the 17th of 19 children born to a rural family in the Russian Altai Republic. In 1941, he was wounded while driving a tank, and during the recovery he began to paint and design his rifle from the German weapon he saw in the field.

After failing an army competition, the 1947 automatic Kalashnikov asserted itself and became part of the Soviet soldier's hardware. To date, more than 100 million items have been produced, a weapon with about 50 armies in the world and one of the components of the emblem on the Mozambican flag.

Soviet propaganda promoted him as a means of defense, but the first uses of that new weapon were part of repressive actions, such as in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956, and also to bring down civilians trying to cross the Iron Curtain. C. Chevers in his book "Venice."

The Soviet Union shared this success with the "sister countries" of the Warsaw Pact. But the legendary gun escaped from it, as the collapse of the Union boosted the spread of this weapon and its widespread use among civilians.

The AK-47 is manufactured around the world and has, over time, become a guerrilla weapon, as well as shootings in American schools.

His ease of use led him to be placed in the hands of child soldiers recruited in several parts of the world. It is also used for illegal hunting, a protected guards weapon in Africa.

This gun was very popular in the Middle East, especially among the Palestinian factions and in Lebanon during the civil war (1975-1990).

In France, "Kalash" is a weapon used in the Paris attacks, and is also used to settle scores among drug traffickers in Marseille, often from the former Yugoslavia from the stores of the former Marshal Tito, and sold in Europe for less than a thousand euros.

In Afghanistan, journalist K. C. Chevers AK-47 weapons manufactured in Izhevsk in 1953, which are still used by Afghan soldiers. But this gun rose in the face of its factory during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, as did in Chechnya.

In the exhibition, members of the "Youth Army" launched by President Vladimir Putin in 2015, take pictures of "Sylvie" with the famous Venice in the corridors of the Victory Museum in Moscow dedicated to the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

"Our fingers hurt at first, but it becomes very easy later," says Maxim, who learned to assemble the rifle.

"We hope he grows up and not only gives us weapons, but new inventions in other areas," says the deputy director of the Izhevsk Museum, Alexander Armakov.

The weapons are "not designed to attack, but to defend the homeland," he said, stressing that "the presence of the AK-47 everywhere, even in the hands of terrorists, is not Kalashnikov's fault, but the politicians' fault."

"What he was doing at the factory and what he invented was surrounded by secrecy. We didn't know anything," says Nelly Kalashnikov, 77, the daughter of the famous Venetian designer.

After the death of Kalashnikov, there were many ways to honor him. Among them is a monument in Moscow in 2017, showing him carrying his rifle. The man achieved a lot of fame but no material return, as intellectual property was collective in the Soviet Union.

In 2004, the family successfully registered the trademark for other products, but was withdrawn by a court in 2014.

Shortly before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov expressed regret. "My pain is unbearable," he wrote to the head of the Russian church. "If my gun robbed human life, am I responsible?"

Currently, the Kalashnikov Group (as it was named in 2013) manufactures 95% of Russian light weapons and exports them to 27 countries. The famous Venice reached its fifth generation.

After the entry of private shareholders into the group in 2014, new models and an export focus were introduced despite US sanctions on the institution.

It has also been changing its image with the launch of tools sold in stores, as well as civilian products. In early 2017, the country became a minority in the group.