death_date children nationality birth_date death_place image_size spouse image occupation death_cause caption native_name_lang birth_place awards parents known_for religion native_name article_title birth_name
23 december 2013 -lrb- aged 94 -rrb- victor daughter ; b. 1942 -rrb- elena -lrb- daughter ; b. -lrb- 1948 -rrb- natalya -lrb- daughter ; 1953 -- 83 -rrb- son ; b. 1942 -rrb- nelli -lrb- russian 10 november 1919 izhevsk , udmurtia , russia 225px ekaterina 77 ; her death -rrb- viktorovna kalashnikova -lrb- née moiseyeva ; 1921 -- michael kalashikov.jpg small arms designer russian lieutenant general gastric hemorrhage mikhail kalashnikov at the kremlin , december 2009 ru kurya , altai krai , russian sfsr ussr 1949 -rrb- lenin prize -lrb- 2 -rrb- hero of the state russian federation order of st. andrew order for merit to prize the fatherland ii cl . -lrb- 1949 -rrb- stalin prize -lrb- aleksandra kalashnikov frolovna kalashnikova -lrb- née kaverina -rrb- timofey aleksandrovich designer of the ak-47 and ak-74 russian orthodox Михаил Тимофеевич Калашников mikhail kalashnikov
 mikhail timofeyevich kalashnikov
mikhail kalashnikov

lieutenant-general mikhail timofeyevich kalashnikov -lrb- ; 10 november 1919 -- 23 december 2013 -rrb- was a russian general , inventor , military engineer , writer and small arms designer .
he is most famous for developing the ak-47 assault rifle and its improvements , akm and ak-74 , as well as the pk machine gun .
kalashnikov was , according to himself , a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weaponry to design arms that achieved battlefield ubiquity .
even though kalashnikov felt sorrow at the weapons ' uncontrolled distribution , he took pride in his inventions and in their reputation for reliability , emphasizing that his rifle is `` a weapon of defense '' and `` not a weapon for offense '' .
