On November 10, 1919, he was born in a rural area in Siberia, the Soviet Union. He had 19 brothers and sisters in a poor family. When he was 6 years old, he contracted a serious illness and almost died, but thanks to God's favor, he survived.
He has a strong desire to do things and always likes to come up with some ingenious little inventions. Seeing that his parents were working very hard, he wanted to use the agricultural machinery he designed to relieve his parents' burden. He often failed, but never gave up. While in school, he invented a simple lawn mower and a barbecue rack that could turn the barbecue on the skewer all at once.
On June 2, 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out. He was seriously injured in a tank battle and was sent back to the rear hospital for treatment. While recovering in the hospital, he found that the wounded often gathered together to talk about the automatic weapons used by German soldiers, so he came up with the idea of ????designing automatic weapons. "I decided to try and see if I could make a submachine gun for our soldiers." In this way, like a primary school student, he took a notebook, pencil and eraser to draw an imaginary submachine gun, and began his journey as a designer. Since he had never had any professional education or drawing skills, he could only make simple sketches. Later, he left the army, but he still did not give up his ideal. With the help of a friend, he "handpicked" and processed a submachine gun in a simple small workshop.
Later, he designed a second submachine gun prototype and sent it for testing and review. But the Soviet commanders at the time did not like this kind of gun, and they did not value this young man who had not received higher education. Many of them even looked at him with disdain. The test review committee believed that the structure of the submachine gun was complex and its performance did not exceed the Sudayev submachine gun equipped at the time.
He was not discouraged and continued to humbly seek advice from weapons experts, soldiers and scientists, and repeatedly studied and improved this gun. With only a middle school education, he studied tirelessly and studied with perseverance. And his improved submachine gun still couldn't beat the Sudayev submachine gun after another test. He failed again!
Shortly after the end of World War II, the Soviet Ministry of Defense launched a competition to develop new weapons. In 1946, he sent the automatic rifle he had spent five years developing to participate in the national shooting range selection test. Also competing were the works of Simonov, Shpagin, Burkin, Degtyaryov and many other famous designers. In the end, his work AK-47 automatic rifle won the championship, and Stalin personally awarded him 160,000 Ruble bonus.
After the end of the Cold War, he continued to improve the AK series of guns and developed more than 150 weapons. These weapons are used by more than 100 countries in the world. The national emblems of countries such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso even have patterns of AK series rifles. In the ranking of important inventions of the 20th century, the AK series automatic rifles ranked before aspirin and other inventions, becoming a symbol of scientific and technological progress.
Since he did not apply for a patent for the AK-47 rifle, although the weapons manufacturers and sellers became extremely rich because of the AK-47, he did not receive a penny from it, but the rewards he received were The respect he received was enough to make him happy. Although he never went to university, he holds a doctorate in technical sciences and is a member of 16 national academies of sciences. So far, he has won 11 awards and 8 medals, twice won the title of "Hero of Socialist Labor", and also won the Lenin Medal and the Stalin Medal.
“Can you find a designer in other countries who built a bronze statue of him while he was still alive? Can you see presidents and prime ministers in other countries personally congratulating a designer on his birthday? "When he said these words, he looked proud. Both Yeltsin and current President Medvedev specially celebrated his birthday, and Medvedev personally awarded him the country's highest honor, the "Hero of Russia" medal.
When Medvedev received him, he said: "Your achievements mark the creative ability of the Russian nation." He also praised him for creating "a brand that all Russians are proud of." He is the famous "World Gun King" Kalashnikov.
Someone asked the 91-year-old Kalashnikov for the secret of success. He said: "Failure is an orphan. Anyone who adopts an orphan must have love, and anyone who adopts a failure must have patience and perseverance." , and I spent my whole life raising orphans.
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As Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, said: “The world is not in the hands of those who ridicule, but in the hands of those who can withstand ridicule and criticism and still keep moving forward.” In hand! ”