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A Dubious Distinction

Natlia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born in a village in western Siberia in 1919, one of 18 children, only 8 of whom survived. If his name sounds familiar, it's because in 1947, he invented the weapon that bears his name, the Kalashnikov assault rifle, otherwise known as the AK47. Like most people who've had a hand in creating destructive things, he claimed that the uses to which it were put were not his fault. Kalashnikov died on Dec. 23 at age 94, but this particular article is from four years ago ~ it has more great information about him than most of the obits I saw: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/rbth/6453703/Russia-celebrates-Mikhail-Kalashnikovs-90th-birthday-the-designer-who-armed-the-world.html

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