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A LOT OF PEOPLE ASK ME HOW I SLEEP': Designer of the AK47 says he gets ample rest
November 19, 2003

BY MARK MCDONALD
FREE PRESS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

IZHEVSK, Russia -- The first snow of the season was pelting his country cottage -- too cold and wet for hunting -- so the dapper little general had retreated to the warmth of his kitchen. There was a wheel of Camembert on the table, some dark bread and sliced pears, and a bottle of Armenian brandy. He swirled some of the brandy in a snifter and tried to explain about all the blood and tears of the past half-century.

"A lot of people ask me how I sleep, because of all the people who've been killed with my guns," said Mikhail Kalashnikov, 84, designer of the renowned AK47 assault rifle.

His light, inexpensive, virtually indestructible guns -- "they're like my children," he said recently -- long have been the weapons of choice for armies from Vietnam to China and from Angola to Cuba. They've also been used by terrorists, freedom fighters, guerrillas and gangsters.

The Kalashnikov has been the primary weapon -- often for both sides -- in most of the 40-odd wars of the past decade. Military historians say there are 100 million AKs in the world today.

"But it's not the designer's fault or the weapon's fault when terrible things happen; it's the politicians'," said Kalashnikov, a former major general. "It's because the politicians are unable to reach peaceful agreements. I must say I sleep quite soundly." ...