FIRST MUSEUM TO ENGINEER KALASHNIKOV OPENS IN RUSSIA

Subscribe
IZHEVSK, November 4 (RIA Novosti) - The first museum devoted to Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor and designer of the small arms, has opened in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtian republic.

On November 18, Kalashnikov will turn 85.

The museum has various modifications of the Kalashnikov assault rifle on display. Moreover, wide LCD monitors show documentary videos about how the designer worked over his inventions.

Kalashnikov has provided the museum with his photos, archive materials, memoirs, videos, numerous credentials and awards, and also his personal collection of cold arms.

He attended the opening ceremony and looked very happy. He was clad in his general uniform and listened to the guide's story about his life and how he created his first automatic rifles with interest.

Kalashnikov confessed at the ceremony that he had intended to invent perpetuum mobile at some point "but did not find the necessary balls, and therefore did not invent it."

"If I were paid for every [assault rifle] model, I would have built this museum myself," he said.

The opening ceremony was also attended by Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's Unified Energy Systems. "There have been very few people of Kalashnikov's scale in Russia, and our country should pay tribute to such people," he said.

Kalashnikov is the senior designer and head of the small arms department of the Kontsern Izhmash open joint stock company (Udmurtia). He went down in history of the automatic small arms as a designer and inventor of the world's best assault rifle AK and other weapons.

It has been among the weapons of the Russian army and foreign armed forces for over 50 years. Armies of 55 countries have AK's in their inventories.

Kalashnikov's silhouette can be seen on flags of six countries.

In 1949, Kalashnikov was presented with the Stalin Prize of the 1st category; former President Boris Yeltsin personally decorated the designer with an order For Merits to the Motherland, 2nd category number 1 and with the title of Major General on Kalashnikov's 75th birthday.

On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin decorated the designer with an order For Military Merits.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала