ENGINEER

Mikhail Kalashnikov

1919 - 2013

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Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (10 November 1919 – 23 December 2013) was a Soviet and Russian lieutenant general, inventor, military engineer, writer, and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the RPK light machine gun and 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". Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Mikhail Kalashnikov is the 4th most popular engineer (down from 3rd in 2019), the 55th most popular biography from Russia (down from 50th in 2019) and the most popular Russian Engineer.

Mikhail Kalashnikov is most famous for inventing the AK-47, which is a rifle that can be used by both military and civilians.

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Among ENGINEERS

Among engineers, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 4 out of 389. Before him are Gustave Eiffel, Gottlieb Daimler, and Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener. After him are Zhuge Liang, Wernher von Braun, Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, William John Macquorn Rankine, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Alexei Kosygin, and Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1919, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 3. Before him are Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Eva Perón. After him are Siad Barre, Edmund Hillary, J. D. Salinger, Primo Levi, I. K. Gujral, Doris Lessing, Kim Jong-suk, Joseph Murray, and G. E. M. Anscombe. Among people deceased in 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 3. Before him are Nelson Mandela, and Margaret Thatcher. After him are Robert Edwards, Hugo Chávez, Jorge Rafael Videla, Donald A. Glaser, Pran, Doris Lessing, Heinrich Rohrer, Võ Nguyên Giáp, and Frederick Sanger.

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 55 out of 3,761. Before him are Alexander Nevsky (1220), Ivan Turgenev (1818), Paul I of Russia (1754), Gustav Kirchhoff (1824), Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (1895), and Georgy Malenkov (1902). After him are Wilhelm Wien (1864), Alexander Kerensky (1881), Georg Cantor (1845), Rurik (830), Peter Kropotkin (1842), and Frederick I of Prussia (1657).

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Among ENGINEERS In Russia

Among engineers born in Russia, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 1. After him are Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857), Alexei Kosygin (1904), Anatoly Dyatlov (1931), Andrei Tupolev (1888), Sergey Ilyushin (1894), Mikhail Gurevich (1892), Viktor Belenko (1947), Nikolay Zhukovsky (1847), Vasily Degtyaryov (1880), Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev (1906), and Fedor Tokarev (1871).

Russian born Engineers

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