happy birthday AK

Thanks Kom Drunkpunk

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<h1>Russia marks AK-47's 60th birthday</h1>
Posted July 7, 2007 08:39:00

 Updated July 7, 2007 09:30:00


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<img id="storyPhotosImg" src="http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200707/r158372_575575.jpg" width="285" height="190" alt="Iconic weapon: AK-47 designer Mikhail Kalashnikov" />
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Iconic weapon: AK-47 designer Mikhail Kalashnikov (Reuters: Sergei Karpukhin)

With his shock of white hair, brown sandals and hearing aid, the designer of the world's deadliest assault rifle took a philosophical outlook as he celebrated his invention's 60th anniversary on Friday.

"It was the Germans who turned me into an arms designer," Mikhail Kalashnikov, 87, said at celebrations in Moscow of the 60th anniversary of the creation of his AK-47 automatic rifle.
"If I hadn't taken part in the war, I would probably have made technology to ease the tough work of the peasants," said Mr Kalashnikov, who grew up in a peasant family in the remote Altai mountain region by the Mongolian border.
Instead, he created a rifle that has become an iconic brand, as symbolic of Russia as vodka and fur coats, and the weapon of choice of guerrillas and dozens of armies around the world.
Mr Kalashnikov started working on his rifle in 1947, driven to design by Soviet defeats in the early years of World War II at the hands of far better-armed German soldiers.
The Kalashnikov quickly became prized for its sturdy reliability in difficult field conditions. It can also be built relatively easily - "in any workshop," he said.
More than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have now been sold worldwide.
At the start of celebrations on Friday in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces, Mr Kalashnikov was greeted by fireworks, cannon fire and a military band, as well as officials from Russia's arms export monopoly - Rosoboronexport.
The company is one of Russia's biggest foreign currency earners.
"I'm touched by all the attention I'm getting," Mr Kalashnikov said after being presented with a military standard bearing the phrase "Kalashnikov - The Pride, Honour and Glory of Russia."

The diminutive pensioner spoke animatedly with reporters about his rifle but also about topics ranging from drug use among young people to his friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro.
In between meanderings on subjects such as his desire for a cedar tree in his garden, Mr Kalashnikov also called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a top buyer of Russian arms who he has met, a "remarkable, active president."
The arms designer has humbler contacts too. "I get dozens of letters every day from around the world. They just write 'Kalashnikov, Russia' and the letters get to me. I try to reply to all of them," he said.
"They always tell me that I would be a multi-millionaire in the West. They always talk about money. Are there no other values? What about having a bronze bust of yourself in your home village?" he added.
Mr Kalashnikov won no royalties in the Communist system, while licensing agreements between the Soviet Union and its allies across the globe mean that almost 90 per cent of his rifles are now not produced in Russia.
Asked whether he felt any guilt at the deaths caused by his invention, Mr Kalashnikov said: "I sleep well at night. Politicians are responsible for not resolving their problems without resorting to arms."
As for the weapons he created, he refers to them as if they were his children and often goes to visit his "first-born" - the first model of the AK-47 - in a museum in Saint Petersburg.
He smiled: "An arms builder is attached to his designs like a mother to her children."
-AFP

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*source: ABC.net

belated ... o paputok ka naman ?!?

Additional Images from http://www.militaryphotos.net/, thanks!

*note:images are not hotlink from source url.

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*images by: TheArmenian

*images by: RomanS(MP.Net photographer - Zenit Strong 111)

60 rounds magazine...

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*image by: RomanS(MP.Net photographer - Zenit Strong 111)

nice finds, as usual, kom yarik. additionally, here's a report from military.com.

AK-47 Inventor Doesn't Lose Sleep
Associated Press | July 07, 2007
MOSCOW - Sixty years after the AK-47 went into production, Mikhail Kalashnikov says he does not stay awake at night worrying about the bloodshed wrought by the world's most popular assault rifle.

"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence," Kalashnikov said Friday at a ceremony marking the birth of the rifle, whose initials stand for "Avtomat Kalashnikov."

It was before he started designing the gun that he slept badly, worried about the superior weapons that Nazi soldiers were using with grisly effectiveness against the Red Army in World War II. He saw them at close range himself, while fighting on the front lines.

While hospitalized with wounds after a Nazi shell hit his tank in the 1941 battle of Bryansk, Kalashnikov decided to design an automatic rifle combining the best features of the American M1 and the German StG44.

"Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer," said Kalashnikov, frail but sharp at age 87. "I always wanted to construct agriculture machinery."

Since production began, more than 100 million AK-47s have been made - either at the home factory in the central Russian city of Izhevsk, under license in dozens of other countries, or illegally. Sergei Chemezov, director of the Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, said nearly a million a year are produced without license.

The AK-47 has been a mainstay in wars, coups, terrorist attacks, robberies and other mayhem. Its popularity comes from being rugged and easy to maintain, though its accuracy is not high.

It proved ideal and extremely reliable for warfare in jungle or desert - easily assembled and able to keep firing in sandy or wet conditions that would jam a U.S-made M-16.

"During the Vietnam war, American Soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers," he said. "I hear American Soldiers in Iraq use it quite often."

The simplicity and reliability of the AK-47 made it a favorite of rebel movements worldwide - it even features on the Mozambique flag. Keen to support anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa, the Soviets proliferated the rifle, sometimes for free, to pro-Soviet regimes or insurgents.

In 2005, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who styles himself as a leader of the fighting against imperialism, ordered 100,000 for his army.

"The Kalashnikov rifle is a symbol of the creative genius of our people," President Vladimir Putin said in a statement read to Kalashnikov at the ceremony in the Central Russian Army Museum.

"It's a huge and splendid celebration," said Nikolai Shvets of Rosoboronexport. "For another 20 years, the AK-47 will remain unsurpassed by any other automatic rifle in the world."

Kalashnikov is still active and prolific - he tours the world as a Rosoboronexport consultant helping strike new arms deals, and has written several books on his life, about arms and about youth education.

"After the collapse of the great and mighty Soviet Union so much crap has been imposed on us, especially on the younger generation," he said. "I wrote six books to help them find their way in life."

He said he is proud of his bronze bust installed in his native village of Kurya in the Siberian region of Altai. He said newlyweds bring flowers to the bust.

"They whisper 'Uncle Misha, wish us happiness and healthy kids,'" he said. "What other gun designer can boast of that?"

source:Military.com

another commemorative vid about the AK and its designer

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from Tales of the Gun

and here's a vid of the Japanese Crosshair tv show. notable for a shot of the awarding of komrad solomonic's vodka AK to komrad Mikhail filakairsoft/clap.gif

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can anyone translate the Japanese Crosshair tv show vid?

nice vid comrade zenTaurus.

A fleet of duty cars is coming for us all -- we forgot our beloved's birthday this year.

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watch these while you're waiting for the arrival of the cars:

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and have some bling to celebrate the day, komrads

pics courtesy mightyjebus