Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in the village of Kurya, Altai Territory, to a large peasant family.

In 1938 he entered the Red Army in Kiev where he attended tank mechanics school. In the army, he designed a device to count the number of shots fired by a tank as well as other useful tactical devices for tanks.

After surviving fierce battles against the Nazi’s in 1941 as a tank commander, he found himself in hospital recovering from serious wounds. Here at the hospital he began to conceive ideas for a new machine gun which could provide high volume, light weight firepower for soldiers. In 1944 his first prototype was adopted for further development and finally in 1949 the soviet army adopted the Automatic Kalashnikov (Ak-47) design of 1947 as their standard rifle.

The submachine guns of Kalashnikov system are widespread all over the world. Some countries have included its image in the State Emblem.
More than 50 armies of the world have in their arsenals firearms created by Mikhail Kalashnikov.
By 1990 there were made about 70 millions units of Kalashnikov submachine guns of various modifications both in Russia and abroad including those made under license and piratically ( up to now the invention has not been patented).

The cause of such great popularity of Kalashnikov submachine guns is in the fact that Kalashnikov has achieved an optimum combination of several qualities which provide the usage of guns with high efficiency of application and exclusive reliability in battles.

Former President of Russia Boris Yeltsin personally decorated the outstanding designer M. T. Kalashnikov with the Order “For Distinguished Services for the Motherland” Second Class and promoted him to Major-General on his 75th anniversary.