This section will introduce the stories of world-renowned firearms and designers
This issue is about Kalashnikov, the father of the Gun King
Looking back at CS:GO over the past year, the biggest impact for all players is undoubtedly Valve's repeated modifications to the AUG and SG553 weapons. At first, it was simply a price reduction for these two weapons, but did not expect the AUG to quickly dominate the professional arena, and then the modification of the AUG highlighted the SG553 headshot machine. But even so, these two weapons are still difficult to shake the king of rifle AK-47 in CS:GO unique king status.
According to HLTV statistics, the AK47 is still the most used weapon by professional brothers in the past 12 months, and there is no one
Despite the strength of the SG553, there are still many players who insist on using AK47 in the usual deathmatch training gun and competitive mode, if you want to ask you the most used weapon in CS:GO, most players will answer that the AK47 (the other part is P90, know that you guys are running BLU B every day). But today's discussion is not about how strong and popular the AK47 really is, but about the creator behind such a modern rifle benchmark - Kalashnikov.
Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov
Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, to a peasant family in Kuria, a suburb of Almaty, Kazakhstan, to the 8th child of the family, and because his parents were extremely industrious and could not spare the farm work, the little Kalashnikov had a fairly good childhood in his hometown.
Influenced by his father since childhood, Kalashnikov was curious about various agricultural tools and machinery, and loved to fiddle with the various tools of the family at an early age. It can be said that he has been interested in mechanical structures since he was a child. According to his own memoirs, his enlightenment teacher was very responsible. At home, he got along well with his older siblings and elders.
Unfortunately, in the late 1920s, the Soviet Union's vigorous promotion of collectivization completely changed the fate of this happy family. Due to the larger population of the family, the Kalashnikov family was identified as a kulak (at that time it was the total amount, not the per capita). Although the family was not wealthy, 12-year-old Kalashnikov was sent with his parents to distant Siberia.
Life in Siberia is fraught with despair, there is not enough food, production tools, plagues accompanied by harsh environments, and the cold climate in winter can not stay outdoors for 10 minutes. It was not long before Kalashnikov's father died of ill health in Siberia, and his mother was forced to remarry due to hardship.
Record photos of Siberian exiles
Kalashnikov, who graduated from high school in 1936, left Siberia and began to look west for a job of his own. In this year he found a job in the maintenance department along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and was soon transferred to the technical department because of his strong interest in machinery and good job performance.
Kalashnikov was conscripted into the army in 1938, and while serving in Kiev, the capital of present-day Ukraine, Kalashnikov's chief officer discovered his extraordinary talent in the field of mechanics. So Kalashnikov was transferred to the training unit of the Tank Mechanic, where Kalashnikov began to learn about tanks, driving, firearms, etc. At that time, the Soviet tank corps uniformly distributed the TT-33 pistol (also known as the Big Black Star in China).
It was undoubtedly an excellent pistol at the time, but it was quite inconvenient to equip such a pistol in the small tank car. Kalashnikov's first attempt to modify firearms was when Zhukov, the commander of the Kiev garrison (promoted to general in 1940 and field marshal in 1943) supported the soldiers in various attempts on technical issues, and Kalashnikov also took the opportunity to have a workshop to carry out weapons tests.
Kalashnikov then designed a machine that could test the performance of the tank engine, and because the machine was running well and reliably, the machine was recommended directly by experts to the supreme commander of Kiev, General Zhukov. The general personally received Kalashnikov and recommended Kalashnikov, who was still a soldier at the time, and the equipment he developed to Moscow. After testing, Moscow was so satisfied with the machine's performance that in the spring of 1941 Kalashnikov was able to go to the factory in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) to take charge of the production of the machine.
The story that follows must be known to everyone, nazi Germany tore up the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, and on June 22 implemented the Barbarossa Plan to blitz the Soviet Union. Kalashnikov, a tanker by training, was recalled from leningrad's factory by his former unit and became a tank commander. However, the Soviet army after the Great Purge at that time was completely backward compared with the German army that had been recuperating for many years, both in terms of material preparation and weapons and equipment. Kalashnikov, the first Soviet soldier to rush to the front, was obviously unable to compete with the elite Germans, and in October 1941, Kalashnikov, as the commander of the tank, was injured by shell shrapnel while observing and was immediately taken to the rear hospital for treatment.
Although the war had only just begun, the guns of german soldiers still had a profound impact on Kalashnikov. Soviet soldiers at the time, not to mention having a fully automatic weapon as superior as the German MP-40, could not even guarantee the traditional Mosin Nagant bolt-action rifle and ammunition. Kalashnikov, who was recuperating from his wounds in the rear, also realized that he needed to develop a hand-holding weapon. During his recuperation, Kalashnikov began to teach himself firearms manufacturing. During World War II he designed a new submachine gun, but the submachine gun did not show an advantage over the Bobosa submachine gun. However, the chief in charge of the firearms evaluation recognized Kalashnikov's talent in firearm design and sent him to the Gun Department of the Moscow Aviation Academy for further study. After seeing the German army's epoch-making STG-44 assault rifle, Kalashnikov combined with the new 7.62 * 39 intermediate power cartridge to start the development of the assault rifle. In 1946, he designed the AK-46 assault rifle.
At the time of the 1946 firearms review, the AK-46 had no mechanical failures except for the red barrel after firing 15,000 bullets, and the accuracy was good. The Kalashnikov rifle was therefore selected as a Soviet standard rifle. In 1947, some modifications were made to the gun, named AK-47, and subsequently installed in the Soviet Army.
The first version of the AK47 assault rifle
After the AK47 became popular, Kalashnikov became a true master of gun design, and since then he has continued to develop various types of light weapons such as AKM, AK74, and PRK. AK rifle is definitely the world's largest number, the most widely used small arms gun family, no matter any corner of the world you can find its figure, even NATO countries will organize elite soldiers to carry out the corresponding AK gun family adaptation training.
The U.S. 10th Mountain Division trains local government soldiers in Ethiopia to use the AKM assault rifle (note the AKM's oblique muzzle and the three reinforcements on the gun body, the AK-47 in CS:GO is more biased towards the AKM).
After the 1990s, Kalashnikov was no longer involved in the development of new military weapons, and unlike Eugene Stoner (the designer of the M16 and AR gun family) who earned a lot of money from patent fees, he has always lived a rather simple and poor life.
Kalashnikov met with Eugene Stoner in the 90s
His son, Victor Kalasnikov, who inherited his father's mantle and became a gun designer, designed a new submachine gun with Alexei Dragonov, son of Soviet SVD sniper rifle designer Dragonov, which was the PP-bizon bison submachine gun in CS:GO.
Bison submachine gun
In his later years, seeing that his own design of the "child" has become the world's most murderous active weapon (the Maxim machine gun has long ceased to be used), Kalashnikov said that his original intention in designing the AK-47 was to defend his homeland, regretting that so many guns were designed to kill so many innocent beings. In the 1990s he began to travel the world, calling for peace.
On December 23, 2013, Kalashnikov passed away at the age of 94, and he is also known as the father of the king of guns.
I hope that in the eyes of people, I am the one who designed weapons for defending my homeland, not for terrorist attacks.
—Kalashnikov