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Originally Posted by Excalibur
"I wanted to invent an engine that could run for ever. I could have developed a new train, had I stayed in the railway. It would have looked like the AK-47 though." - Mikhail Kalashnikov
RIP
A man loyal to not the politics but to his country.
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Maybe this isn't the best time to point this out, but Mikhail Kalashnikov was not just a Russian patriot; he was a hardcore Marxist-Leninist. He's been quoted as saying that he regrets never knowing Stalin personally - which is ironic, since he lost family members to Stalin. He's also written books where he said stuff like this:
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At that time in our country patenting inventions wasn't an issue. We worked for Socialist society, for the good of the people, which I never regret.
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After the collapse of the great and mighty Soviet Union so much crap has been imposed on us, especially on the younger generation...I wrote six books to help them find their way in life.
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I also find it rather strange that he claimed indifference to receiving no royalties from AK production, yet complained in the same breath about the AK design being copied by everyone. I think such complaints stand in contradiction to his claims about inventing the AK-47 out of a sense of patriotism.
I don't think anyone here is in the wrong for admiring Kalashnikov's ingenuity and his impact on history, but let's not lie to ourselves: The man's values and beliefs were simply abhorrent.