It is good to see Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of that fine weapon that was for so many years an icon of violent socialism, finally succumbing to full blown capitalism.
Coming to your neighbourhood soon… Kalashnikov umbrellas, snow boards and cocktails: products for real men!
More seriously, it seems only fair that the man who created what is pretty much the definitive assault rifle finally gets to make a buck or two out of his masterpiece.
(link via Kevin Connors)
Indeed a fine piece of robust, no-nonsense engineering. I doubt if poor Mr Kalashnikov is succumbing to capitalism, so much as finally being given the opportunity to really find out about it.
He was misinformed, and I hope he lives long enough to enjoy some of the wealth he deserves as well as to tell us all he now realises he was misinformed.
Somehow, though, his comment in the article claiming he couldn’t go with an American firm as that would be ‘disloyal’ to Rodina seems just a tad ingenuous; didn’t Germans inflict actual damage to his country, including his own injuries?
It’s a wonderful world!
Sort of like Porsche Design or Harley Davidson.
Too bad Burgess Meredith isn’t around to promote that Kalashnikov umbrella 🙂
This post: “STALINGRADUATES REVISE HISTORY” a Thimbleful of Thorns, may “amuse” you.
Did you know that Mikhail Kalashnikov is a life member of the Amarican NRA? (as I am…) And has spoken on the right of all citizens to keep and bear arms? There is a real spark of freedom in the New Russia!
Steve: that’s interesting… do you have a pointer to the attribution for that assertion?
Ironic that Kalashnikov, the product of Soviet Statism, gets to profit from his ideas, whereas John Garand, designer of what Patton called the “Finest battle implement of the war”, the M-1 Rifle, never did, as he was a government employee and the patents, naturally, belonged to Uncle Sam…