Reuters:
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia on Tuesday unveiled a statue of Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle that became by some estimates the most lethal weapon ever made and the best known Russian brand abroad.
Perched atop a pedestal in a tiny square on Moscow’s busy Garden Ring thoroughfare, the statue of Kalashnikov, who died in 2013, has him dressed in a bomber jacket and clutching an AK-47 in both hands.
“I created a weapon for the defense of my fatherland,” runs a Kalashnikov quote hewn on the pedestal. At the unveiling ceremony, a Kremlin guard of honor stood to attention as Russia’s national anthem played.
“This weapon is Russia’s defense. It’s one of Russia’s symbols. Alas, for life to continue, for lovely children to grow up, for beautiful women in Russia, there must be a weapon,” the monument’s sculptor, Salavat Shcherbakov, told reporters.
Kalashnikov actually didn’t work alone, nor did he begin with an unknown cartridge. His cartridge was already designed, he began with the German Sturmgewehr assault rifle design, and also had features of the M1. He was aided by Aleksandr Zaitsen.
Eugene Stoner was also the chief engineer over the design of the AR line of rifles, with designers / mechanics Robert Fremont and Jim Sullivan. It’s mostly Stoner we remember, just like it’s mostly Kalashnikov we remember. I much prefer the exquisite engineering and tight tolerances of the AR design to the clunkiness and rattling of the AK. But that’s just my preference.
The U.S. ought to erect monuments to John Moses Browning and Eugene Stoner. But we won’t. We aren’t Russia. Russia has fighters. We have PowerPoint presentations on workforce diversity and workplace harassment.
So tell me again who won the cold war? Russia erects monuments to weapons designers, and American universities have professors who fill the minds of idiot-youngsters with poison. I’m not feeling victorious for some reason.
