REST IN PEACE GENERAL KALASHNIKOV!

General!

You may have left to the heavenly abode for your service to your Motherland.

But your name and design principle will be eternal.

Rest In Peace Sir!

BELATED BIRTHDAY GREETINGS GENERAL KALASHNIKOV!

Photograph Courtesy:  www.kremlin.ru.

Lieutenant General Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov – ‘father of the famous assault rifle AK-47’ – has celebrated his 94^th birthday (born in 1919) on 10^th November. miltechstratan conveys heartiest but terribly belated birthday greetings to Gen Kalashnikov.

If we ask a soldier from anywhere in this world, “In the battlefield which of yours you want to be trustworthy?” then he will say, “My Rifle!”

For a soldier who faces death at each second, his first and foremost concern is that his rifle should fire when he wants it to. A battle will not be fought in arenas or stadiums. It may be fought in dust, dirt, desert, snow, mud, swamps, ravines and what not? – Just name it!    

Photograph Courtesy: http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/

General Kalashnikov’s AK-47 will work in all of the terrains mentioned above - That too without malfunction! Gen. Kalashnikov was a tank commander during ‘The Great Patriotic War (World War – II).’ Before becoming a tank commander he was a tank mechanic. Being injured in the battle, he had to be hospitalized for almost six months. There he determined to develop a firearm for the Soviet Union.

He developed a submachine gun with his local resources. Though that submachine gun was not accepted, it should have taken aback the Soviet authorities as, “A submachine gun from a tank mechanic!” His so far latent talent in designing firearms should have impressed them. Resultant of this, Kalashnikov was assigned to the Central Scientific-developmental Firing Range for Rifle Firearms of the Chief Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.

His tireless efforts resulted in the one of the greatest weapon that mankind ever developed – the Avtomat Kalashnikova – 47 (Automatic Kalashnikov rifle -1947) or simply AK-47. The design’s simplicity and ruggedness helps soldiers and terrorists fight with equal fervour in difficult terrains. There are records that even American soldiers throwing their new M-16 assault rifles and using the AK-47 grabbed from the dead Vietnamese soldiers. 

AK-47 is a benchmark for a weapon system or any system. It is a lesson for the scientists and designers all over the world - “If the system is capable to be used effectively by a lay man, then that designed system will remain in one form or the other for eternity.” Though AK-47 gave way to AKM and AK-74 (Kalashnikov’s own designs), the essence of AK-47 – its simplicity – was not compromised.

Later firearms AK-101 / AK-102, AK-103 / AK-104, AK-105, AK-12, RPK / RPK-74, PK / PKM / PKP, Saiga semi-automatic rifle (all had Kalashnikov’s inputs) have the Kalashnikov imprint on it. Especially the ‘Saiga-12’ - a 12-gauge shotgun - is an example that even a shotgun can have the design of an assault rifle.

Not only Russian firearms followed AK-47 design, many have followed. Wikipedia gives an elaborate list here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weapons_influenced_by_the_Kalashnikov_design (I am not sure of correctness of the list!).

General Kalashnikov blames the Nazis for having forced him to enter rifle designing profession and for having designed the most proliferated rifle numbering to around 100 million copies worldwide. Many of these have been produced in local factories illicitly. Gen Kalashnikov saying, “I would have preferred to design agricultural machines rather than rifles,” shows the greatness of man who also writes poems and having written books for the Russian youth.

Gen Kalashnikov is an inspiration that “GREAT TALENTS CAN EMERGE FROM ANYWHERE.” Indian policy makers and authorities must also keep this in mind and look for talents with a broad mind.   

Miltechstran belatedly (terribly belated of course!) wishes Gen Kalashnikov – a man who loves machines - “A Happy Birthday General!”

     

MOURNING THE DEATH OF GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP…

At the time when we mourn the death of the Vietnamese general Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap - the greatest general of our times – we must not fail to learn the lesson from his life. What is that? It is the value of history. We disregard history as a boring subject to learn. But we don’t realize that history has tons of valuable lessons for us to learn.

What is the relation between History and General Vo Nguyen Giap? It is surprising to know that Vo Nguyen Giap was a history teacher. He proved to the world that military education is not a must for being a great general. Simply he had learnt the art of soldiering from history books. From being a history teacher, he transformed himself to a greatest general of our times. His tactics and strategies were not new, but which had been already followed by some of the great generals that mankind had ever seen.

Along with Ho Chin Minh, Gen. Giap raised an Army from the peasants. From Guerrilla warfare to conventional warfare, that army excelled. The army he raised and commanded has defeated France, USA and China. The respect that even Americans show towards Gen. Giap shows their high regard for him.

But do we Indians have learnt anything from history? The answer is a painful no. We are not learning from history and we are committing the same mistake again and again. Be it is China or Pakistan or the colonisation, we are not learning from history. In spite of many personal tragedies that Gen. Giap endured in his life, his life stands a lesson for us. If he was able to learn soldiering from history and if he was able to defeat armies that were superior to his army, then why can’t we.

The only issue is that we have to learn that how invaders and aggressors defeated and enslaved us. It is high time that we study, debate and learn that how the Chinese humiliated us in the 1962 war. Not only the 1962 debacle, we have an enviable history. Great strategists and tacticians like Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya, Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola have lived in our land. We have to religiously learn what they did.

Perhaps the problems we may face may be of a new type. But it does not mean that known solutions could not be applied for our problems.

Thank you for the invaluable lesson General!

Rest In Peace Sir!