Blast From The Past: Spokojnoj Nochi General

Editor’s Note: First published in December 2013, Lector’s remembrance of Kalishnikov is worth revisiting.
We lost Mikhail Kalashnikov today.  He passed at the age of 94.   I don’t need to sing the praises of the AK-47 or the AK-74. You know who he was.  You know what he did.
The conflict between Russians and Americans has never made much sense to me to be honest… and I sincerely hope that John Moses Brown and General Kalashnikov get to share a beverage on the streets of gold.
So friends..  put the bourbon aside for one night.  And tonight…  raise a glass of vodka… to one of the finest firearms designers to ever walk this earth.  I’ll leave you with some quotes from the General himself…
“I created a weapon to defend the motherland’s borders. It’s not my fault that it was sometimes used where it shouldn’t have been. This is the fault of politicians”
“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.”
“Life can make you do many things, even kiss a man with a runny nose.”
“I shot with it a lot. I still do now. That is why I am hard of hearing.”
Das Vidanya Mikhail.