ENGINEER

Mikhail Kalashnikov

1919 - 2013

Photo of Mikhail Kalashnikov

Icon of person Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (UK: kə-LASH-nik-off, US: -⁠LAHSH-; Russian: Михаил Тимофеевич Калашников, IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil tʲɪmɐˈfʲejɪvʲɪtɕ kɐˈlaʂnʲɪkəf]; 10 November 1919 – 23 December 2013) was a Soviet and Russian lieutenant general, inventor, military engineer, writer, and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the RPK light machine gun and PK machine gun. Kalashnikov was, according to himself, a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weaponry to design arms that achieved battlefield ubiquity. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Mikhail Kalashnikov has received more than 4,191,066 page views. His biography is available in 86 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 83 in 2019). Mikhail Kalashnikov is the 3rd most popular engineer (down from 2nd in 2019), the 50th most popular biography from Russia (down from 37th in 2019) and the most popular Russian Engineer.

Mikhail Kalashnikov is most famous for inventing the AK-47, which is a rifle that can be used by both military and civilians.

Memorability Metrics

  • 4.2M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 75.07

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 86

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.05

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.44

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among ENGINEERS

Among engineers, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 3 out of 389. Before him are Gustave Eiffel, and Gottlieb Daimler. After him are Zhuge Liang, Wernher von Braun, Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Sergei Korolev, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Umberto Nobile, and André Citroën.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1919, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 3. Before him are Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Eva Perón. After him are Edmund Hillary, J. D. Salinger, Primo Levi, Doris Lessing, Giulio Andreotti, Zhao Ziyang, Kim Jong-suk, Georgios Papadopoulos, and Fausto Coppi. Among people deceased in 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 3. Before him are Nelson Mandela, and Margaret Thatcher. After him are Hugo Chávez, Peter O'Toole, Fawzia Fuad of Egypt, Võ Nguyên Giáp, Jorge Rafael Videla, Doris Lessing, Heinrich Rohrer, Djalma Santos, and Giulio Andreotti.

Others Born in 1919

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Others Deceased in 2013

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 50 out of 3,761. Before him are Vyacheslav Molotov (1890), Elizabeth of Russia (1709), Paul I of Russia (1754), Gustav Kirchhoff (1824), Modest Mussorgsky (1839), and Boris Pasternak (1890). After him are Andrei Sakharov (1921), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844), Georgy Malenkov (1902), Andrei Tarkovsky (1932), Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (1895), and Vladimir the Great (958).

Others born in Russia

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Among ENGINEERS In Russia

Among engineers born in Russia, Mikhail Kalashnikov ranks 1. After him are Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857), Alexei Kosygin (1904), Anatoly Dyatlov (1931), Andrei Tupolev (1888), Sergey Ilyushin (1894), Viktor Belenko (1947), Nikolay Zhukovsky (1847), Mikhail Gurevich (1892), Mikhail Mil (1909), Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev (1906), and Fedor Tokarev (1871).

Russian born Engineers

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