The Gun that Changed the WorldISBN: 978-0-7456-3691-7
Hardcover
224 pages
October 2006, Polity
This is a Print-on-Demand title. It will be printed specifically to fill your order. Please allow an additional 10-15 days delivery time. The book is not returnable.
Other Available Formats: Paperback
|
The Russian word that is most frequently spoken throughout the
world isn't Lenin, gulag or perestroika, it’s
‘Kalashnikov’. The reason for this is simple: there are
80 million Kalashnikovs in circulation on five continents. Once
invented, the AK-47 assault rifle became the most widely used
weapon in the world: from Vietnam to Palestine, from Cuba to Iraq,
it was at the heart of conflicts and struggles everywhere. It is
the only firearm that has ever been depicted on a national flag
– that of Mozambique, where it symbolizes liberation.
Mikhail Kalashnikov himself, who was born in 1919, here tells his life story, with the help of Elena Joly, for the first time: his deportation to Siberia with his family while still a child; his time as a soldier in a tank regiment; his invention of the world’s most famous weapon and his turbulent life under Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin. This is a remarkable portrait of a man of ingenuity and vitality in the context of the often frightening and terribly unforgiving Russia of the twentieth century.