Kalashnikov designer felt 'spiritual pain' over deaths his invention caused

Mikhail Kalashnikov

The designer of the Kalashnikov rifle became a Christian and regretted his invention in his final years. Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died last month aged 94, was one of Russia's national heros and won many awards for designing and perfecting assault rifles. More than 100 million of the weapons have been sold worldwide. For many years Kalashnikov denied feeling any sense of responsibility for the deaths it caused.

However, in his letter to Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was published by Izvestya this week, Kalashnikov said he he feared he did have a moral responsibility for the people his invention had killed.

Kalashnikov said he first went into a church at the age of 91 and was later baptised. He wrote: "My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people's lives, then can it be that I... a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?"

"The longer I live, the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression".

His daughter Elena said she believes a priest helped him to write the letter. It is typed on Kalashnikov's personal writing paper, and signed with a wavering hand: "a slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov".

A spokesman for the Russian Patriarch, Cyril Alexander Volkov, told Izvestya the religious leader had received Kalashnikov's letter and had written a reply.

He said: "The Church has a very definite position: when weapons serve to protect the Fatherland, the Church supports both its creators and the soldiers who use it. He designed this rifle to defend his country, not so terrorists could use it in Saudi Arabia."