Inventor of World’s Most Popular Firearm AK-47

∷吴悠 编 温纯 注

它出现在基地组织前头目本·拉登的自拍视频中，它在非洲某些地方被视为推翻殖民地统治的标志，它受到国家正规军的青睐，也是恐怖主义组织、贩毒团伙、抢劫犯等人手中的利器——它就是被称为“枪中之王”的AK-47突击步枪。AK-47是苏联前红军中士米哈伊尔·卡拉什尼科夫的发明，然而发明了一件用来夺取他人生命的武器究竟是荣耀还是罪责，卡拉什尼科夫晚年不停地向上帝忏悔，痛心自己发明的这款武器夺去无数人的性命。

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the former Red Army sergeant behind one of the world’s most omnipresent weapons—the AK-47 and its variants and copies,used by national armies, terrorists, drug gangs, bank robbers and revolutionaries— died last winter at 94.1. 前红军中士米哈伊尔·卡拉什尼科夫于去年冬天去世，享年94岁。他所设计的AK-47步枪在全世界随处可见，AK-47连同其改型枪及仿造枪被国家军队、恐怖分子、贩毒集团、银行抢劫者和革命者广泛使用。 Mikhail Kalashnikov: 卡拉什尼科夫（1919－2013），20世纪的苏联军人、工程师、枪械设计师，以设计AK-47等系列突击步枪而闻名，被誉为“世界枪王”；sergeant: [军]军士，中士；omnipresent: 无所不在的，随处可见的。

Inventor of AK-47

Mr. Kalashnikov began life as a sickly child in a peasant family and would have seemed an unlikely candidate for the international fame he achieved. He became a folk hero in his native land and a celebrity abroad. Despite having little technical training, he rose to the top of the Soviet armaments industry and traveled throughout the world,including the United States, as the face of Russian weaponry, an advertisement for a Soviet product that actually worked.2. 尽管几乎没有受过什么技术训练，他还是一路攀至苏联军火工业的顶层。他到访世界各地，包括美国，作为俄罗斯武器的“脸面”，为这款好用的苏联产品打广告。armament:武器装备，军事力量。

Jim Supica, director of the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax County, called Mr. Kalashnikov a “giant of firearms design. Kalashnikov’s genius was in designing a military rifle that was cheap to manufacture, rugged and reliable.”3. firearm: 火器，尤指手枪或步枪；rifle: 步枪，来复枪；rugged: 结实耐用的。

Mr. Kalashnikov headed the design team that produced the AK-47—standing for automatic by Kalashnikov, model of 1947—as the assault rifle for the newly retitled Soviet Army.4.卡拉什尼科夫领导着AK-47的设计团队，AK-47代表“卡拉什尼科夫设计的自动式”步枪，1947年型号。这款突击步枪配备给改名后的苏联军队。assault rifle: 突击步枪。It went into service two years later and then was provided to many other countries.

The AK first went into action to put down East Berlin riots in 1953 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.5. East Berlin riots in 1953: 1953年东柏林暴动，即1953年6月17日在柏林发生的一场东德人民示威游行活动；Hungarian Revolution of 1956: 1956年匈牙利革命，1956年10月23日至11月4日发生在匈牙利的由群众和平游行而引发的武装暴动。在苏联的两次军事干预下，事件被平息。Egyptian soldiers used it to assassinate President Anwar Sadat in 1981.6. 1981年，埃及士兵使用AK-47步枪谋杀了时任总统的安瓦尔·沙达特。Troops on both sides in the Iran-Iraq war carried it. The al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden used a modernized one as a prop in his recruiting7. recruit: 招募，吸引（新成员）。videos.

俄前总统梅德韦杰夫授予卡拉什尼科夫“俄罗斯英雄”称号

From its earliest days, the Kalashnikov has been judged a superior weapon because of its simplicity and reliability. In a compact, 10-pound package, a single fighter holds the fully automatic firepower of a machine gun.8. compact: 紧凑的，小巧易携带的； firepower: 火力；machine gun: 机关枪。It has only eight moving parts, can be broken down and reassembled9. reassemble: 重新装配，重新组装。in 30 seconds and will fire when very dirty.

No exact count is possible, but experts think there are about 100 million AKs, modernizations and derivatives10. derivative: 派生物。around the world, with as many as 1 million more being made each year.

The AK brand did succeed in invading the United States, but through popular culture, where it symbolizes a kind of rebellious cool. Sylvester Stallone carried one in the “Rambo” movies, as did Nicolas Cage, Warren Beatty and hundreds of actors in other films.11. 西尔维斯特·史泰龙在“兰博”系列影片中拿着一把AK自动步枪，尼古拉斯·凯奇、沃伦·比蒂等上百位男演员都曾经在影片中手持AK枪。Rapper Lil Wayne scored a hit with his song “AK-47,” and Tupac Shakur had an image of the gun tattooed on his stomach.12. score a hit: 备受欢迎；tattoo:v. 文身于，刺青于。句中提到的是两位美国知名说唱歌手李尔·韦恩和图派克·谢库尔。Many video games, such as Grand Theft Auto,feature AKs.13. Grand Theft Auto:《侠盗飞车》，一款世界流行的经典游戏；feature: 以……为特色，是……的特色。

At a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the rifle, Mr.Kalashnikov paid tribute to the team that helped him create the AK. “I was not by myself, sitting at a desk,” he said. “It was a thousand-strong collective working at different factories.”14. thousand-strong: 上千的，一千多的；collective: 共同的，集体的。

But the weapon bears his name.

A penitent15. penitent: 悔罪的，后悔的。 letter

In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.16. 在他去世前几个月书写的一封忏悔信中，卡拉什尼科夫问俄罗斯东正教长老，他死后是否会因为那些被他的武器所杀害的人而受到惩罚。Orthodox Church: 东正教，基督教的主要宗派之一。The Russian daily Izvestia17. Izvestia:《消息报》，俄罗斯一综合性独立报纸。published the letter in which Kalashnikov said,

“The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people’s lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ...son of a farmer and Orthodox Christian am responsible for people’s deaths.”

Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind.

“The longer I live, the more often that question gets into my brain, the deeper I go in my thoughts and guesses about why the Almighty allowed humans to have devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression,”18.“我活得越久，就越经常地想那个问题，也思考得越深入，我想万能的主为什么允许人类怀有妒忌、贪婪和攻击这些邪恶的欲望。”the Almighty: 全能的上帝，全能的主；devilish: 残忍的，恶毒的。he continued.“Everything changes, only a man and his thinking remain unchanged: he’s just as greedy, evil, heartless and restless as before!”

Kalashnikov’s daughter, Elena, was quoted by Izvestia as saying that a local priest could have helped her father write the two-page letter, which was typed and carried his signature.

The letter, which was sent in April, contrasted sharply19. sharply: 鲜明地，清晰地。with past statements by Kalashnikov,who had repeatedly said in interviews and public speeches that he created the weapon to protect his country and couldn’t be blamed for other people’s action.

“I sleep well. It’s the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” the designer told The Associated Press20. The Associated Press : 美国联合通讯社，简称美联社，美国最大的通讯社。in 2007 when asked whether he regretted producing a weapon which may have been responsible more deaths than any other in the last half century.

年轻的卡拉什尼科夫

In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised Kalashnikov’s weapon as a “symbol of the creative genius of our people.” Putin attended Kalashnikov’s burial at a memorial military cemetery21. cemetery: 墓地，陵园。just outside Moscow.

While it’s not especially accurate, Kalashnikov’s rifle can perform in sandy or wet conditions that jam22. jam: 使…堵塞，使…卡住。more sophisticated weapons such as the U.S. M-16.

“During the Vietnam War, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from Vietnamese soldiers,”Kalashnikov said.

Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, first showed his designer skills when he invented some modi fications for Soviet tanks while serving as a Red Army conscript23. conscript: 被征入伍者。. He was badly wounded in a 1941 battle with the Nazis and first started designing of a new automatic rifle while he was recovering in the hospital.

Kalashnikov received numerous honors, including the Hero of Socialist Labor and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize, but he had led a quiet and unassuming life, making little effort to take advantage of his fame,or making much money from it.24. 卡拉什尼科夫一生获得无数荣誉，包括“社会主义劳动英雄”、“列宁勋章”和“斯大林奖”。但他却过着平静低调的生活，从不卖弄他的名气，或利用名气去挣钱。unassuming: 谦虚的，不装腔作势的。Dating back, the former tank mechanic expressed his regret much earlier, “I am sad that it is used by terrorists. I would prefer to have invented a machine that people like farmers could use, like a lawnmower25. lawnmower: 剪草机，割草机。.”

史泰龙影片里出现的AK-47步枪