MOSCOW (AP) -- Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, reportedly wrote a regretful letter several months before his death asking the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by the guns.
The Russian daily
Izvestia reported Monday that Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94,
wrote to Patriarch Kirill in April and told him he kept asking himself
if he's responsible.
"The pain in my soul
is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my
assault rifle took people's lives that means that I, Mikhail
Kalashnikov, ... am responsible for people's deaths," he said in the
letter.
"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," Kalashnikov continued.
Kalashnikov's
daughter, Elena, was quoted by Izvestia as saying that a local priest
could have helped her father write the letter, which was typed and
carried his signature.
The letter contrasted
sharply 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.
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1 comment:
“Good and evil coexist side by side, fighting and, worst of all, they resign themselves to each other in the hearts of people - that is what I have come to at the end of this earthly life,"
From the Chicago Tribune report
*
Kalashnikov was a patriot and a thoughtful man. What he said could have come straight from Dostoyevsky.
I pray his soul rests in peace.
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