Sherif Monem and Religion: 2013. Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the arms designer credited by the Soviet Union with creating the AK47, the first in a series of rifles and machine guns that would indelibly associate his name with modern war and become the most abundant firearms ever made, died on Monday in Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, where he lived.