The Gun

57. Yousaf and Adkin, Afghanistan–The Bear Trap, p. 92.

58. Author’s observations and interviews with arms dealers, customers, and intelligence officials in Iraq in 2006. For a further discussion, see “Black Market Weapons Prices Surge in Iraq Chaos,” by C. J. Chivers, New York Times, December 10, 2006.

59. This is a commonly cited version, attributed to James R. Whelan, in his 1989 book Out of the Ashes: The Life, Death and Transfiguration of Democracy in Chile (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1989.) Other accounts differ, including one that claims the inscription read: “For Salvador, From his comrade-in-arms Fidel.”

60. Like many of the legends of the automatic Kalashnikov, this account has been the subject of considerable dispute.

61. Author’s interviews with Palestinian fighters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2002.

62. Livingston and Halevy, Inside the P.L.O., p. 278.

63. Interview with author in 2008.

64. Margarita Antidze, “Georgian Army Replaces Kalashnikov with U.S. rifle,” Reuters, January 18, 2008.

65. Author’s observation and interviews with Russian soldiers during Russian-Georgian War, August 2008.

66. From a memorandum in Mullah Omar’s laptop, obtained in Afghanistan in 2001 by Alan Cullison, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who allowed the documents to be reviewed by the author. The contents of one particular memo—“In the name of God, most Merciful, most Benificent, Thank God and prayers and peace upon the prophet, Following is the cost of preparing one mujahid with weapons and costume”— are reproduced here.

67. “SUBJECT: Blue Lantern Level 3: Pre-License End-Use Check on License 50129249, United States State Department.” Correspondence, unclassified, between the U.S. Embassy in Tblisi and Washington.

68. Author’s interviews with officials at Colt Defense LLC, 2010.

69. Personal communication to author from Timothy Sheridan, who brokered the American purchase of more than one hundred thousand Kalashnikovs for Iraqi and Afghan forces.

70. Ellsworth S. Grant, The Colt Armory: A History of Colt’s Manufacturing Company, Inc. (Lincoln, R.I.: Mowbray Publishing, 1995), p. 180.

71. Personal communication to author by Francis Olero Okwonga, former lieutenant colonel in the LRA and a commander of Kony’s security detachment.

72. United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, July 2001.

73. Personal communication to author from Dr. Michael Brabeck. The section covering Mahmoud’s and his friend’s wounds was assembled from multiple interviews with participants, including Karzan Mahmoud, Balan Faraj Karim, Ramazan Hama-Raheem, and Qais Ibrahim Khadir.

74. Author’s interviews with Karzan Mahmoud in Ottawa in 2007.

75. Edward Ezell, “Draft Trip Report, Izhevsk,” November 6–14, 1994.

76. Author’s interviews with officials at Rosoboronexport, the Russian state arms-export agency, in 2004 and 2007.

77. Interview with Mikhail Kalashnikov by Bryon MacWilliams, correspondent in Russia for Newsweek magazine, in Izhevsk in 2004. Mr. MacWilliams shared notes of his interview with the author.

78. Nadia Popova, “Russia’s Obama Offers Change Kirov Can Believe In,” St. Petersburg Times, May 5, 2009. See also “Kalashnikov Producer to Pay Wages in Sugar,” Russia Today, April 10, 2009.

79. Remarks by Mikhail Kalashnikov in presence of author at the exhibition center in Izhevsk in August 2007.

80. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 143. Interviews by author with workers at plant in 2004.

81. Michael Gordon, “Moscow Journal: Burst of Pride for a Staccato Executioner,” New York Times, March 13, 1997.

82. Igor Gradov, Moskovsky Komsomolets, November 9, 2004. Gradov published an interview with Kalashnikov in this Moscow newspaper on the day before the designer’s eighty-fifth birthday.

83. An interview with Kalashnikov by M. Novikov appeared in the January 1968 issue of Volksarmee, published in Berlin.

84. “Brand Name: Mikhail Kalashnikov,” New York Times Magazine, May 29, 1994.

85. “Report No. OTIO-471: Translation of a Soviet Manual Concerning a 7.62mm Rifle,” September 13, 1955. Submitted to the Chief of Ordnance by H. H. Himmer, technical assistant, Ordnance Technical Intelligence Service. The report and a copy of the original Soviet manual are on file in the unsorted Ezell collection at Shrivenham.

86. Guy Martin, “(the killing machine),” Esquire, June 1997, p. 76.

87. DP No. 1195, issued from the Kremlin on July 5, 2007. Translated by Nikolay Khalip.

88. Author’s observation.

89. MacWilliams interview with Kalashnikov.

90. Interview with author.

91. Holcomb B. Noble, “Eugene Stoner, 74, Designer of M-16 Rifle and Other Arms,” New York Times, April 27, 1997.

92. Interviews in Russia by author. See also Nabi Abdullaev, “Russian High School Students Learn ABCs of War,” Moscow Times, November 16, 2006.

93. Interview with author, 2004.

94. Mikhail Kalashnikov, Ya S Vami Shol Odnoi Dorogoi (Moscow: Vsya Rossiya Publishing House, 1999), p. 179.

95. Grador, Moskovsky Komsomolets.

96. Kalashnikov with Joly, The Gun that Changed the World, p. 112.

97. Ibid., p. 82.

98. Interview with Kalashnikov conducted by Nick Paton Walsh, July 3, 2003, at Kalashnikov’s dacha at Izhevski Prud. Paton Walsh provided the interview notes to the author.

99. Kalashnikov, From a Stranger’s Doorstep, pp. 260–261.

100. Letter from Andropov to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, February 18, 1973. From the Andrei Sakharov KGB file maintained by Yale University.

101. The quotation about Azeris and Armenian is from John Kampfner, from “Living Legend: The Private World of Mikhail Kalashnikov,” Telegraph magazine, p. 20. The quotation about moans and screams is from Kalashnikov, From a Stranger’s Doorstep, p. 162.

102. “Paton Walsh interview” with Kalashnikov.

Epilogue: The Twenty-first Century’s Rifle

1. From author’s inventory of the weapons used in the training.

2. Author’s observation. In scores of patrols with the Afghan National Army and Police, the author identified seven Russian AK-47s with date stamps of 1953 or 1954.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS