Inventor of World’s Most Popular Firearm AK-47

∷吳悠 編 溫純 注

它出現在基地組織前頭目本·拉登的自拍視頻中，它在非洲某些地方被視為推翻殖民地統治的標志，它受到國家正規(guī)軍的青睞，也是恐怖主義組織、販毒團伙、搶劫犯等人手中的利器——它就是被稱為“槍中之王”的AK-47突擊步槍。AK-47是蘇聯前紅軍中士米哈伊爾·卡拉什尼科夫的發(fā)明，然而發(fā)明了一件用來奪取他人生命的武器究竟是榮耀還是罪責，卡拉什尼科夫晚年不停地向上帝懺悔，痛心自己發(fā)明的這款武器奪去無數人的性命。

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. 前紅軍中士米哈伊爾·卡拉什尼科夫于去年冬天去世，享年94歲。他所設計的AK-47步槍在全世界隨處可見，AK-47連同其改型槍及仿造槍被國家軍隊、恐怖分子、販毒集團、銀行搶劫者和革命者廣泛使用。 Mikhail Kalashnikov: 卡拉什尼科夫（1919－2013），20世紀的蘇聯軍人、工程師、槍械設計師，以設計AK-47等系列突擊步槍而聞名，被譽為“世界槍王”；sergeant: [軍]軍士，中士；omnipresent: 無所不在的，隨處可見的。

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. 盡管幾乎沒有受過什么技術訓練，他還是一路攀至蘇聯軍火工業(yè)的頂層。他到訪世界各地，包括美國，作為俄羅斯武器的“臉面”，為這款好用的蘇聯產品打廣告。armament:武器裝備，軍事力量。

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，尤指手槍或步槍；rifle: 步槍，來復槍；rugged: 結實耐用的。

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.卡拉什尼科夫領導著AK-47的設計團隊，AK-47代表“卡拉什尼科夫設計的自動式”步槍，1947年型號。這款突擊步槍配備給改名后的蘇聯軍隊。assault rifle: 突擊步槍。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年東柏林暴動，即1953年6月17日在柏林發(fā)生的一場東德人民示威游行活動；Hungarian Revolution of 1956: 1956年匈牙利革命，1956年10月23日至11月4日發(fā)生在匈牙利的由群眾和平游行而引發(fā)的武裝暴動。在蘇聯的兩次軍事干預下，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步槍謀殺了時任總統的安瓦爾·沙達特。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（新成員）。videos.

俄前總統梅德韋杰夫授予卡拉什尼科夫“俄羅斯英雄”稱號

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: 緊湊的，小巧易攜帶的； firepower: 火力；machine gun: 機關槍。It has only eight moving parts, can be broken down and reassembled9. reassemble: 重新裝配，重新組裝。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. 西爾維斯特·史泰龍在“蘭博”系列影片中拿著一把AK自動步槍，尼古拉斯·凱奇、沃倫·比蒂等上百位男演員都曾經在影片中手持AK槍。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: 備受歡迎；tattoo:v. 文身于，刺青于。句中提到的是兩位美國知名說唱歌手李爾·韋恩和圖派克·謝庫爾。Many video games, such as Grand Theft Auto,feature AKs.13. Grand Theft Auto:《俠盜飛車》，一款世界流行的經典游戲；feature: 以……為特色，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，集體的。

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. 在他去世前幾個月書寫的一封懺悔信中，卡拉什尼科夫問俄羅斯東正教長老，他死后是否會因為那些被他的武器所殺害的人而受到懲罰。Orthodox Church: 東正教，基督教的主要宗派之一。The Russian daily Izvestia17. Izvestia:《消息報》，俄羅斯一綜合性獨立報紙。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，就越經常地想那個問題，也思考得越深入，我想萬能的主為什么允許人類懷有妒忌、貪婪和攻擊這些邪惡的欲望。”the Almighty: 全能的上帝，全能的主；devilish: 殘忍的，惡毒的。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: 鮮明地，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 : 美國聯合通訊社，簡稱美聯社，美國最大的通訊社。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.

年輕的卡拉什尼科夫

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，陵園。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. 卡拉什尼科夫一生獲得無數榮譽，包括“社會主義勞動英雄”、“列寧勛章”和“斯大林獎”。但他卻過著平靜低調的生活，從不賣弄他的名氣，或利用名氣去掙錢。unassuming: 謙虛的，不裝腔作勢的。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: 剪草機，割草機。.”

史泰龍影片里出現的AK-47步槍