General Kalashnikov
Tuesday, October 13, 2009:
What kills 250,000 people each and every year?
What is known as the African credit card, as in “don’t leave home without it”.
Whose image graces a nation’s flag?
The AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle, of course!
The Flag of Mozambique
Kalashnikov was a Tank Commander under the unstoppable Russian General Zhukov. He was part of some of the most fierce battles in history in Russia’s effort to defeat the Nazis. He was severely wounded.
Born in 1919, he turns 90 on November 10. Both as a young man and as an old, he looks like he should. He looks sooo Russian!
He designed the AK-47 after being shot by two German soldiers. No one was gonna shoot him anymore!
Separately, he designed a modification to a Russian pistol to make it more effective when jumping on a German tank and firing through the tank’s slits. Can you imagine the action he must have seen to be motivated to come up with such a design?
And now, from deep within Mother Russia, the very same man who brought you the AK-47 brings you the most potent liquid ever to linger on a Russian virgin’s lips:
At 41 abv, the vodka is known as “Military Strength“.
Kalashnikov had the final word on everything, including the taste.
My Russian former girlfriend Kate, born and raised in the Imperial Capital of Russia, always said “A Russian without vodka is like grass without water!”.
Everything is as it should be.
