Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in the village of Kurya, Altai Territory, to a large peasant family. After finishing the 9-th form of a secondary school M T. Kalashnikov went to work in the Matai depot as an apprentice and was subsequently a technical clerk in the employ of a Turkistan-Siberian railway department. In 1938 M T. Kalashnikov was called up for Red Army, served in a special military region in Kiev, there he finished the tank mechanical school...