I tried a dozen different modifications that were rejected. But they all served as a path to the final design.

The PK series is a general-purpose machine gun. Izhmash the official manufacturer of AK-47 in Russia has patented the weapon only in 1997 and in 2006 accounted for only 10% of the world's production. On his 90th birthday on 10 November 2009 Kalashnikov was named a "Hero of the Russian Federation" and presented with a medal by President Dmitry Medvedev who lauded him for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of.

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (Russian: Михаил Тимофеевич Калашников; born 10 November 1919) is a Russian small arms designer most famous for developing the AK-47 AKM and AK-74 assault rifles.