Parish register excerpt, registering the baptism of M.T. Kalashnikov. Document content: ‘Names of the born: Michael. After St. prince Michael. Rank and name of the parents, religion: Peasant Timofey Alexandrovich Kalashnikov of the Village of Kurya and his legal wife Alexandra Frolovna, both orthodox Christians. Rank and name of the godparents: Peasant Ioann Petrov Nemtsov of the same village. Baptized by: Priest Anatoly Bolshanin and acolyte Porfiry Vvedensky’.
Michael Kalashnikov himself said that he had been born in a mudroom, ‘That day mother just brought water from the well and hardly had she placed buckets of water and hung the yoke as time came for me to see the light of the day’. The designer talked a lot about his family.
Michael Kalashnikov said that first generations of his family had lived in Otradnaya, a Cossack village in the North Caucasus. According to his sisters, the paternal family name used to be Kalashnik, rather than Kalashnikov. It changed in the second half of the 19th century to make it sound Russian by adding the -ov to the end.
His grandfather Alexander Kalashnikov was the only child of a village teacher. Michael’s father, Timophey, was also the only child of Katerina and Alexander. He was born in 1883. Michael’s mother, Alexandra, was born to a well-to-do large family of the Kaverins. Some of her relatives were members of clergy. Alexandra married Timophey over protests of her parents, who did not like the man’s family being poor.
Michael Kalashnikov remembered himself as a very weak and unhealthy child. His relatives said that he had contracted all infantile diseases, several in a row at times. Michael almost died when he was still very young. He was so ill that at one moment the parents thought he had stopped breathing. To check it, they brought a light hen’s feather to the boy’s nose. It remained still and they thought the boy was dead.
As it was customary in villages, a carpenter was invited to the house to take measures of the boy to make a small coffin. But Michael turned out to be alive. The parents rushed to the carpenter to share the news, while his grandmother started telling her thanks to icons. The carpenter even scolded the parents for not being able to tell, whether their child was alive or not. The story lived long in the village. Sometime Michael Kalashnikov heard people telling him, “You do know how to feign things from your childhood!”
Michael Kalashnikov himself said that he had been born in a mudroom, ‘That day mother just brought water from the well and hardly had she placed buckets of water and hung the yoke as time came for me to see the light of the day’. The designer talked a lot about his family.
Michael Kalashnikov said that first generations of his family had lived in Otradnaya, a Cossack village in the North Caucasus. According to his sisters, the paternal family name used to be Kalashnik, rather than Kalashnikov. It changed in the second half of the 19th century to make it sound Russian by adding the -ov to the end.
His grandfather Alexander Kalashnikov was the only child of a village teacher. Michael’s father, Timophey, was also the only child of Katerina and Alexander. He was born in 1883. Michael’s mother, Alexandra, was born to a well-to-do large family of the Kaverins. Some of her relatives were members of clergy. Alexandra married Timophey over protests of her parents, who did not like the man’s family being poor.
Michael Kalashnikov remembered himself as a very weak and unhealthy child. His relatives said that he had contracted all infantile diseases, several in a row at times. Michael almost died when he was still very young. He was so ill that at one moment the parents thought he had stopped breathing. To check it, they brought a light hen’s feather to the boy’s nose. It remained still and they thought the boy was dead.
As it was customary in villages, a carpenter was invited to the house to take measures of the boy to make a small coffin. But Michael turned out to be alive. The parents rushed to the carpenter to share the news, while his grandmother started telling her thanks to icons. The carpenter even scolded the parents for not being able to tell, whether their child was alive or not. The story lived long in the village. Sometime Michael Kalashnikov heard people telling him, “You do know how to feign things from your childhood!”
