Mikhail Kalashnikov felt guilt over deadly record of AK-47

Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the legendary AK-47 assault rifle, turned to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church shortly before his death to express fears he was personally guilty for those it killed.

Kalashnikov, who died last month at the age of 94, in April wrote a lengthy emotional letter to church Patriarch Kirill, the Izvestia daily reported yesterday.

"My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle took away people's lives, then can it be that I ... am guilty for people's deaths, even if they were enemies?" he asked.

The typed letter on Kalashnikov's personal writing paper, reproduced by Izvestia, is signed with a wavering hand by the man who describes himself as "a slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov".

Kalashnikov, whose funeral was attended by President Vladimir Putin, came up with the durable and simple rifle design after experiencing the Red Army's dire lack of weapons during the second world war.