If Mikhail Kalashnikov had gotten to follow the path he wanted to, perhaps we’d remember him for simple, efficient farm, inexpensive farm equipment that revolutionized agriculture.  Instead, we remember him as the designer of the AK-47 assault weapon, the world’s most popular instrument of death and destruction.

Kalashnikov died on Monday at age 94, in a hospital in his hometown of Izhevsk, Russia, a city known for defense, engineering and metal industries.

“Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer,” said Kalashnikov.  “I always wanted to construct agricultural machinery.”

After being wounded in World War II, Kalashnikov set out to design a rifle better than the ones the Nazis were using on Russians.  His sketches and ideas were eventually refined to become the AK-47 – named “Avtomat Kalashnikov" and numbered for the year it went into production.  It’s the world's most popular firearm, favored by armies initially.

“During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers,” Kalashnikov said in July 2007 at a ceremony marking the rifle's 60th anniversary.

But it’s proven toughness on the battlefield made it the weapon of choice of guerrillas, terrorists, and mass murderers. An estimated 100 million guns are spread worldwide.