The designer of the iconic and most popular firearm in the world, the AK-47, Russian, Mikhail Kalashnikov, is dead at the age of 94.

Kalashnikov died in the Capital of the Udmurtia Republic, Izhevsk. He lived in that city and died in a hospital there after being hospitalized for cardiac and intestinal problems a month ago on November 17th. He had been in and out of the hospital this year, being first hospitalized in May. It was reported at that time that Kalashnikov was first admitted into the cardiac clinic. He would have a pacemaker implanted one month later.

Kalashnikov, who, said, in his youth, he aspired to be a farm equipment designer, was born in 1919 in the village of Kuyra on the central southern Steppes near the border with Kazakhstan. He would always be drawn to machinery and mechanical design. After his conscription in 1938, he would become a tank mechanic and it was then that he began designing small weapons.

Although he had developed other weapons and was already famous for tank weapon technology prior to the design of the AK-47, it was that weapon, designed in a secret competition that created his success and reputation as a small-arms weapons designer. The AK-47 got is name from it designation, “Avtomat Kalashnikov,” and the year it went into production, 1947.

In later years of his life, on tour bolstering the reputation of his automatic firearm, Kalashnikov had said that he had developed the weapon to protect his Soviet homeland, and not as the weapon of choice for “Thugs,’ and “terrorists.” He stated, “This is a weapon of defense, not a weapon for offense.” He said he never had regrets over the weapon that killed more than any other firearm in the last fifty years. He pointed out that he was not responsible for the way the politicians chose to use it.

Its simplicity and ruggedness in conditions ranging from dry and sandy to wet and muddy, made it the weapon of choice throughout the world. The weapon could be easily assembled, cleaned and cared for, and never jammed. In 2007, during the 60-year celebration of the weapon, Kalashnikov would say, “During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers.” It was the ability to operate in a myriad of conditions versus the M-16, that was prone to jamming in those same conditions that caused over 100 million of the AK-47s and knock-offs to be built.

Kalashnikov continued to work through his late 80s as a chief designer of the Izmash Company that first built the AK-47, worked with Russia to negotiate new arms deals and wrote several books.

Kalashnikov is expected to be buried in a public funeral by the regional administration but no date has yet been set.