Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the Russian soldier who invented one of history’s most fearsome killing machines — “the AK-47 assault rifle, beloved of guerrillas around the world” — announced at a Kremlin reception on Tuesday in honor of his 90th birthday that he really wanted to be a poet.

According to a BBC News story, Kalashnikov made the remarks after being given “the prestigious Hero of Russia award” at the reception by Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, who praised the AK-47 as “a national brand which evokes pride in each citizen.” Kalashnikov “was also lauded from space in a specially recorded greeting from Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station.”

Kalashnikov then read a “brief patriotic poem” he’d written for the occasion. (Unfortunately, the crack reporting team at the BBC doesn’t quote the poem, no matter how brief.)

As for his weapon and why it is so popular with guerrillas and terrorists, he says, “I created a weapon to defend the fatherland’s borders. It’s not my fault that it was sometimes used where it shouldn’t have been. This is the fault of politicians.”

He hasn’t completely stifled his creative impulses, however. In 2004 he began marketing Kalashnikov vodka.