Kalashnikov, AK-47 designer, wrote penitent letter

‘The pain in my soul is unbearable,’ Kalashnikov wrote several months before death

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, reportedly wrote a regretful letter several months before his death asking the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by the guns.

The Russian daily Izvestia reported Monday that Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, wrote to Patriarch Kirill in April and told him he kept asking himself if he’s responsible.