AK-47 inventor had spiritual crisis before death, letters reveal

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

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