Kalashnikov gun designer turns 90 – CNN.com Kalashnikov gun designer turns 90 – CNN.com Source: www.cnn.com Red Army tank commander Sgt. Mikhail Kalashnikov invented his first machine gun in 1942, during the Second World War, as he sat in a hospital bed recovering from a wound that he got in western Russia. By arZan ... View all of arZan's posts.