The inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle apparently wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church before he died expressing fears he was morally responsible for the people it killed.
Mikhail Kalashnikov poses with the first model of his AK-47 assault rifle at a ceremony celebrating the 60th anniversary of the weapon. Photo: AFP (file)
Church officials say Mikhail Kalashnikov, 94, who died on 23 December , wrote a long emotional letter to Patriarch Kirill in May 2012.
The letter said he was suffering "spiritual pain" over the many deaths the AK-47 caused.
The BBC reports Kalashnikov previously refused to accept responsibility for those killed.
in a letter, published in the Izvestia newspaper , he wrote:
"My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question:
''If my rifle claimed people's lives, then can it be that I ... a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?" he asked.
"The longer I live," he continued, "the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression".
Kalashnikov designed the AK-47 in 1947. The BBC says it is one of the world's most widely used weapons. It was cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.
It is thought that more than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have been sold worldwide.
Kalashnikov received many state honours, including the Order of Lenin and the Hero of Socialist Labour. It is unclear how much of the letter he wrote himself.
Izvestia quotes Kalashnikov's daughter, Elena, as saying she believes a priest helped her father compose the letter.
A spoesman for the Russian Patriarch told the paper the Patriarch had received Kalashnikov's letter and had written a reply.
"The Church has a very definite position: when weapons serve to protect the Fatherland, the Church supports both its creators and the soldiers who use it," press secretary Cyril Alexander Volkov was quoted as saying.
"He designed this rifle to defend his country, not so terrorists could use it in Saudi Arabia."
