Kalashnikov rifle designer felt 'spiritual pain' from mass deaths

A military cadet walks past a portrait of Mikhail Kalashnikov, chief designer of Izhmash Concern, a Russian firearms producer, during a commemoration ceremony in Mytischi outside Moscow, December 27, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 rifle, wrote a letter to the Russian Orthodox Church before his death expressing concern that the weapon had killed so many people, Izvestia newspaper reported.

"My spiritual pain is unbearable," he wrote in the letter to the head of the Church, Patriarch Kirill.