Izhevsk is the largest city and capital of Udmurtia. It was founded in 1760 when a small ironworks was laid here for Count P. I. Shuvalov. The peculiarity is its pond, necessary for the water to spin the water wheels and drive the factory mechanisms. A huge pond with a length of about 15 kilometers ensured uninterrupted operation of the plant throughout the year.

The founder of the city is considered an outstanding mining engineer A. F. Deryabina. In 1801, he chose a decayed plant on the Izh River to organize a weapons factory here for Russia. He called it “the city of Izh.”

The transformations in Izhevsk are associated with the name of the remarkable architect S. E. Dushkin. His best creation is the main four-story building of the former weapons factory. This is Russia’s first multi-story industrial building. It forms the image of the city. The factory building stretching for a third of kilometers is crowned with a fifty-meter tower. She is a symbol of Izhevsk.

Izhevsk’s contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War is incredibly high. The city sent into battle twelve and a half million weapons! This rifle power surpasses even all that made the whole power. Izhevsk was glorified by Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov — an outstanding designer, a remarkable successor of the traditions of the Russian school of creators of small arms. He was born in 1919 in Altai in the village of Kurya.

In World War II was wounded at the front. M. Kalashnikov developed the design of a submachine gun, and then won the competition for the design of the machine gun. To organize the production of his automaton designated AK-47, the talented inventor-gunsmith was sent as a designer to the famous Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant. So with Izhevsk was associated all life and further design activity. M.T. Kalashnikov. Today, the Kalashnikov assault rifle is the most common weapon in the world!