The smallest Kalashnikov in the world

An automatic rifle less than one millimetre long has a place in the Guinness Book of Records

On 17 May, the smallest Kalashnikov automatic rifle in the world, only 0.9mm in length, will be on show for the first time at the Microworlds  exhibition in Izhevsk, report the exhibition organizers. The tiny rifle is the work of Anatoly Konenko, the famous microminiaturist, and has a place in the Guinness Book of Records.


Anatoly Konenko, microminiaturist. Photo source: ITAR-TASS
Konenko spent two months working on the unique automatic rifle, which has 12 separate parts.
There are only 11 microminiaturists in the world, 8 of whom are Russian. Experts have valued the pieces on display at the exhibition at EUR300,000.
The miniature Kalashnikov was made to mark a historic date: 65 years ago this year, the Izhmash plant manufactured its first batch of Kalashnikov АK-47 automatic rifles.
The automatic rifles made at Rostec State Corporation’s Izhmash plant were used in all the armed conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. According to French newspaper Libération, the Kalashnikov was the most important invention of the century, higher up the list than aerospace technologies and the atomic bomb. In the 21st century, the Kalashnikov automatic rifle remains the most in-demand firearm in the world, totalling more than 100 million in 55 countries. Egypt has a memorial to the rifle, while in Afghanistan its image is embroidered into rugs, and in some African countries newborn baby boys are given the name Kalash.