Yo, listen up, gun enthusiasts! Let me introduce you to the legend, Gennady Nikolaevich Nikonov, the mad scientist behind the short-lived but totally rad AN-94 Abakan. This dude was a rockstar at the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, cranking out innovative solutions left and right. In ’77, he whipped up an experimental light machine gun that he finished in ’78, and get this – it was so ahead of its time, it made conventional operating systems look like they were stuck in the Stone Age with its mind-blowing fire rate. Nikonov was the real deal, pushing boundaries and making the Second Amendment proud!