IKEA
One of the greatest symbols of the Cold War were the weapons used by so many radicals and guerillas in their war against the enemy. In the Communist bloc, this symbol was the almighty Kalashnikov rifle, known for being durable, almost impossible to break, reliable, and incredibly deadly. Eventually, the original model, the AK-47, was replaced in 1959 by the new AKM, which the Soviet Union also rapidly exported across the entire world. The Soviet Union not only exported an estimated 10 million AK rifles, but North China and North Japan famously exported over 10 million Type 56s, the Sino-Japanese designed variant of the AK-47. In the immediate years after the Three Years War, these weapons were shipped like candy to rebels, whether they be in Northern Ireland, Algeria, Oman, Egypt, Laos, Iraq, Lebanon, Venezuela, the Congo, the Central African Federation, Tunisia, Indonesia, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, or South Africa (and those were just the wars in 1960!)
However, in the years to come, a new symbol would characterize a different side of the Cold War. Whereas radical leftist guerrillas would soon idolize the Kalashnikov rifle, a new rifle would become idealized by radical rightist guerillas across the world. Very soon after the end of the Three Years War, postwar Swedish governments found it very difficult to govern without the tacit support of Per Engdahl's new "Swedish Social Movement." This was because as a condition for ascension into NATO and into the European Economic Community, the Spanish and Portuguese governments demanded that Swedes officially ban the Swedish Social Democratic Party, as it was seen as filled with Communist entryists after the destruction of the Swedish Communist Party. This was seen as a grave violation of the democratic process and large numbers of politicians from both the People's Party and the Rightist Parties balked. After all, it was basically a foreign coup if they were to simply ban the historically most popular party in the nation. The French also objected to the Spanish/Portuguese ultimatum, but the West Germans supported them, causing the French to withdraw their objections.
General Swedlund realized that Swedes/Finns were dying everyday from cold, hunger, and disease everyday and the threat of the Soviet Union still looming. He didn't want the Social Democrats banned, but he saw no other choice. Realizing he didn't have a majority, he then pulled in pro-ban members of the Farmer's League. However, even that wasn't enough. As more stories of dead children flooded the newspapers, Swedlund made a deal with the devil. The Swedish Social Movement was brought into the government and given control of two ministries, namely the Ministry of Defense and the new Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Defense was given to the token Finn of the cabinet and a member of the SSM, one of Finland's most prominent veterans of the Three Years War, the American-backed Lauri Torni. MITI was created to more or less quarantine off Engdahl from the rest of the Cabinet, where he'd get to play with a few industrial projects. Torni was largely placed in charge as a ceremonial head - his primary job would be to communicate with the United States Army, which he was a former member of. The Swedish Social Democrats were soon proscribed by law, which sparked large amounts of protests that the Army quickly dealt with. In practice, most actual Communist entryists began leaving the nation, while former Social Democrats flooded into the other parties, chiefly the Farmer's League (Sweden was now a much more agrarian nation after its largest metropolitan area had ceased to exist). So devastated and shocked by the thermonuclear annihilation of Stockholm, few Swedes had the will to resist anything that the powers in charge promised would led to an end to famine and cold.
The inclusion of the SSM in the Swedish government helped create one of the largest industrial and military conglomerates of postwar Sweden. The treasurer of the SSM, Ingvar Kamprad, was an incredibly capable entrepreneur, and leveraging his contacts in the Swedish government (both in the Defense Ministry and MITI), significantly expanded his furniture business to include all kinds of Swedish state assets that were sold off at a discount rate. This included chemicals factories, steel factories, coal mines, pharmaceuticals, woodcutting, paper mills, canneries, fisheries, and all kinds of businesses. In addition, Kamprad managed not only to purchase the old Finnish weapons company SAKO (which had fled to Sweden), but he also managed to combine their operations with the recently privatized Swedish state weapons company, Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori, and the private Swedish gun maker Husqvarna Vapenfabrik.
Their new all-purpose assault rifle, the IKEA-60 rifle, was a modernized version of the Carl Gustaf m/45. Updating the SMG with a delayed lever-blowback system borrowed from the Hungarian Pal Kiraly (Hungary was now a close ally of Sweden-Finland), rechambering to the Swedish 6.5x55mm caliber, and then giving the weapon better sights and a foldable wooden stock. Notably, to save costs, unlike future delayed lever-blowback rifles (such as the French FAMAS), the IKEA-60 did not flute any of its barrels, which caused firing each round to destroy the case fired. Otherwise, it used the body of the m/45...except with various livability corners cut (the IKEA rifle notably did not have a safety setting).
Extremely modular and dirt-cheap as a result of Kamprad's general philosophy on products, the IKEA rifle was easy to ship out in tiny modular pieces and could be covertly assembled by anyone. When they first encountered the weapon, the Soviets were mind-boggled that anyone had managed to create a weapon cheaper than the AK-47. The AK-47 costed an estimate $180 to produce - while the IKEA rifle only costed $95. The IKEA assault rifle was just as deadly and reliable as the AK-47, but it was also lighter. The only real downsides of the weapon was that it 1) had a tendency of injuring nearby people by violently ejecting destroyed cases, 2) it was much louder than the AK-47, 3) it had a lower rate of fire than the AK-47, 4) it had a smaller clip, 5), it was less accurate at long ranges (500m+), and 6) did I mention it didn't have a safety function??? None of this mattered to the purchasers - the IKEA rifle was cheaper than the AK-47 and easier to transport. Sweden, desperate to export anything to help improve its economy, greenlit massive production of the new IKEA rifle in hopes that guerrillas anywhere and everywhere would use it. Very soon, orders came rolling in. The beauty of the IKEA rifle was that it funded itself - it only used totally disposable ammunition largely only manufactured in Sweden, so the production of ammunition for cheap Swedish weapons around the world became a huge economic opportunity for the country. As a result, a decision was made to simply give away these rifles for
free with "trial period ammunition." This proved successful in getting all kinds of new customers "hooked".
The Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland, terrified that the Maoists were becoming increasingly well-armed, found the perfect weapon to purchase. The IKEA rifle produces a very distinctive and loud noise and street shoot-outs in Belfast actually became very easy to hear from a distance, because the two rifles used by both sides had a very different sound. It also became the choice of weapon for Iraqi Nationalist forces, Italian neofascist guerillas, both Turkish and Greek rebels in Cyprus, anti-Communist organized crime groups (such as Latin American drug cartels, the Sicilian Mafia, the Yakuza, or the Triads), or even just normal civilians who wanted a personal defense weapons in the various conflict zones of the world. In contrast to the Soviets who tried to only export AK-47s to their friends, IKEA rifles were for everyone!