During the Cold War, the East and West’s rival intelligence agencies employed all manner of gadgets to conduct their espionage operations. There were deadly poison-tipped umbrellas, cyanide capsules, and spy planes, but the real artistry of spycraft was seen in the more subtle methods of espionage—something an agent could conceal and use without leaving a trace.

The Ajax-12 was one such device, a film camera used by the Soviet intelligence agencies from 1953 to the end of the Cold War. The camera was small (77 x 41 x 55 mm) and its streamlined design lacked a viewfinder to save space. This meant that agents had to line up their shots perfectly and hope they could capture a clear photo on the first try.

This specimen from Mini Museum is a complete Ajax-12 spy camera. A form of the specimen first appeared in the Fifth Edition as Cold War Espionage, featuring a piece of a coat button that was used to disguise the camera and take photos covertly. Now, you can get the complete Ajax-12, along with a certificate of authenticity verifying this incredible piece of Cold War history!

The Ajax-12 was primarily used by the KGB, the Soviet Union’s security and intelligence outlet. The multi-purpose agency had its roots in the revolutionary Cheka group and underwent many names before arriving at the Committee for State Security. During the Cold War, the KGB policed dissent, disseminated propaganda, conducted foreign operations, and embedded agents in Western countries, where a tool like the Ajax-12 would be very useful. 

There were two variants of the Ajax-12, one for closeup documents photography and one outfitted with a rangefinder and a modified lens for more distant shots, from two to eight meters. Agents using the camera had to be entirely self-reliant, carrying four rolls of film for shooting, developing their own film in special darkrooms, and using a special hand-wound film cutter.

The camera was typically deployed with a specialized lens designed to fit behind a coat button, with a switch inside the user's pocket to open and close the button. The device was not completely silent—agents were directed to cough to cover the sound of the shutter’s click. However, it was so small and reliable that it could be used in many different configurations. Ajax-12s were also hidden in thermoses, books, radios, and even undergarments.

With a career that lasted into the late 1990s, the Ajax-12 continued its use after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 1989, Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod (KMZ) who had built the camera attempted a commercial variant of the long-running camera, rebranded as the Zenit MF-1. It was hoped that the camera’s small size would be a useful selling point, but in Russia’s harsh post-dissolution economy there was little demand for a camera based on designs that were six decades old.