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Overview of Soviet Military Handguns: Nagant, Tokarev, Makarov (Ad-Free)
🕑 Added 2023-12-22 12:00:04 +0000 UTCToday we are looking at an overview of Soviet military service sidearms. This begins with the Model 1895 Nagant revolver, inherited from the Czarist Russian Army. The Nagant was adopted as the standard Red Army handgun, specifically in double action. Soviet refitting led to single-action Nagant revolvers being extremely rare today. In the late 1920s, a development program for a new semiautomatic pistol was run, which resulted in adoption of the TT30 Tokarev. Refinement of the Tokarev led to the TT33, adopted in 1933 and entering significant production in late 1935.
The Tokarev was considered a flawed pistol, and a new program in the late 1930s looked to replace it. A new design was chosen, but the German invasion in 1941 ended that project, and the Tokarev and Nagant would serve together through the end of World War Two. In the aftermath of the war, the Soviet Union adopted a wholly new suite of small arms. The new pistol was to be something lighter and handier, and with better safety features than the Tokarev. The PM Makarov was adopted to this end, and entered production in the early 1950s. It was used through the collapse of the Soviet Union, with a PMM (modernized) version unveiled in 1990, with a larger magazine. Eventually, the Russian Federation adopted the MP-443 Grach in 2003, a locked-breech 9x19mm pistol to replace the Makarovs.
Comments
Jiří Kučera
That is a realy interesting video. It will be cool have those for Germany, USA etc. And while wearing CZUB shirt Czech? :)
Guido Schriewer
I like the tokarev. wish it would have a safety though. the mak is great. a bit small. debatable but if one sees use it as a handgun only... the aps stechkin would kind of be the commie soviet handgun to have.
Kenneth Marshall
My early intuition was that small caliber anemic guns were given to officers as a tool to control conscripted soldiers and not as a true defensive arm against opposition forces. A group of conscripted soldiers facing their death might gang up on an officer and kill him - the pistol was a tool to detour that. This is true for any army, but more likely where conscription and forced service exist. Keeping Crappy revolvers were still good to be issued for letting a soldier know if he didn't follow orders he might get shot in the back.
