TT-33 Tokarev

The TT-33, universally known as the Tokarev, was developed in the late 1920s to replace the Nagant M1895 revolver and the miscellany of imported pistols then carried by Soviet officers. To simplify production the Artillery Committee settled on a 7.62mm pistol calibre, which allowed Mosin-Nagant rifle barrels to be cut down for pistol and submachine gun manufacture. In the 1930 Red Army trials Fedor Tokarev's design was judged lighter, more accurate and more reliable than the competing Korovin and Prilutsky submissions and was adopted as the TT-30. It was quickly simplified for manufacture, chiefly by making the backstrap integral with the frame, and the revised weapon became the TT-33. Soviet production ended in 1954 after at least 1.7 million had been built, but derivatives continued in China and Yugoslavia for decades.

Externally the TT-33 resembles the FN Model 1903; internally it uses the Browning short-recoil tilting-barrel system of the M1911, with a much simpler hammer and sear assembly that lifts out of the frame as a single module and incorporates machined magazine feed lips, so that a damaged magazine cannot cause a misfeed. The magazines themselves come apart for cleaning. The pistol has no external safety and is normally carried with the hammer at half-cock. Its 7.62x25mm cartridge is powerful and extremely flat-shooting, capable of defeating heavy clothing and soft body armour, yet recoil is mild. Wartime examples (1942-1945) are distinguishable by their rough finish and wooden grips.

Foreign versions form a long list:

• China: Type 51, Type 54, the unmarked M20 for clandestine supply, and the Norinco Model 213 in 9x19mm

• Hungary: the M48 by FEG, and the 9mm Tokagypt 58 built for Egypt

• Poland: the wz. 1933 by FB Radom, about 225,500 built

• Romania: the TTC from the Cugir Arms Factory, 155,648 built

• North Korea: the Type 68, with a shorter barrel and a Hi-Power-style tilting barrel system

• Yugoslavia: the Zastava M57 with a nine-round magazine, and the 9mm M70 and M70A

• Vietnam: the K-54VN and the double-stack K14

Khyber Pass workshops in Pakistan still turn out copies of widely varying quality.

The TT-33 was issued mainly to officers and specialists; cavalry units kept Nagant revolvers because the Tokarev's lack of a safety endangered horse and rider. It saw limited use in the Spanish Civil War and first major service in the Winter War, where the Finns captured and used numbers of them. During the Second World War both Finland and Germany reissued captured examples, the latter as the Pistole 615(r). China, North Korea and Vietnam fielded Soviet-supplied and locally made pistols through the Korean and Vietnam wars, and surplus stocks went to African states as military aid. More than sixty countries have used the type and eight mass-produced copies of it; despite formal replacement by the Makarov it is still encountered with police forces and irregular units worldwide.