In 1948 Nikolay Makarov designed this blowback pistol and year later it went into production. It ent

In 1948 Nikolay Makarov designed this blowback pistol and year later it went into production. It entered service in 1951 to replace the Tokarev and Nagant pistols and is still issued today. All USSR issued Makarovs were made at the Izhevsk factory in Russia. East Germany, Bulgaria, and China were not a part of the USSR, so they made theirs at their own factories. This Makarov was produced in Baikal specifically for import to the US in the 1990s.

The unique round that this firearm is chambered for is the 9mm Makarov. It was designed with the intention that operators could use captured .380 ammo but NATO troops couldn’t use captured Makarov ammo. .380 and 9mm Mak are the same length so running it in a Mak would work fine, but since the Makarov round is shorter than the NATO standard 9mm Western troops would have to abandon using the ammo in their guns. -R