History of the creation of domestic self-loading pistols
After its creation in 1918, the Red Army, as well as the Soviet police units, were armed with 2 pistols, which were the most common in Europe at that time. This is a Nagant system revolver with a caliber of 7.62 mm and a Mauser pistol chambered for 7.63x25 mm. Both weapons were quite reliable and had a high stopping power. However, over time, the army and law enforcement agencies began to need fundamentally new models - lighter and more compact.
In the 1930s, the USSR put into development an experimental model of a 9 mm caliber cartridge, which, according to research, had a fairly impressive stopping effect and was at the same time smaller in size and easier to manufacture than 7.62 and 7.63 caliber ammunition mm. In addition, the 9-mm cartridge from such a cartridge had a higher “killing power” than the 7.62x25 mm cartridge ammunition used in military TT pistols. It was precisely this new cartridge that the legendary PM and APS were subsequently “fitted” to.
Which is better, a Stechkin pistol or a TT?
There has been a lot of talk about short-barreled weapons lately. Some are dissatisfied with the fact that there are few new models in the modern Russian Army, some scold the old models for their lack of modernity, others, on the contrary, praise them.
The press is fueling interest in short-barreled guns by publishing on the pages of glossy magazines numerous photographs of modern Western pistols from favorable angles, which gives many of our compatriots a nagging feeling of inferiority and backwardness of Russian weapons in all respects.
It’s unpleasant for me when normal people are given falsehoods in a beautiful package, and many are too lazy to learn more broadly and deeply about the history of their weapons, and therefore in this article I will try to reflect the current state of affairs regarding short-barreled guns in the Russian Army and special structures.
So - an army pistol. We'll omit the Nagant and TT. A long and separate story.
Let's start with the Makarov pistol
The Second World War died down. The Cold War and harsh confrontation between the USSR and the West began. Immediately after the Second World War, preparations began for the rearmament of the Soviet Army with new service models of small arms.
The experience of the war, and it was scrupulously studied during that period, showed the extremely insignificant role of the pistol in the combat operations of rifle units. Only combat use should not be confused with the operational use of a pistol in the NKVD - MGB - GRU - Counterintelligence agencies. The pistol has undeniably proven its right to be a truly personal weapon of self-defense and attack for operatives, infantry officers, tank crews, pilots, and naval officers. But he didn’t do the “weather”. By the end of the Second World War, the theory of massive automatic fire from a rifle unit prevailed and the pistol did not fit into it.
In 1945, the GAU determined the performance characteristics of the new pistol and the best gunsmiths of the USSR joined the competition. The pistol was planned to be chambered for 7.62 or 7.65X17 Browning or a new 9 mm cartridge developed by designer B.V. Semin. The new ammunition had less power, but better stopping power, since the 7.62 TT cartridge had the so-called. a sewing effect, when a bullet, having a high initial speed, pierced the soft tissues of the body, and a person in the heat of battle did not even notice it. It was required that one hit was guaranteed to incapacitate the enemy. Therefore, in the end, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense chose the 9 mm cartridge.
A smaller charge of gunpowder made it possible to automate the pistol according to the blowback design. This allowed Makarov to simplify the overall design of the weapon, reducing its weight compared to the TT by 130 g. The overall length was also reduced. It must be honestly said that when adopting the PM into service, many indicators regarding accuracy, accuracy, trigger force and other things had to be sacrificed for the sake of the main indicator that the military sought from designers - reliability.
During field testing, pistols were subjected to sadistic tests, which only the PM completely passed. In addition to Makarov, eight more Soviet designers and, according to various sources, from 5 to 15 pistols of foreign designs took part in this competition. Since it was planned to equip personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security units with this pistol, L.P. himself was personally present at the tests. Beria.
The Makarov pistol, designated PM, was put into service in 1951, although large-scale batches of PMs had been produced since 1949.
What is good about PM and why is it bad for some? Makarov created a truly ingenious design, using Walter’s locking scheme, the simplest and most reliable; in addition, he created an original double-action trigger, the possibility of complete disassembly in the field, an expanded chamber allowing the bolt to insert and remove a rather stubby cartridge without problems of sticking and distortion. A multifunctional safety device that allows, in addition to everything else, to safely remove a loaded pistol from a cocked position. The function, by the way, is available on only a couple or three Western models, and even then it was introduced only in the 70s and 80s.
The gun parts are suspended, which prevents dirt and carbon deposits from accumulating and clogging them. A chrome-plated barrel and very slick contours, which is very important for operational use, does not cling to clothing, and does not injure your hands during use and disassembly. Awesome, incredible resource - up to 50,000 shots. True, this only applies to pistols manufactured between 1955 and the early 70s. years. Since the 80-90s, PM and PMM have been produced of extremely low quality.
High-quality field, naval and operational holsters were made for the pistol and were quite modern for that time. The early ones were made of tarpaulin, later - leather. I’ll also add that the PM is a very fast pistol. He is instantly brought into a fighting position. Can be safely carried with the cartridge in the barrel and the safety off. You need to spend time and learn how to make the first aimed shot by self-cocking, then the rest is not so difficult. My record for rate of fire is 4 targets at 180 degrees, two bullets each, with extraction and first self-cocking shot in 2.1 seconds. A PM magazine can be fired in 1 - 1.2 seconds. I saw such a trick!
At range - I fired from a PM at 100 m at a Pepsi bottle. Three rounds, two hits. But this is just a test of the pistol's capabilities. The straight handle of the PM allows you to shoot intuitively at a chest target up to 15 m. A confident hit, and from a point-blank distance up to 5 - 7 meters, the PM does not need to be raised at all. You can put all the bullets from the hip.
What is “bad” about Makarov? Many users, especially athletes, complain about the heavy trigger release. After sports pistols, of course, it’s a little hard. But not fatal. Just right for a combat model. Without self-cocking, the trigger force of 2.0 to 2.1 kg is quite acceptable for a normal person. Self-cocking up to 4.3 kg, but if anyone has shot self-cocking from a Nagant, he will agree with me that the self-cocking PM is a piece of fluff. An outdated magazine latch, there is such a thing.
Small number of cartridges. (In the PMM model this problem is partially solved). Here I half agree. Multi-shot pistols and a large number of loaded magazines, as is now fashionable in the West, did not lead to increased accuracy of the shooter. This is still a piece item. The emphasis is on massive fire, not accuracy. As the cowboys used to say in the Wild West: If you don't hit with six, you won't hit with thirty-six.
You can shoot from a Makarov at 50 meters only on a dare. In a combat situation this is pointless; 25 meters is already a shot of despair. It is better to use Makarov effectively at a distance from “point-blank” to 15 m. So the PM exactly meets the purposes and combat properties stated in the NSD and is essentially a personal weapon of attack and defense, designed to defeat the enemy at short distances.
In general, the main group of opposition to the PM, as I see it, consists of either athletes or people who have had very little contact with this pistol or have not held it in their hands at all. Many social and political factors contribute to this. In Soviet times, access to military weapons was generally very limited, and bullet shooting was carried out from small guns and Margolin. In the army, pistol shooting gradually turned from the most interesting part of combat training into a routine procedure, carried out once or twice a year before inspections. After perestroika, nothing changed. The old footage remains in place! And with them the same attitude towards fire training.
Now about APS
The Stechkin automatic pistol is also a masterpiece of design thought. First of all, it must be said that to date there are not even five models of this type in the world. And Stechkin was created in the 40s! The APS was put into service together with the PM and AK 47 as a “cartridge-weapon” complex. It must be recalled that in terms of unification of ammunition and small arms, the USSR at one time was far ahead of all countries in the world.
According to the NSD, the APS is also a powerful personal weapon, which combines the combat properties of a pistol and a submachine gun. It is intended to arm officers directly involved in combat operations, as well as sergeants and soldiers of some special units. In my opinion, everything is short and clear. L.P. Beria was also present at the reception of the APS. The pistol also went to the MGB.
A lot has been written about APS, so I will not repeat myself, but will say only a few words from myself. In my opinion, the APS should not have been created automatically. Of course, at that time it was a revolutionary decision, it’s a joke, the officers of such a huge and powerful army are armed with the most modern automatic pistols. Yes, no one in the world dreamed of such a thing! But time puts everything in its place. If the APS were non-automatic, it would be a large, repeating pistol, not much larger than a Colt or High Power. There would be no need to create a bulky wooden holster. Walking, let alone running and overcoming obstacles with such a holster is just torture. It is impossible to quickly bring a pistol into a firing position with a holster. Shoot in bursts or at a distance of 100 and 200 m? Well, this is an extremely rare situation. What remains is the usual pistol range and the use of the pistol for its intended purpose - for self-defense.
Instead, it would be possible to cut a comfortable leather holster similar to the modern PMM holster, where the magazine pocket is moved forward, in place of the cleaning rod. Then the holster would be acceptably flat. Or you can do it without a pocket at all, since a leather case for four magazines was already provided for the APS.
The leather holster looked decent on both the officer’s field and everyday equipment: a belt with a sword belt and a field bag. It will be objected to me that later a silent model appeared - APB, in a leather holster with a frame butt. Yes, it appeared, but as a necessary measure of at least some use of mothballed APS. And again... It doesn’t hurt to shoot in bursts very often from a silent APB either. They stuffed both the stock and the silencer into the holster for the APB and it turned out to be terrible. The main parameters of the APS, even today, are almost equal to the parameters of combat pistols of Western armies. The barrel length of 140 mm allows you to accelerate the low-power 9 X 18 cartridge to an acceptable speed of 340 m/s. For comparison, pistols chambered for 9 X19 Luger have an initial bullet speed of 350 -365 ms.
The 20-round magazine is quite modern. From the APS you can fire single shots with both one and two hands, as is now fashionable. Manufacturers of the field equipment sets that have appeared recently make holsters for APS from synthetic fabrics, integrated for attachment to a waist belt or equipment parts. It's a shame they didn't do this earlier.
Disadvantages: the magazine latch is at the bottom of the handle; reloading requires skill and time. The upper back part of the handle, where the pistol is held by the fork of the thumb and forefinger, is wide and the linings are not rounded. Hence the constant control of the grip, which sometimes distracts from the task. The fuse is far from the thumb and is not as convenient to manipulate as, say, on the PM. Shooting at 100, and even more so at 200 meters, is a far-fetched topic. Apparently they looked up to Mauser. Like, we are no worse. I don’t know of a single case when someone really needed it. Except for the Genghis-Khan Horde going on the attack. Or Indian war elephants.
Otherwise, the APS is an excellent pistol. Following the tradition of Soviet gunsmiths, it is also completely disassembled and assembled in the field. Due to the mass of the bolt and the length of its stroke, the shot from the APS is very soft. Convenient to aim. The aiming line is very large. It is very convenient to equip stores. Almost without looking. Again, the APS has very smooth body contours, is easy to handle, and does not cling to clothing when removed. The pistol has a beautiful bluing finish and is simply aesthetically beautiful!
GSh-18 designed by Gryazev and Shipunov, PYa designed by Yarygin and SPS designed by Serdyukov
In 2003, based on the results of a competition on the topic “Rook”, by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 166, the following pistols were adopted for service: GSh-18 designed by Gryazev and Shipunov, PYa designed by Yarygin and SPS designed by Serdyukov. Special mention should be made about these pistols because they were all designed for a new type of ammunition. GSh -18 and PYA chambered for 9 x19 Luger 7N21 - a reinforced version of this cartridge. SPS for the new original ammunition 9 x21 (7N29).
The appearance in the West of a new generation of infantry equipment, where a body armor was integrated into the unloading, and many parts of the soldier’s equipment and weapons began to be attached not to the waist belt, but to unloading vests, creating obstacles for bullets, forced designers to turn to more powerful ammunition and, as a result, to new design of automatic pistols. All three pistols have modern double-row magazines with 15-18 rounds of ammunition. All these pistols are automatic, based on the principle of a short barrel stroke. The magazines are secured with clamps located at the base of the trigger guard, like most modern pistols.
On the PYa and SPS there is a double-action USM, on the GSh-18 the USM is similar to the Austrian striker-type Glock. In addition, the GSh-18 locks the barrel by turning the barrel 18 degrees. There are 12 lugs on the barrel. These bells and whistles prevent the GSh-18 from becoming a full-fledged pistol, since it has a lot of childhood diseases and their treatment is delayed. Weapon designers want to have their say in the design of the weapon, but this does not improve the design. GSh-18 is a regular participant in international arms salons, but things don’t go any further.
Manufacturers claim that if it is put into production, it will cost less than PM. I don’t know... In 2005, I shot from a general gun at a shooting range near Moscow. None of the three pistols completely fired even one magazine. So it’s too early to form an opinion about the General Staff.
PYA 6P35 - Yarygin pistol. This one was luckier. It reached mass production, which was greatly facilitated by its international certification as a sports serial pistol. For the army, the PYA is manufactured with a metal frame, for export (Viking MP-644), with a polymer frame. There are still minor differences, but they are not fundamental. Starting in 2004, I had to shoot a lot from this pistol at shooting courses, and later I bought my own personal copy.
Positive points: Very comfortable handle. I don’t even know what to compare it with. The gun literally sits in your hand. Convenient sighting devices. The mechanics of the trigger are very interesting. Eliminates twitching. The descent, even with self-cocking, despite the great effort (7 kg!!!), is very smooth. The pistol is accurate. The barrel is weighted like a sporting Colt. Doesn't throw up. Again, at competitions, I shot from my Viking along with all the foreigners. Magazine for 17 rounds. Double-sided safety. Removing the magazine is convenient.
Flaws. On the first models, the cartridge case was extracted straight up, like on a PPSh, and if you shot from the chest or below, it flew straight to the forehead. Very unpleasant. Later the extractor was moved to the right. The safety lever is very small and tight. Horizontal notches cut fingers. I have to put on a band-aid. The overall finish is very rough. A lot of parts need to be sanded. The magazine lips are not processed. This is the only way to cut fingers. The magazine covers are made of brittle plastic. They split on the first day. I had to sharpen the aluminum ones. The Teflon coating on the shutter begins to peel off within the first month of use. A holster for the PJ, it seems, is not even provided. Haven't seen it anywhere.
THX. Or “Vector” or “Gyurza” for the export version. A modern, powerful army pistol of the latest generation. Its competitor can only be the Belgian Five - Seven. The pistol has several patented innovations. Locking unit, so-called return spring stop, which allows you to exclude from the design the under-barrel rod with a return spring as on the TT, Colt, PYa and put the spring directly on the barrel, as on the PM and APS. The new ammunition for which SPS was developed is 9 X 21 mm. Very powerful. It pierces a 4 mm steel plate at 100 m.
Positive points. Very comfortable in the hand. Unexpectedly easy descent. Only 1.5 kg. It hits extremely accurately, despite the powerful cartridge. The aiming organs are large, like on a Glock. According to stories, this pistol appeared in Chechnya.
Flaws. The safety is on the rear of the pistol grip. Like an ultrasound. Why is he needed there? Unclear! With a small hand, or in an emergency situation, it may be underpressed and the shot will not fire. And, again, low assembly and manufacturing culture. The cartridge for the SPS is a rare curiosity and, according to my inquiries, no one has been able to shoot enough of it to get a feel for the weapon. Two combat magazines are enough.
PSM. The pistol was created in the late 70s and chambered for the original 5.45 cartridge. Despite the standard blowback-based automatic action, the pistol is a very original design. If you take it apart, you wonder how the designers were able to assemble the mechanism in such a small volume. The width of the pistol is 1.8 cm. Despite its small size, the pistol is evil. The initial speed of the bullet is 315 m/s, the bullet has a steel core and for self-defense it is a very convenient, invisible weapon. More suitable for operational wearing and use. It is not worth using it as an army officer's pistol.
The pistol, following Soviet tradition, is completely disassembled and assembled using a drift and a screwdriver. True, it’s not as easy as PM and APS. Doesn't have a well-thought-out and well-made holster. The regular one is very inconvenient and fearful. Currently, people use self-made, or home-made cooperative production, produced for the gas analogue of PSM - Iceberg.
Since the late 80s, it has become fashionable to give PSM as a reward; they began to produce it in beautiful boxes, with wooden cheeks, etc. But the quality of these pistols is poor. PSM has one psychological drawback, which I heard about from people who used PSM in a real situation. You can't scare people with this gun. He is not taken seriously because of his size. Everyone who took out PSM in order to exert a psychological influence on the enemy had to open fire, since the “client” was not at all afraid of him and continued to press.
So, to date, the Russian Army officially has as many as six pistols and their modifications. And this is not counting the arsenal of special and silent weapons. All samples are DOMESTIC!!! production.
Great America has been unable to give its army ANYTHING for a hundred years except the damned Colt, and since the late 70s of the last century, the American army has been armed exclusively with European pistols: Beretta, Sig Sauer, Heckler Koch.
It's a sin for Russians to complain! God grant that the existing models in service are mastered properly. The other, most important aspect of this issue is fire training, i.e. How the issue of pistol shooting training is posed in Russia today. I won't comment on anything. This is a completely different story and has nothing to do with hardware.
The Makarov pistol
After the Great Patriotic War, the USSR began developing a self-loading pistol for military personnel who fought primarily “with a pencil and a telephone” - senior officers and generals. Accordingly, the main requirements for such weapons were lightness, simplicity and compactness.
In 1948, Soviet gunsmith Nikolai Makarov presented his development - a self-loading pistol of the Makarov system, which was put into service in 1951 with the GRAU 56-A-125 index. Despite the creation of modern models of self-loading pistols, weapons designed by Makarov are still quite actively used today.
Stechkin automatic pistol
An automatic pistol designed by gunsmith Igor Stechkin was developed and adopted by the USSR army, like the Makarov pistol, in 1951. The weapon was created for military officers, as well as for sergeants and soldiers of special army and law enforcement units. A special feature of the APS was that it was possible to fire from this self-loading pistol either in single shots or in short bursts. For the convenience of automatic shooting, a wooden butt-holster could be attached to the pistol handle.
The APS was developed as an alternative to a submachine gun, but due to a number of its shortcomings (massive wooden holster-butt and low penetration power), the Stechkin was discontinued in 1958. Despite this circumstance, the pistol is still actively used in military conflicts by military officers and Russian intelligence services.
From the history of the creation of Makarov and Stechkin pistols
The reliable Makarov magazine latch never limited me - I could get the magazine out in one movement (with your index finger you grab the front protrusion of the magazine cover and pull it out of the handle, and with your thumb you press the latch and voila, the process takes barely a second of time if you work it out “ to automaticity" and "to speed" - of course, when gripping the pistol with one hand and the other free!), since before the PM I already had well-developed skills with similar latches in the lower part of the handle (I had very little to do with the TT, and not from the very beginning, so there was no habit of using the “button”). I didn’t shoot with the Stechkin, but I did shoot with the Makarov! I consider the PM to be the best Soviet pistol - due to the structurally fixed ("tightly" fixed in the frame of the pistol) barrel, the standard cartridges of the same production batch, the Makarov is guaranteed to hit where you are aiming - there is no chance of accidental deflection of the bullet due to some perturbations during barrel recoil (which exists in systems with a short barrel stroke). During the Soviet Union, we had to shoot from army and police (they were usually less worn out, so their trigger was tighter and felt “rougher”, not as “developed” as that of well-worn army models) Makarovs. - never failed, not a single misfire, not a single delay (The designer provided large “openings”, gaps in the guides, and organized structural “sins” for the dirt (and powder soot) that inevitably gets inside, so that it does not interfere with the functioning of the mechanisms and the supply of cartridges !)!
In my design engineer’s opinion, with a conceptual rejection of the requirement to provide automatic burst fire, the Stechkin pistol, during its creation, could have been significantly simplified and lightened, even with the same barrel length and magazine capacity
! It could turn out to be truly balanced (in terms of weight and dimensions, simplicity of design and manufacturability - low cost in large-scale and mass production (and not expensive “individually selective” manual assembly and fitting of each APS pistol by a highly qualified fitter, a specific one worker - from the beginning of assembly to delivery of the finished "Stechkin" OTK - literally exclusive pistols, precious in terms of costs, were obtained!) production, ease of use and firepower) army pistol, suitable for easy arming of crews of combat and support vehicles (all types), machine gunners, grenade launchers, snipers, sappers, air controllers and artillery spotters…. But, apparently, the captured automatic pistol “Mauser” and its automatic Spanish clone “Astra” then dominated Artkom and high-ranking customers too much (or were thrown around “in confusion” - after all, even the unreasonably overcomplicated weak Hungarian self-loading pistols from Frommer were tested as a possible prototype??!)??!
