Makarov: the last-best COM-BLOC handgun? This Walther PP wanna'-be offers-up some Soviet-surprises

Guns Magazine, Oct, 2004 by Holt Bodinson

Nikolay Fedorovich Makarov was 31 years old in 1945 when the Great Patriotic War came to a close. He had spent World War II as the chief designer in a factory churning out PPSh submachine guns for the troops. As luck would have it, Makarov spent his days working directly under the supervision of one of the greatest of Soviet firearms designers, Georgiy Shpagin, creator of the PPSh. If nothing more, those years with Shpagin must have been inspirational to a young up-and-coming engineer.

There's an interesting sidelight that emerges as you study the careers of Soviet firearms designers. The old Soviet Union was very adept at identifying ability in its workforce. As a result, it nurtured talented individuals by upgrading their formal education in the early years of their careers. Whether it's a Tokarev or a Makarov, you will find they were sponsored to advanced technical schools as their talent for mechanical design unfolded.

Equally interesting is the fact that while the Soviets encouraged competition among their designers, once a design was decided upon. the designers often cooperated as a team to refine the final design. In 1945, when the call went out for a replacement for the Tokarev T-33 and the utterly obsolete 1895 Nagant, Makarov, Tokarev, Simonov, Korovin, Voevodin, Rakov and others submitted prototypes, but wait, I'm getting ahead of my story.

Up-Grade Time

Coming out of World War II, the Soviets immediately began a series of programs to completely upgrade their small arms inventory. In handguns, they wanted a smaller, lighter, more accurate, more reliable sidearm than the Tokarev T-33. It had to chambered for either a 9mm or 7.62mm cartridge while retaining the energy of the current 7.62 Nagant round.

As a young designer, Makarov was the right man at the right time. He was ambitious and he had the energy of youth on his side. In his own words, his success "... was made possible first of all by the enormous efforts l had spent making it [the prototype]. It is enough to say that at that time I worked seven days a week, with practically no clays off, from eight in one morning until two or three in the next. In this way I could prepare and shoot twice--maybe even three times--as many examples than my rivals, honing the reliability and handling characteristics of the gun to the utmost perfection."

Like Tokarev, Makarov recognized existing good designs when he saw them, and he was not ego-bound when it came to using them. In the case of Makarov's final design, it was the Walther PR designed by Fritz Walther in 1929, that he drew most heavily upon. Both the Makarov, called the Pistolet Makarov or "PM" for short, and the Walther PP share a number of obvious similarities, including outward appearance.

Both are double-action, external hammer, semiautos based on a blow back system. Both feature a stationary, frame-mounted barrel encircling a concentric recoil spring. Both feature similar looking slide-mounted, two-position, de-cocking safeties functioning exactly opposite of each other. Both are field stripped by disengaging and pulling down on the front of the trigger guard.

The Makarov differs from the Walther in a variety of significant ways, including having an external slide release, a chrome-lined barrel, a heel released, open-sided magazine, a leaf--rather than a coil mainspring--and a better safety. With the exception of the heel-catch release and leaf spring, I consider these changes improvements in the basic Walther design.

The story behind Makarov's use of a heel-catch release for the magazine is interesting. Apparently during the war, it wasn't uncommon for soldiers to accidentally release and lose the magazines from their Tokarev TT-33's that featured a 1911-type button release. The Soviet designers were told to fix the problem in the next generation of sidearms--so they did. And, a corrosion resistant, chrome-lined barrel is always a plus in a service arm, particularly when military ammunition often sports corrosive primers.

Specifically Special

To release the slide of a Walther PP, it's necessary to use the other hand to pull back and release the slide. All it takes in the Makarov is to thumb-down the slide release on the left side of the frame. The Makarov safety is "on" in the upper position and is quickly disengaged by a downward sweep of the thumb. Its use is logical and natural as compared to the difficult Walther safety, that must be thumbed up to disengage it.

The eight-round, open-sided Makarov magazine is easier to clean and maintain than the Walther's conventional enclosed design. You can even flush it out with water from your canteen if need be--and yon may need to. An open sided magazine does tend to collect more dirt. For me, and I expect for others. it's easier to visually grasp how many remaining rounds are in a Makarov magazine rather than counting the holes in the Walther. Okay, maybe it's just me.

Mak-Magic

The single most significant improvement over the Walther PP, however, was in the slightly more powerful cartridge adopted by Makarov. The 9x18 cartridge permitted Makarov to retain an easily-manufactured blow-back pistol design without sacrificing ballistic performance. The secret was in the design of the case itself.