The TT-33: The “Star” Pistol
Jul 12th 2024
The year is 1930, a time of innovation and development. As the world modernizes and adapts to new political and military realities, so too must the newly created Soviet Union. Set against the backdrop of the recently ended Russian Civil War and First World War, the Soviets must also attempt to bring their country up to speed with their western neighbors. One vital aspect of this modernization lies in the technological development of its firearms, specifically sidearms issued to its forces. To better understand this process, one must look to the turn of the century in Russian warfare.
The Russian Frontovik of the Great War was equipped with a 7-shot gas sealing single action Nagant M1895. Officers were slightly better equipped, with a double-action version of the same revolver. This revolver served with distinction throughout the war, and into the Russian revolution. Heavily utilized by both Tsarist and Communist forces, by 1930 it was evident a new sidearm was required. The Nagant revolver was time consuming to load and outdated in the face of semi-automatic pistols utilized by many other European powers. This led to the creation of a more modern Soviet sidearm, the TT-30 by Fedor Tokarev.
The TT-30 was the first iteration of the now famous Tokarev pistol, utilizing a common short recoil / tilting barrel action. Supplied with an 8 round detachable box magazine, the pistol offered Soviet soldiers a much more efficient sidearm. The grips required no special tools to take apart, utilizing small levers to be removed and attached. The feed lips were also part of the pistols frame, removing the need to work to get magazines to fit in specific pistols.After testing the Soviet military requested some minimal changes to the barrel and hammer assembly. Following these slight modifications, the TT-33 began production, outstripping its parent variant with over 1.3 million produced during the Second World War.
Feelings on the TT-33 were mixed among front line troops. The new pistol gave officers and soldiers a more efficient sidearm, that could be fired and loaded faster than its aging revolver counterpart. The Tokarev 7.6x25mm round also had excellent penetration, which found favor among frontline troops. While these changes were certainly appreciated, there were certain quirks of the pistol that led some troops to dislike it or even to recede back to using the Nagant M1895. Due to the lack of a safety, many soldiers ended up accidentally shooting themselves or their comrades. The TT-33 only has a half-cock setting to function as a safety, locking the frame and keeping the pistol from firing. If a soldier has a round in the chamber and wishes to de-cock the pistol they must cock the hammer fully, pull the trigger, and gradually rest the hammer back into position. If the soldier slips while pulling the trigger, the pistol will go off. The hammer could also very easily be pulled back accidentally from half cock, leading many Soviet troops and KGB officials to carry a loaded TT-33 with an empty chamber to remedy this issue. Soldiers also found that the magazine ejection button was not sufficiently shielded, leading to occasional ejection of the magazine at extremely inopportune times. Some tankers found that when trying to fire their TTs through the viewport of a tank, the slide would get in the way and inhibit effective use of their sidearms, so they switched back to using Nagant revolvers.Despite these drawbacks, the Tokarev pistol quickly became the standard pistol of Soviet forces, along with many of their satellite states in the Warsaw pact such as Romania and Poland.
Although the Soviets quickly moved past the TT-33 to the Makarov pistol, the onset of the Cold War is where it earned its place as an iconic Warsaw Pact sidearm. The Soviet Union officially halted production of the TT-33 in 1954, but the pistol was still manufactured in most states under its control. These pistols would go on to arm military and policing units throughout Eastern Europe. Although these were almost complete copies of the original design, there were some differences between nations. For example, the Polish TT-33 had slightly different proof markings to the Romanian TTC version. The Polish stamped the number of the factory that created the pistol, along with the serial number and year. The Poles at Radom generally made higher quality TT-33s than the Romanians, with the Polish utilizing the wider gap slide serrations. An interesting note is that many of these post-war pistols would be assembled from various parts, for example a Polish TT-33 with grip panels from Romania and other parts from the Soviet Union. It is not uncommon to have mismatched parts in many of these TT-33 pistols. One of the easier methods of telling if your pistol uses mixed parts, is if the lettering on the grip panels represents the country of manufacture of your specific Tokarev. If the letters surrounding the star do not match the country of manufacture, then you know the grips among likely other parts are from varying countries.
When these pistols were initially imported into the U.S. they were as original as they could get, still lacking any real safety mechanism. Ensuing firearms legislation led to the import requirement of pistols needing to have a safety, so many Tokarevs on the U.S. domestic market have manual safeties. These safeties are a switch above the left grip panel that consists of a switch up and down to toggle the fire mode. Due to the copious number of manufactured pistols across Europe, there have been an influx of TTs of varying nationality into the U.S. For collector standards, the Polish TTs are slightly rarer than the Romanian pistols, and as such the price will generally reflect this in the listings. Regardless of nationality, the TT-33 is an excellent pistol and a must have for any surplus gun collectors looking to acquire a fun, beautiful piece of history.