What is a Tokarev 7.62mm Pistol?

Answer 1

The Tokarev pistol is an autoloading (semiautomatic) single action pistol. Official names are TT-30 and TT-33. TT stands for "Tula Tokarev", with Tula being the name of the town where it was designed and Tokarev the name of the designer.

The pistol employs a locked breech design with a Browning-type tilting barrel and link and has an 8-round detachable magazine. The pistol was originally chambered in 7.62x25 (7.62 Tokarev, .30 Tokarev). Copies of the design have been made in other countries (notably, China) in 9x19(9mm Parabellum), as well as variants for target shooting chambered in .22LR.

This pistol was a sidearm of the Soviet military and police from it's initial acceptance in 1930 and until mid-1950's. It had limited use with armed guards until the late 1990's.

Besides the USSR, the TT has been produced under license, and otherwise, in Romania, Yugoslavia, China, East Germany, Hungary, and, possibly, Bulgaria.