By Martin K.A. Morgan<\/a><\/p>\n W<\/span>hen the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Makarov pistol had been in service for just over 70 years. The Red Army adopted it under Stalin in 1951 and continued producing it through the era of d\u00e9tente under Brezhnev, the era of glasnost and perestroika under Gorbachev, and the inevitable end of Soviet hegemony that soon followed.<\/p>\n With more than 5,000,000 examples in circulation worldwide, the Makarov did not just go away when the USSR did in December 1991 \u2014 it continued to serve, and it remained in production. That is why this old Soviet war horse has been seen time and time again in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Although it is an all-steel construction blowback double-action\/single-action with a fixed barrel and a single-stack magazine, it is still out there fighting alongside the polymer-framed, striker-fired locked-breech single actions with double-stack magazines. It continues to exist here in the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century, even though its design belongs to the first half of the 20th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Longevity never rewards mediocrities, especially in pistol design, and the Makarov PM is no exception to that rule. Its long service life can be attributed to a reputation for simplicity and reliability that can be compared to John Browning\u2019s M1911. In fact, the strength of that reputation has largely overshadowed the Makarov\u2019s two undeniable shortcomings: the eight-shot capacity single-stack magazine, and the comparative weakness of its 9\u00d718mm cartridge.<\/p>\n While those two features may not have counted as shortcomings when the Makarov first entered service in 1951, three decades later they did. In 1985, the U.S. military adopted a locked-breech double-action\/single-action automatic pistol feeding the 9\u00d719mm NATO cartridge from a 15-round double-stack magazine.<\/p>\n In addition to that, Soviet combat experience in Afghanistan during the 80s had demonstrated the need for a pistol with a higher magazine capacity and a cartridge capable of delivering improved ballistic performance. The Russians obviously needed a more contemporary pistol, so in 1990 two designers at the state-owned Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, B. M. Pletsky and R. G. Shigapov, went to work modifying Boris V. Semin\u2019s 9\u00d718mm cartridge and the pistol that Nikolay Makarov designed to shoot it.<\/p>\n The system they came up with revolved around three big changes. First up was the new 7N16 (57-H-181CM) cartridge \u2014 a more powerful 9\u00d718mm service load making use of an 85-grain steel core bullet capable of producing a significantly higher muzzle velocity out of a 4\u201d barrel. In comparison, the old 9 Pst (57-N-181S) 9\u00d718mm ball load accelerated a 93-grain FMJ bullet to a muzzle velocity of 978 fps, but the 7N16\u2019s lighter bullet was capable of reaching a muzzle velocity of 1,377 fps out of the same length barrel. Because the new cartridge generated 25% more gas pressure in a design that was already pushing the limits for a direct-blowback pistol, it was necessary to introduce fluting in the chamber to aid extraction.<\/p>\nA More Solid Foundation?<\/h2>\n
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