Tokarev

Tokarev is a Russian surname associated with firearms designer Fedor Vasilevich Tokarev and with a line of pistols and cartridges named after him. The best-known examples are the Tokarev pistols, commonly referred to as the TT series, and the 7.62×25mm Tokarev cartridge that they fire.

Fedor Tokarev led the Soviet effort to develop a self-loading pistol for military use in the early to mid-20th century. The result was a family of semi-automatic pistols beginning with the TT-30 and evolving into the more widely produced TT-33. The TT pistols are valued for their simple, robust construction and suitability for mass production. They served in the Soviet armed forces and were exported to allied countries and clients around the world, influencing pistol design for decades.

The 7.62×25mm Tokarev cartridge was developed alongside the pistols for a compact, high-velocity round. It is a bottleneck pistol cartridge noted for its velocity and penetration characteristics and has been used in various Soviet firearms, including pistols and some submachine guns, during and after World War II. The cartridge is often linked to the TT pistol through its original design purpose.

Variants and legacy: The TT-33 was widely produced in the Soviet Union and remains a commonly referenced example of mid-20th-century semi-automatic pistol design. China produced a licensed copy known as the Type 54 pistol, and other countries produced clones or commercially imported versions. The Tokarev name thus denotes both a designer and a notable family of pistols and ammunition.