After the AK47, there’s no more iconic Russian gun than the 9mm Makarov. Hell, even the name is definitively Russian. During the forty-plus years that defined the Cold War, the Makarov sat comfortably in holsters and magazines behind the Iron Curtain.
After the fall of The Wall, other (and arguably better) designs made their way to the countries where it had been a mainstay while others continued to embrace the tried-and-true design, and stateside collectors snapped up the previously forbidden firearm fruit.
What’s in a Name?
Since the 9mm cartridge and the most famous firearm that shoots it both bear the Makarov moniker, it would be easy to assume that one man – Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov – designed both. An easy assumption, yes, but an incorrect one.
Nikolay Makarov was a skilled arms designer born in 1914. His most important contribution was the Pistolet Makarova, or Makarov PM or even just PM for short, which was officially adopted in 1951. The gun was designed as a replacement for the TT-30 pistol in 7.62x25mm Tokarev and the even older Nagant M1895 revolver in 7.62x38mmR, both of which had been used by the Russians during World War II.
The cartridge that most people call the 9mm Makarov wasn’t designed by Nikolay Makarov at all. In fact, the guy who created it has a name that doesn’t even sound anything close to Makarov. His name was Boris Semin. So closely woven and tightly linked is the Makarov name to the ammunition that I was unable to turn up any solid biographical information or even one grainy, low-quality photo of Boris Semin. If you think about it, though, it’s actually rather on-brand for the Soviet Union to kind of “disappear” someone from history when their relevance is no longer of use to the state.
Which Came First?
Sometimes guns and the ammo that they fire are developed in tandem, both being created for one another and released at the same time. This isn’t always the case, though, and it certainly wasn’t for the 9mm Makarov ammo and the Makarov PM pistol.
The ammo came first, dating to 1946. A 9x18mm cartridge, Boris Semin based this new design on the 9x18mm Ultra cartridge, which had its roots in Nazi Germany in 1936. The 9mm Ultra was created for the Luftwaffe as an alternative to the 9x17mm or 9mm Kurz cartridge (known as .380 ACP to those of us who measure things in Freedom units), but they never actually adopted it.
The pistol came second, dating to 1947. Nikolay Makarov was one of a handful of engineers who set out to design a new gun specifically for Semin’s new 9mm cartridge. Like the ammo’s German influence, so, too, were the guns, pulling inspiration from the Walther PP. Because this new 9mm cartridge was less powerful, it lent itself easily to a simple blowback firearm that was easy to control and offered minimal recoil. It also didn’t hurt that this simple design made it cheap and easy to manufacture, was literally 20 times more reliable than the competitors’ pistols, as well as being easy to maintain by soldiers.
By 1949, the Makarov had been selected as the trial winner. Production began at Izhevsk and the new pistols were first issued in 1951. The resulting gun weighed a little more than a pound and a half, utilized an eight-round magazine, had a DA/SA trigger, a heel mag release, and a slide-mounted safety/decocker.
In the coming decades, as many as ten million were produced and issued all throughout the Soviet Union and beyond. Nikolay Makarov had numerous accolades bestowed upon him for his contribution to Soviet small arms. In 1974, he was given the title of Hero of Socialist Labour, which was an honorific title of the highest degree of distinction awarded for exceptional achievements in Soviet culture and industry. Other recipients of this title included fellow arms designers Fedor Tokarev and Mikhail Kalashnikov.
Makarov died in 1988 after suffering his seventh heart attack. So, yeah, if you want to know how many heart attacks is too many heart attacks, the answer is seven.
More Than 1mm Difference
Not all 9mm ammo is the same, and there’s more than a millimeter of difference when it comes to selecting the right kind for the gun.
What most people refer to as “9mm” is actually 9x19mm Parabellum (aka 9mm Luger or 9mm NATO). It is absolutely not the same as 9mm Makarov, which we’ve already established as being 1mm less at 9x18mm. However, there are more differences between the two than that, and they’re much more nuanced.
Case length is different; 9mm NATO is 1.04mm longer. Case diameter is different; 9mm NATO is 0.01mm wider. Overall length is different; 9mm NATO is 4.69mm longer. Velocity and energy are different. 9mm NATO’s most common 115-grain projectiles average 1,200 feet per second and 400 foot-pounds of energy while 9mm Makarov’s most common 95-grain projectiles average 1,000 feet per second and 220 foot-pounds of energy.
In short, 9mm NATO is the superior of the two cartridges, but that doesn’t mean the 9mm Makarov is a slouch. I’m sure any one of the untold number of people who were disappeared by it would tell you it was plenty of rounds to get the job done.
Widespread Distribution of the 9mm Makarov
Because the Makarov – both pistol and cartridge – have proven so useful over the past eight decades (and because production lasted until the 1990s), the guns are encountered quite literally all over the world.
While Russian in design, the eight-shot pistol was actually made in multiple different countries. Russia, China, Bulgaria, and East Germany were the primary manufacturers, but the guns were (and are) in use much more broadly than that. To date, more than 40 different countries have fielded the gun in some form or another, whether they are vintage surplus guns or both licensed and unlicensed copies.
In the States, the guns are popular with surplus collectors. Because of their long and diverse life, the collecting field is vast for those who really want to get deep into the weeds. Collector focuses could include country of origin, country of use, pre- and post-Soviet collapse, finish, caliber (some were made in .380 ACP), types of grips (ones with thumb rests were put on for US import to comply with GCA “sporting” requirements), types of sights (adjustable sights were added to some for the same reason), and so on and so forth.
Plus, they’re still one of the most (relatively) affordable surplus guns on the market – for now. The cost of all surplus guns is on the rise and it won’t be long before the Makarov PM joins the rest.
9mm Makarov: Still Making History
You could consider the Makarov to be the gun that just won’t quit. The simple blowback design, ease of manufacture, and sheer glut of numbers produced make it much like its long gun brother, the AK platform – seen and used everywhere. US Marines encountered them in the 2010s in Afghanistan, a casino in Cambodia was robbed with one in 2021, and they’re still seen frequently today on the front lines in the fight between Ukraine and Russia.
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