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Don’t get me wrong, i just thought about giving the smaller gun to the more “spy-ish” of the couple. In my mind, GRU is more prone of carrying big guns (in fact, my protagonist is a sniper, but just carry the vintorez around when he is about to snipe), on the other hand, KGB is seen as more cover, more tricky, and i see more fit to give her a smaller and (i thought) more reliable gun. My story is set between 1989 and 1995, everywhere from Moscow to Libya, but mainly on Germany, and my doubts are if i should use the weapons to give information about the characters (bulk and old fashioned for him, and slender and versatile for her), or explain the character by their weapon choice (smart, professional and crazy prepared vs stick to what is issued to her, retorting to improvisation) or even don’t get into the specifics of weaponry just settling with generic guns, and let the reader guess if he is firing a glock or a walter ppk. I’m also concerned about the problems that can arise if someone catch my characters on the late 80s Western Germany carrying russian guns, but i should research the german weapons around by that dates. Thank you for your time.

Hello, my character is a spetsnaz GRU working with a female KGB companion, should he use a Tokarev and leave a Makarov to the girl? Both with Maks as is a more modern model? Maybe he can keep his GRU sidearm for cover ops, or it will hint too much that he is a spy? Thoughs, please.

As I’ve said several times before, smaller guns deliver more recoil into the user. There’s less mass in the pistol to counter the force of the bullet, so that’s passed on to the user regardless of their gender. As a result, when fired, heavier guns are actually easier to control.

The problem is, I have no idea when you’re setting your story, and if you’re asking, “what gun should my characters use?” Then “what year is it?” becomes a very important question to answer.

The Makarov PM was designed, to be a replacement for the Tokarev TT. The Tokarev entered service in the 1930s, and left production in the fifties. The Soviet military spent the next decade replacing the aging TT-33s with new PMs.

This means, after the mid-sixties, you wouldn’t see a Tokarev in service as an official sidearm.

The GRU was formed in 1949. So that puts it solidly in an era when the Tokarev was in service. The KGB was founded in 1954, two years after the Tokarev left production. The Makarov entered production in 1951.

So that, roughly sets your story sometime between 1955 and 1963. If it’s not, then all of these assumptions start to fall apart.

As with the Tokarev, the Makarov isn’t a great pistol. The Russian military has been looking for an opportunity to replace it since at least the eighties. In fact, modern Spetsnaz units don’t even use Makarovs, they transitioned over to the PSS in the early 80s. My understanding is that KGB and the later FSB also transitioned to the PSS, but I’m not entirely certain.

The Lebedev PL-14, MP-443 “Grach,” and MP-448 “Skyph” were all developed with the goal of becoming the new Russian military service pistol. I’m honestly not familiar with the internal politics that have affected their decisions, though I believe the Grach was adopted as a service pistol sometime in the last decade.

Of course, you couldn’t give a KGB agent any of those guns, because the Committee for State Security was dissolved along with the rest of the Soviet Union in 1991. It’s successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB) was founded in 1995. There’s nothing stopping you from giving an FSB agent a Grach or Skyph and calling it good. (The Lebedev hasn’t entered production yet.)

Interestingly, the push for a replacement pistol actually predates the fall of the Soviet Union. So, even if you’re using an alt history setting, where the Soviet Union never fell, you’re still probably looking at new pistols, that never existed in our world.

You don’t pick guns based on the gender of the shooter. With military weapons, you choose them based on the politics and doctrines that shaped their design and acceptance.

-Starke

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