Red Army Standard 9x18 MAKAROV 50RD 94gr FMJ - Brass Casing

The 9x18mm Makarov cartridge is a low impulse self-defense cartridge designed for use from zero to fifty meters. After the Second World War the Soviet high command was dissatisfied with the TT33 pistol and its 7.62mm cartridge. They wanted a new pistol with simpler construction, better accuracy, and improved magazine retention. To meet these criteria a blow back pistol was designed by Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov. This new pistol known as the PM or Pistolet Makarova required a new cartridge as well. The Russians demanded the most powerful cartridge possible in an unlocked blow back action. To meet this need a new round was designed by B.V. Semin in 1946. Inspired by the German 9mm Ultra, the 9x18mm Makarov round was able to push a 94 to 96 grain bullet to speeds of around one thousand feet per second — comparable to the western .380 ACP round. During the cold war the Soviets pushed this cartridge and the pistols that fired it out of Russia and across the globe, with more than users in more than thirty five countries worldwide.