During the
Second World War and the early
Cold War, the
7.62×25mm Tokarev was the standard automatic pistol round for the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe. This ammunition is still in use by many of these countries today. During the war, the Red Army had found a few shortcomings in its 7.62 mm
TT-33 pistol, one of which was a tendency to inadvertently drop its magazine while in operation. The army wanted something that was lighter, with a heel release instead of a button and different ammunition. A
direct blowback design was chosen for the pistol's operation, since it would be quick and cheap to manufacture, as well as accurate, due to the fixed-barrel design allowed by direct blowback operation. The 9×18mm round was designed by Boris V. Semin in 1946, and was intended to be a relatively powerful round with modest
bolt thrust that could function safely in a simple or direct blowback pistol. It was based on the
9×18mm Ultra cartridge which was developed in 1936 by Gustav Genschow & Co. for the German
Luftwaffe, as a more powerful alternative to the
9×17mm used in the
Walther PP, also a simple blowback design pistol.
Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov went on to design the
Makarov PM pistol around the 9×18mm round in 1947. Calibers in the USSR were measured between the lands in the rifling and not the grooves. As such, 9×18mm Makarov ammunition uses a larger diameter bullet than other common 9 mm rounds, measuring 9.27 mm (0.365 in), compared with 9.017 mm (0.355 in) for 9×19mm Parabellum. After its introduction in 1951, the 9×18mm Makarov round spread throughout the militaries of
Eastern Bloc nations. ==Cartridge dimensions==