During the latter half of the 20th Century it was a standard military pistol cartridge of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, analogous to the 9×19mm Parabellum in NATO and Western military use.
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The Soviet military required that their ammunition should be incompatible with NATO firearms, so that in the event of armed conflict a foreign power would be unable to use captured Soviet ammunition supplies.
Stepan Makarov | Nikolay Yegorovich Makarov | M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 lens | Alexander Alexeyevich Makarov | 5.45×18mm |