I guess the machinist in me always thinks of the person who built the gun and not who used it.
I can picture someone on the final assembly checking the firearm out and putting the final inspector's stamp on it.
The only thing I have from that era you're mentioning is a Russian Nagant revolver. That's the machinist in me again. That cylinder that slides forward as the hammer is pulled back is fascinating.
It was manufactured in Tula in 1939.
You're correct. The designer and machinist is a neutral party.
But the history buff in me always sees a Russian KGB guard in a great coat and fur cap, holding a snarling German Shepherd on a leash, with the holstered Tokarev on his belt.
The Tokarevs were used to finish off any starving and freezing "zeks" who fell out of the march on the way from the camp to the mine or forest.
Fair or not, the combloc guns always make me think of communism, history's worst form of institutional mass-murder.
