As you know, the Soviet Union provided maximum support to the Warsaw Pact countries by supplying them with its weapons, as well as transferring production rights to armored vehicles, hand-held firearms, and so on. As a result, the USSR received little, but the contribution of foreign designers to the process of improving Soviet weapons was invaluable. Of course, not always the new branches of the development of the same Kalashnikov assault rifle or other samples were useful, very often due to the race to increase efficiency, convenience and reduce the cost of production, reliability suffered, but there are exceptions when the designers managed to modernize the sample and get a result superior to the Soviet counterpart by characteristics. It was not so often, but still it was. In this article, we will try to get acquainted with the Hungarian modernization of the TT pistol, which, in the opinion of many, is much more convenient in comparison with the original Tokarev pistol. It will be about the Tokagypt 58 pistol later better known as the Firebird in the world arms market.
It all started right after the end of World War II, when the Soviet Union handed over technical documentation for the TT pistol to Hungary, and with it helped to launch the production of this weapon. Already in 1948, the pistol, no different from the modernized TT, was adopted by the Hungarian People's Army, where it proved itself mainly on the positive side, retaining all the known problems of the Soviet model. In fact, there were proposals for modernization even before the start of production, but apparently they were in a hurry to establish the production of weapons and take them into service. In addition, do not forget that the pistol in the army environment is still a secondary weapon, because it was the middle of the twentieth century. The designers got the opportunity to upgrade the pistol only 10 years later, when Egypt needed a weapon, although they hurried and flew by as a result, but more on that below.
First of all, in the process of modernization, the ammunition was replaced from 7, 62x25 to 9x19, as the more common and effective when firing at targets unprotected by means of individual armor protection. As a result of the replacement of ammunition, it was necessary to recalculate the automatic equipment of the weapon, and not only to get off with a replacement of the barrel. Naturally, the automation system as a whole remained the same - the use of recoil energy with a short barrel stroke. The firing mechanism was also not touched, leaving it unchanged, but supplementing it with a non-automatic fuse, the switch of which was located on the left side of the weapon above the pistol grip, which turned out to be convenient enough to switch with the thumb of the right hand. The frame of the pistol was left unchanged, but the weapon received a more comfortable grip. The weapon magazine was also improved, which received an emphasis for the little finger.
The result is a pistol chambered for 9x19 with a single-row magazine capacity of 7 rounds. The weight of the weapon was equal to 910 grams, the total length is 195 millimeters with a barrel length of 115 millimeters with 6 grooves. Despite the fact that the weapon, in principle, did not differ in anything special from the TT, it was accepted "with a bang" and was immediately enrolled in absentia into the category of the best pistols of that time. In general, there is nothing surprising in this, because the TT is really a very good pistol and all disputes rest only on its ergonomics, cartridge and lack of a fuse, which was corrected by the Hungarians. Initially, the weapon passed under the name TT-9R, but it was quickly forgotten, deciding to reflect in the name that it is primarily TT, as well as that it is intended for Egypt - Tokagypt. Despite the preliminary high assessment of the pistol in Egypt, it never appeared, since preference was given to Beretta, and specifically the 951 model.
By the time the refusal was received in Hungary, more than 15 thousand units of pistols had already been stamped and packed in boxes, that is, the production costs were significant. It would be possible to keep this weapon at home, but I really wanted to get the money back, because this pistol hit the world arms market. It is clear that the "abyss" that the pistol was not accepted by Egypt was great, and preserving the name of a particular country in the name of the weapon would be a wrong move. For these reasons, the weapon was renamed to "Firebird" (Firebird). Why the bird turned out to be fiery, and what is more about birds in general, is not clear, but nevertheless, the weapon was quite popular.
The fact that the pistol was really good is also evidenced by the fact that it held its position in the arms market until the 90s, after which an updated version of the weapon under the designation T-58 was proposed. In general, it is possible to call this version of the weapon updated with a big stretch, the weapon was not updated, but simply supplemented with a kit that allows the use of both 9x19 and 7, 62x25, as evidenced by the inscription on the shutter casing. In addition, it is worth noting separately an interesting stigma that appeared on the weapon in the form of a simplified coat of arms of the USSR. The weapon came out with a weight of 910 grams, a length of 195 millimeters with a barrel length of 115 millimeters. The magazine capacity is 7 rounds 9x19 and 8 rounds 7, 62x25. There is information that in some versions there was no fuse switch, although on the frame itself a cutout for the switch travel and even marks of its position remained.
Many consider this pistol to be one of the best among all variants of TT-shaped models, with which it is difficult to disagree. Relatively comfortable grip, safety, ammunition combined with the reliability and simplicity of the original TT allowed this pistol to become a truly reliable, safe, accurate and effective model. Nevertheless, we must not forget about other models, including those that were developed by Tokarev himself, but did not go into mass production, and among them there are many very interesting weapon options that could take their rightful place with famous domestic pistols.
