A product of Sino-Soviet cooperation, the Soviet TT33 pistol was one of many designs to see widespread production and use by the People’s Republic of China and other communist states and movements around the world.

In the aftermath of the Second World War Germany found itself divided. As it raised its own army to fight alongside NATO, the new West Germany looked to update the old wartime sidearm of the Wehrmacht.

The ubiquitous Soviet Kalashnikov pattern assault rifle, seen in the hands of everyone from Soviet troops on the inter-German border in the 1960s to rebels in Africa today, the AKM is the most produced firearm in human history.