History:
The TK pistol (TK is the shortcut of "Tulskij Korowina", which means "Korowin pistol from Tula") was constructed by Sergej Alexandrowitsch Korowin (1884 to 1946). Korowin had been busy in Liege/ Belgium before World War I and held a patent for a semi-automatic pistol with hidden hammer and double action trigger, where but nothing is known whether it was ever built by someone.
In 1920/21 a test-pistol was preceeding the TK, but nearly no informations are available about this type. Also the pistols following the TK were test-patterns only with no success for Korowin.
In spite of the fact, that the TK is designed as defence pistol, following different reports Korowin intended to develope a sporting gun and not a pistol for army and police.
Appearently this pocket-pistol was the first handgun developed in Russia, which was used by the military forces. It was not officially adopted, but later on often carried by higher ranks officers of the army.
It's often written in books, that production started not earlier than 1930 and lasted just until 1935, still there are hints in Russian reports, that the first production started already in 1926 and lasted until 1974.
The amount of produced pistols is unknown, but known and reported serial numbers indicate a total of about 300.000 pcs.
The first pattern of the TK had vertical serrations and a milling at the slide near the breach, which cannot be found at later pattens. In addition the fixing screws for the grips were replaced by latches inside the magzine-hole later on.
Technical Data:
SYSTEM: self-cocking pistol with mass system and firing pin
CARTRIDGES : 8
CALIBRE : .25 ACP
BARREL LENGTH : 67 mm , 6 grooves right hand twisting
WEIGHT EMPTY : 420 g
TOTAL LENGTH : 126mm
TOTAL HEIGHT : 99 mm
TOTAL WIDTH : 23 mm
TRIGGER : Single Action
SIGHT : fixed
SAFETY : safety-lever
FINISH : blued
GRIPS : wood