The Zastava M57 Pistol: Tracing its Roots in Yugoslavian History - The Fascinating History of Zastava M57: A Comprehensive Guide

The Zastava M57 pistol was adopted as the standard sidearm of  Yugoslavian Army in 1957. The Yugoslavian Model-57 Tokarev was  manufactured by the Crvena Zastava factory in Kragujevac, Yugoslavia. On  April 5, 2005 the factory changed its name to Zastava oruzje(arms) AD,  and is still located in Kragujevac, but the country is now known as  Serbia.. The M57 is a single-action pistol chambered for the fast and  powerful 7.62×25mm Tokarev cartridge. These are very popular surplus  firearms as they are affordable and plentiful. The M-57 is a  self-loading, semi-automatic pistol that operates using a short recoil,  locked breech design with a swinging under barrel link, much like the  one seen on the Colt 1911. Zastava Arms still produces them new even  today, rather than just importing the surplus weapons.

Originally the pistol had no manual safeties except for a half-cock notch on the hammer. Due to import restrictions, a manual safety was fitted to surplus models and the new manufacture pistols have a manual safety that is mounted on the slide rather than the frame. The new versions of the M57A/M70A also feature a magazine safety and render the gun unable to fire unless a magazine is inserted into the grip frame. The M57 magazine is single-stack magazine with a 9 round capacity. Although the M-57 is very similar to the Soviet TT-33 Tokarev, it will not accept the TT-33 magazine which is a tad shorter and holds only 8 rounds. The M-57 utilizes a push button magazine release that is located at the bottom rear corner of the trigger guard. An empty magazine will easily eject from the pistol under its own weight. The pistol has an overall length is 7.87 inches, a barrel length of 4.6 inches with 4 grooves, and an unloaded weight of 32 ounces. This weapon does employ a slide hold open mechanism to inform the operator that the last round has been fired. The black grip panels are made from plastic.

Atop the slide, directly ahead of the rear sight is the Yugoslavian crest or emblem. Several different styles of this emblem are known to exist on the M-57, with some styles dependent on the date of manufacturer. All of the crests that I have examined have the date of November 29, 1943 on them. The emblem was created by Dorde Andrejevic-Kun, an artist from the capital city of Belgrade in 1943. The emblem for socialist Yugoslavia consisted of five torches that were burning together as a single flame being surrounded by wheat. This represented the unity and brotherhood of the five nations of Yugoslavia which included, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia,and Slovenia, but left out the ethnic Muslims. Then in 1963, the name of the country was changed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the crest was redesigned with six torches to represent the six Yugoslavian federal republics, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

The November 29, 1943 date is a reference to a conference that took place in the city of Jajce and is now known as the Jajce conference. During WWII when the Nazi's occupied Yugoslavia, Communists from around the region gathered at what is known as the Antifascist Assembly of Yugoslavia's People's Liberation(AVNOJ). These Communists proclaimed that their assembly was the only legitimate government of Yugoslavia, and it was most certainly not the fascist Nazi invaders. At their second meeting, this assembly drew up a single page document that contained only two signatures yet it formed the basis for the post-war organization of the country(in effect, Tito's own communist party). This national parliament designated Tito as the Marshall of Yugoslavia. The monarchy was not officially abolished, and the communist state declared, until late in 1945. The emblem was adopted about a year later. The November 29, 1943 date seems to backdate the new regime by around 3 years, in so doing, gives the regime an air of established solidity. This proclamation established a new federal state which lasted until 1991.

Variants Include:

M57 basic model.

M57A is an upgrade of basic model M57. It has an external safety.

M70A 9mm version.

M70AA is an upgrade of basic model M70. It has external safety.

M88 shorter version of M70A.

M88A features an external safety on the slide, polymer handgrips and the bottom of easily detachable magazine.

Note: As of 2011 M88A are imported in USA by K-VAR/FIME Group.

Note: As of 2012 M57A, M70A and M88A are imported into the U.S. by Century International Arms.

The date sequence is one of the following:

1957 - No Prefix, 5 torch crests only

1958 - A Prefix

1959 - A and B Prefix

1960 - B and C Prefix

1961 - C and D Prefix

1962 - D and E Prefix

1963 - E and F Prefix, 5 or 6 torch crests

1964 - F and G Prefix, 6 torch crests only

1965...

The lettering around the star on the grip changed from FNRJ to SFRJ in 1963.

FNRJ = Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia = 1946-1963

SFRJ = Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia = 1963-1992 (Socijalisticka Federativna Republika Jugoslavija)