Manufactured in 1944, the TT-33 was a simple and robust design firing the bottlenecked high-velocity 7.62mm Tokarev round and using a quick-change action group that allowed many otherwise crippling mechanical failures to be solved with a simple exchange of drop-in components. Matching numbers are present on the slide, frame and magazine, with a matching partial number "50" on the action group and matching dates on the slide and frame. The grips are a set of clear acrylic (airplane windshield soirced) with steel frames, which each have an underlaid green paper panel; similar grips are known to have been field-improvised by Allied soldiers using lexan and similar materials salvaged from downed aircraft. The right panel has a red star flanked by "CCCP" with blue and pink border accents, and the left panel shows some light vine accents around a finely written cyrillic inscription. A translation was included by a prior owner: "To Brigadier General Shugg/from Colonel Patanin/May 10 1945 Elbe River/in Memory of the War with Germany". Research has not produced any results on Colonel Patanin, but records do show a Brigadier General Roland Paget Shugg (b 1893 d 1989) as a artillery officer with the XIII Corps. XIII Corps was among the Allied units that made it to the Elbe River, the politically mandated "stop point" for the Western Allies and famous as the meeting point for American, Commonwealth, and other Western Front units and their Soviet counterparts on the Eastern Front. Many exchanges of souvenirs are known to have happened at these meetings, including weapons and military equipment. Shugg started his military career as a West Point cadet in 1912, joining the Cavalry post-graduation for Border Patrol duty in Texas before transferring to Field Artillery and combat action in Europe in World War One. Between wars he took a number of staff postings while also studying at Fort Sill, Fort Leavenworth, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During World War Two he was the commanding General of XIII Corps' Field Artillery, which as noted was at the Elbe at the time in question. After the war, he would serve as a member of a joint Brazilian-American defense commission, a staff officer to the American Mission to Turkey, Commander of the Port of Embarkation in New Orleans, and division artillery commander for the 3rd Infantry, a role that would take him back into combat during the Korean War. Among his decorations were the Silver Star and Legion of Merit (both earned in World War Two with oak leaves from the Korean War), Belgian and French Croix du Guerre with Palm, and others.

Excellent, with 98% of the original blue finish, showing some light scratches and handling marks overall. The period replacement grips are very good, with a few light scratches, and the paper panels show fine color and strong ink detail. Mechanically excellent. A historic piece of Soviet World War Two military hardware, connected to the final defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the war in Europe.