A side small story.
One of my childhood friend's father was a deputy battalion commander of communist army in 1950s. The old man told us owning a Tokarev was "status of rank" by then. He's not qualified and had to keep carring a C96 for a long time. The old man's desire to own a Tokarev was not unlike my unrealistic desire to wear a Patek or drive a Benz today.
Starting from when.... Sir Tokarev (at least the clones) lost that status and became a symbol of low quality and cheap serving mainly in learning gunsmithing?
The only explaination is volume.