History
The armament industry was an important part of the interwar Czechoslovak economy and it was responsible for much of the country's exports (see, for example, Bren light machine gun, which was modified version of Czechoslovak ZB vz. 26). However following the 1948 communist coup d'état, all heavy industry was nationalized and caught behind the Iron Curtain. Still, while most other Warsaw Pact countries became dependent on armaments imports from the USSR, much of Czechoslovak weaponry remained domestic (for example, Czechoslovak army used the Vz. 58 assault rifle, while other communist block countries used Kalashnikov rifle).
Brothers Josef and František Koucký became the most important engineers of the CZUB following the second world war. To some extent they participated in designing all the company's post-war weapons. As they used to undersign their designs together (using only the surname), it is hard to assess which of them thought out particular ideas.
By 1969 František Koucký was freshly pensioned, however the company offered him a job on designing a new 9mm pistol. Unlike during his previous work, this time he had a complete freedom in designing the whole gun from scratch. The design he developed was in many ways new and innovative (see Design details).
Although the model was developed for export purposes (Czechoslovak armed forces were using 7.62x25mm Tokarev as were some of the Warsaw pact countries, and would chamber later domestic pistols in 9mm Makarov like the rest of the Warsaw Pact nations), Koucký's domestic patents regarding the design were put into category of "secret patents". This meant, that nobody could learn about their existence, but also nobody could register the same design in Czechoslovakia. At the same time neither Koucký nor the company could file for patent protection abroad. Consequently, large number of other manufacturers began offering pistols based on CZ 75 design (see Clones, copies, and variants by other manufacturers).
The pistol was not sold in Czechoslovakia until 1985. It became popular foremost among sport shooters (sport shooting is the third most widespread sport in the Czech Republic, after soccer and hockey). It could be adopted by the Czech armed forces only after the Velvet Revolution.
Read more about this topic: CZ 75
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