"It's always nice to touch the enemy from where he cannot touch you back."
Yep, thank God Hitler never gave his troops rifles, or submachine guns, or anything like that...
"7.62x25 dates to 1930 from everything I can dig up."
The 7.62 is really nothing more than a manufacturing variation of the 7.63x25 Mauser cartridge, which started life in the late 1800s.
After World War I when both Germany and Russia were parriahas on the international scene they out of necessity developed trade and military ties.
Russia ended up purchasing quite a few thousand C96 Mauser handguns and millions of rounds of ammunition.
When they started loading it domestically, dimensions were changed slightly to better suit what the Russians had in the way of manufacturing capabilities.
The 7.62 Tok and the 7.63 Mauser can often be used interchangeably in either the TT pistols or the C96.
"Let's look at it this way. One of those two designs is in current uninterrupted production."
That's sort of disingenuous to say that makes the 1911 "better."
The reason the 1911 is still in production in the United States and is a hit with the civilian market is, unlike the communist nations, there IS a civilian handgun market in the United States.