It was purportedly (and probably in actuality) intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness, although allegedly was intended as a defensive weapon against in-space attacks by the US space program.
I had to look up whether gunpowder requires oxygen to burn (it doesn’t)
Gunpowder does actually require oxygen to burn, it just happens to bring its own oxygen with it.
That’s what I assumed, but why ass-ume when I live in the information age 😁
if it needed oxygen from the air it would have to breathe, the explosion happens inside the barrel before it mixes with the atmosphere
Ah! This is true and more precise