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.
Would this actually work effectively in space?
Well, considering that many early spacecraft and space stations were running oxygen rich atmospheres, it would probably mean the end of anyone involved in a rather spectacular fireball.
I’d kind of hope everyone would know better than that after the disastrous Apollo I fire.
Yes, I guess? But firing a gun inside a spacecraft would be a bad idea… and also firing it while spacewalking would be a bad idea unless you were very sure that you were very well braced & tethered.
Or the gun is just an emergency propulsion system in case you lose your tether…
Crazy enough plan to be Russian.
You could load it with very small, light, or soft pellets, they don’t need to be very damaging to make a hole in a suit which would be near certainly fatal.