Gents,
I haven't taken the time to read this seemingly endless, but interesting, thread in its entirety. So, what I'm about to propose may have already been offered, but it seems to me that the Russkie's extended experience with the 7.62X38R (.30 Nagant) revolver would be pertinent to this topic.
It's true that the .30 Nagant is, ballistically, more closely related to the .32-20 cartridge, but it's close enough to a heavily-loaded .32 S&W Long to be somewhat comparable.
My ancient Tula-made Nagant revolver recently propelled a 107-grain FMJ-FP slug from military-surplus ammunition at 938 fps, clocked 10 feet from the muzzle. I've seen other data showing the military load reaching up to 1100 fps, or thereabouts.
Whatever the precise velocity of the Nagant round, it's clearly in the neighborhood of the .32-20/.32 H&R Mag., if not the .32 S&W Long. And our Russian brothers apparently found the round had enough "man-stopping" ability to carry them through wars and civil strife from 1895 up to the 1950's and beyond. The Nagant revolver was largely superseded by the .30 Tokarev semi-auto pistol in the 1930's, but it remained in production up through WW II, and is likely still in use in some remote haunts of the former Soviet Union.
So, for whatever it's worth, the Russkies obviously liked the Nagant revolver and it's little .30-caliber round, or they wouldn't have held on to it for so long.
Happy trails,
-- Cary Gunn --