PB Pistol (Pistolet Besshumniy (Пистолет Бесшумный) – means silent or noiseless pistol) was developed in the ’60s and adopted by the Soviet Union in 1967. It was issued to special forces units. By the late ‘80s, they started replacing it with the PSS pistol. Now the Russian Ministry of Defense wants the PB pistol back!

According to Russian Izvestia newspaper, the Russian military plans to issue PB pistols to all special forces and reconnaissance officers. At the same time, they’ll retain the current issue Yarygin pistol (a.k.a MP-443 Grach). So each officer of the mentioned units will have two handguns and will be armed with the one that is more suitable for any particular mission.

Although it is mostly considered as a suppressed Makarov pistol and shares many parts with the Makarov, PB is so deeply redesigned, that I’d say it is more of an independent design. For example, the original Makarov recoil spring is located around the barrel. The addition of an integral suppressor forced the designers to relocate it. The recoil spring of PB pistol is a vertical one placed inside the rear portion of the grip. It is linked to the slide by a stamped metal transfer bar.

The sound suppression system is unique, too. It is a two-piece design. The first half of the suppressor is an integral one (note the perforated barrel in the images). The second (front) half is a conventional suppressor that attaches to the integral portion.

To me, the most interesting part of this story is how a rather old design becomes demanded again. Probably the new warfare challenges lead to reevaluating the good old PB.

You can download the PB pistol user manual (in Russian) by clicking here.

Images by armstory.com