This Cold-War classic has been rebuilt into a closed-bolt, striker-fired semi-auto using a brand-new, U.S.-made reduced-diameter receiver paired with the original chrome-lined Yugoslav barrel. A permanently attached extension brings the tube to 16 inches, keeping the gun Title I legal while preserving the M56’s unmistakable vented shroud, left-side charging handle and folding metal stock.

Each rifle carries the authentic Yugo crest, is fully 922 R compliant. You get one 35-round stick magazine, and a piece of Cold-War history that’s ready for the range today.

Historical Context:

Conceived at the Crvena Zastava arsenal in Kragujevac and adopted in 1956, the M56 was Yugoslavia’s answer to the Soviet PPS‑43 and German MP‑40 it resembled. Marshal Tito’s army wanted a home‑grown sub‑machine gun that could be mass‑produced on existing stamping machinery yet fire the 7.62x25 Tokarev already stockpiled for TT‑33 pistols. The engineers retained the MP‑40’s telescoping recoil spring and forward‑folding stock but moved the charging handle to the left side and added a ventilated shroud better suited to sustained bursts.

During the Cold‑War non‑aligned era, Belgrade exported thousands of M56s to allies in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America; the compact blow‑back gun saw action in the Algerian War, various Angolan and Mozambican insurgencies, and even turned up with Cuban advisers in Ethiopia. In the breakup of Yugoslavia during the 1990s, stored M56s were re‑issued to territorial defense units and irregular militias because the cartridge and magazines were still plentiful. Original select‑fire examples are regulated as machine guns in the United States, so semi‑auto conversions like this rifle offer one of the few ways to own the design while preserving its historical lines, Yugoslav crest, and Cold‑War pedigree.