Rare Polish Vis.35 Pistol in Use by Ukrainian Defense Forces

A rare Polish Vis.35 pistol, developed before World War II, was spotted among Ukrainian Defense Forces soldiers.

A photo of the soldier’s equipment with this pistol was published by B-AREV on X.

According to B-AREV, the Polish pistol belongs to a Caucasian soldier fighting on the side of Ukraine.

Presumably, the gun was previously stored in the USSR warehouses, which were created to store weapons after World War II.

After the collapse of the USSR, such weapons were actively sold from the warehouses.

The American auction house Rock Island Auction is offering Polish Vis.35 pistols for sale, with prices starting at $3,000.

The Polish Vis.35 semi-automatic pistol was designed in 1930 by Piotr Wilniewsczyc and Jan Skrzypiński with the participation of Feliks Modzelewski.

In 1936, it was introduced into the Polish Army as a standard service weapon for professional personnel.

By the beginning of the war, 49,400 pistols had been produced.

After the German takeover of the factory in 1939, the P.35 pistol was produced for the Wehrmacht. Manufactured by the Germans, the Vis had a simplified design compared to the original to meet their mass production requirements.

Production was gradually transferred to the Steyr factory in Austria, but continued in Radom until the factory was destroyed by the advancing Soviet forces in 1944.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, about 10 new models of pistols and submachine guns have been codified and authorized for use in the Ukrainian Defense Forces.