The Bizon ("Bison") is a 9mm submachine gun developed in the early 1990s at Izhmash by a team of engineers headed by Victor Kalashnikov (son of the famous engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov, creator of the AK-47 & AK-74). Alexei Dragunov, youngest son of Evgeny Dragunov (the creator of the SVD sniper rifle), was also a member of the design team.

The Bizon was developed at the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and is primarily intended for counter-terrorist and law enforcement units that usually need fast and accurate fire at close ranges. Prototypes were trialed by the Special Equipment Research Institute in 1995 where they outperformed several competitors, and the weapon was accepted into service on December 28, 1996. The Bizon is no longer in production, having been replaced by Vityaz-SN.

The Bizon is issued to armed response units of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Ministry of Justice. It was used in combat operations against separatists in the volatile North Caucasus region, namely Chechnya and Dagestan.

The Bizon is a lightweight selective fire weapon that fires from a closed bolt, a feature that enhances the gun's accuracy. It is based on the AKS-74 and features a 60% parts commonality with the assault rifle. Chambered for the standard Russian 9×18mm Makarov pistol cartridge, the gun will also fire a new high-impulse armor-piercing 57-N-181SM round.

Operating mechanism
The Bizon uses a simple straight blowback method of operation, an unlocked breech system reduces cost and build complexity. The Bizon's operating cycle is characterized by a very short recoil stroke, standard 9×18mm ammunition will only drive the bolt partially to the rear of the receiver and produces a cyclic rate of 700 rounds/min. High-impulse ammunition forces the bolt to travel all the way to the end of the receiver, barely striking the receiver wall. A rate of fire of 650–680 rounds/min is the result. This has the effect of reducing perceived recoil and increasing controllability and hit probability.