Designed in the mid-1950s, the M57 was an unlicensed copy of the Soviet
TT-33 Tokarev. The Yugoslav People's Army had initially attempted to adopt the TT as its standard service pistol after World War II, and a number were delivered by the Soviet Union. However, the
Tito–Stalin split prompted the Soviet government to cease military aid to Yugoslavia before deliveries of the pistol were fully completed. In 1952, Zastava was charged with developing its own variant of the TT to satisfy the army's needs. Zastava's engineers were able to reverse engineer the weapon by 1954, creating a faithful copy of the original TT. However, its factory was already at capacity manufacturing rifles and submachine guns, and it was unable to open a new production line to produce a new handgun. The project was shelved until 1956, when army officials again expressed interest in the TT design. Work on an improved TT derivative began in earnest in 1957, and the first prototypes appeared in 1960. The Zastava pistol was formally designated M57 and accepted for service in 1961. Although the army took delivery of various pre-production models that year, serial production was delayed until 1963. Zastava manufactured the M57 for the Yugoslavian state from 1963 until 1982, at which time at least 260,000 had been produced. It was retired from military service in the former Yugoslavia during the late 1990s and early 2000s, being largely superseded by the
Zastava CZ99. ==Design==