PK/PKS machine gun created in the design office of Mikhail T. Kalashnikov. The new rifle was intended to replace all located on the armament of the Soviet Army heavy machine guns and hand. The rifle was accepted into armaments in 1961. At the same time the rifle was admitted to arming 6T2 tripod base structure Samożenkowa. In the following years new rifle has become the primary machine gun armies of the Warsaw Pact countries (in Poland, PK / PKS was adopted on equipment in the mid-sixties, since 1968 was produced by Metal Industry Plant "H. Cegielski"). In 1969, the weapon has been upgraded, the PKM model. Structural modifications aimed at weight reduction.

In the following years, a version PKMN / PKMSN, equipped with a viewfinder base for the night HPA-3. Also introduced a new basis 6T5 tripod constructed by Stepanov. Along the lines of rifle PK / PKS constructed in Poland ukm UKM-2000.