It was created by TsNIITochMash, a key Soviet weapons developer, for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).

During the 1990s, research was made into improving the original design to make it usable in confined indoor areas.

The KS-23 was created with the capability to fire several different types of ammunition, listed below: Later, two add-on muzzle mortars were produced, the 36 mm Nasadka-6 and 82 mm Nasadka-12, bringing with them several new ammunition types: The original KS-23 was developed jointly by NIISpetstekhniki (MVD) and TsNIITochmash in 1971, it was accepted for use by the Soviet police in 1985.

[2] The KS-23M includes a detachable wire buttstock and shortened barrel, as opposed to the fixed wooden stock on standard KS-23s.

[4] Development and adoption of this carbine was motivated by the fact that in the earlier accepted configurations of the KS-23 and KS-23M a major noted deficiency was that the tubular magazine did not make it possible to rapidly reload or change the type of ammunition being used, because of this a major design change for the KS-23K is that it has an extended box magazine that holds seven shells instead of the three shells seen on the other models.

The gun has a mechanical safety located on the left side, above the pistol handle and open non adjustable sights.

It is manufactured by Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod and features a smoothbore design, making it more similar to a traditional shotgun, and is chambered in standard 4 gauge.