ь is a soft sign

This letter is something of a counterpart to the hard sign (tvordii znak). It is similar in appearance: ь printed and ь written (it too is never at the beginning of a word and has no capital form). It doesn't have quite the intriguing political background, though. Instead, it is the bane of students learning Russian. Called the мякий знак (myakii znak), or "soft sign," it changes the pronunciation of the consonant preceding it from hard to soft. This is a very subtle shift, somewhat like the difference between "canon" and "canyon," or "boo-tiful" and "beautiful."