80 years ago, on the Leningrad front, where the most difficult battles with the Nazi invaders were going on, Soviet servicemen began field tests of a promising submachine gun designed by Alexei Sudayev.

The exam went on for a week.

In the first half of July 1942, as part of the state competition, tests were held, during which, along with Sudaev’s weapons, the Soviet command tested the submachine guns of Georgy Shpagin and Vasily Degtyarev.

Representatives of the leadership of the Red Army evaluated such qualities as the accuracy of fire, unpretentiousness, lightness, ease of mass production and the convenience of firing from a tank when the crew was evacuated from it.

According to the test results, Sudayev's model won.

Its mass production was launched at the Sestroretsk Tool Plant named after A.I.

Voskova (former Sestroretsk arms factory).

In the same 1942, the Sudayev submachine gun under the name PPS was officially adopted by the Red Army.

Experts often call PPS the best weapon of the Second World War in its class because of its lightness, compactness, reliability, ease of production and operation.

In particular, the brainchild of Sudayev received high praise from Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov.

“It can be said with all responsibility that the Sudayev system submachine gun, which he created and began to enter service with the Red Army in 1942, was the best submachine gun of the Second World War period ... For its high tactical, technical, combat properties, combined with small dimensions paratroopers, tankmen, reconnaissance officers, and skiers were very fond of Sudaev’s weapons,” Kalashnikov gave such a description of the teaching staff in his book “Notes of a gunsmith designer”.

As Mikhail Timofeevich noted, not a single foreign model could be compared with the teaching staff "in terms of simplicity of device, reliability, non-failure operation, and ease of operation."

At the same time, in his book, Kalashnikov complained that Sudayev and his activities were undeservedly deprived of attention in the USSR.

According to him, the Soviet designer made "a significant contribution to the improvement of Soviet small arms, especially during the Great Patriotic War."

  • Alexey Sudayev

  • © Wikimedia Commons

PPP is not often seen in newsreel, and is rarely seen on the memorials of the liberator soldiers.

However, this machine gun is familiar to the general public from the legendary photograph of the hoisting of the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division on the roof of the Reichstag - it is Sudayev's submachine gun that is behind the shoulder of a Soviet soldier setting the Banner of Victory.

Alternative to PPSh and Schmeisser

The need for a new submachine gun was caused by the difficult situation of besieged Leningrad, the garrison of which was in dire need of simple and reliable small arms produced at local enterprises.

Another reason for the appearance of PPS is the shortcomings of the Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh), which was put into service in December 1940.

Despite the mass of indisputable positive qualities, the PPSh was a rather heavy weapon: the mass of the equipped model was 5.5 kg, and the disk magazine made it not very convenient for the crews of tanks and armored vehicles.

Soviet intelligence officers, paratroopers, sappers, signalmen and a number of other categories of military personnel also experienced a great need for smaller and lighter firearms.

An alternative to the PPSh was the Degtyarev submachine gun (PPD), but it was also quite heavy, moreover, expensive and difficult to manufacture.

In a RT commentary, specialist historian of the Victory Museum Alexander Mikhailov said that the Red Army soldiers often resorted to using captured German MP-38/40 submachine guns, which were armed with enemy tankers, paratroopers and policemen (in the USSR this model was mistakenly called "Schmeisser").

According to the expert, enemy weapons were popular among Soviet soldiers because they were lighter and more ergonomic than the PPSh.

In addition, due to the reduced rate of fire, the MP-38/40 was distinguished by fairly high accuracy.

The mass of the German submachine gun without cartridges was about 4 kg, length - 833 mm, effective firing range - 100 m. However, a serious problem with enemy weapons was their whimsicality - when dirt hit, the weapon often jammed.

“With the advent of the teaching staff and the re-equipment of the Red Army units with this submachine gun, the practice of using captured German MP-38/40 ceased.

Moreover, Sudayev’s submachine gun turned out to be lighter than the German one, and the rate of fire, accuracy of battle and the reliability of weapons in battle were many times higher, ”Mikhailov emphasized.

PPS fired a 7.62 × 25 mm caliber cartridge widely used in the USSR from a TT pistol.

The mass of weapons of the 1942 model without ammunition was 3.155 kg (with cartridges - 3.63 kg), length with folded butt - 640 mm (with unfolded - 910 mm), rate of fire - 700 rounds per minute, effective range - 200 m, lethal distance forces - up to 800 m, the capacity of the box (sector) store - 35 rounds.

  • Red Army soldiers with teaching staff

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Andrey Kotliarchuk/Russian Look

In 1943, Sudayev developed an improved modification - PPS-43, which became even lighter and shorter than its predecessor.

It was she who received the greatest distribution in the troops of the Soviet army. 

A lower rate of fire compared to the PPSh was provided in the PPS due to the longer stroke of the moving parts.

Sudayev borrowed this mechanism from a colleague in the design department, Lieutenant Ivan Bezruchko-Vysotsky, who was awarded the Order of the Red Star for his development.

According to experts, the reduced rate of fire of the PPS provided a lower consumption of ammunition.

Most often, military personnel took on combat missions six stores that fit in two bags.

“The PPS has a lower rate of fire compared to the PPSh, which is not at all a disadvantage and a minus of Sudayev’s weapon compared to the Shpagin model.

This was done intentionally in order to improve the accuracy of fire and simplify the control of recoil during automatic fire, ”Mikhailov explained.

In order to simplify the design as much as possible, the PPS was deprived of the single-fire mode, but the Red Army soldiers adapted to the new weapon and could still fire single shots and short bursts.

“Perhaps the only conditional drawback of the PPS was the lack of a single-fire mode, but, getting used to Sudaevsky weapons, the fighters easily coped with this: with a short pull on the trigger, the submachine gun could fire one shot or give a short burst,” Mikhailov explained.

For operation in conditions of constant contact with various surfaces, Sudayev thought out the design of the fuse well.

He placed this mechanism in front of the trigger guard, and the fighter did not touch it, for example, when he left a narrow tank hatch in a hurry.

Thus, the possibility of a spontaneous shot was excluded.

The PPS was so light and compact that it fit freely on the tanker’s forearm, therefore, getting out of the tank hatch, the soldier could freely lean on the elbow of the hand on which the submachine gun was located.

In addition to the crews of armored vehicles, PPS was a highly demanded weapon among the assault units of the Red Army.

The popularity of the Sudaevsky submachine gun was also explained by its compact size and ease of use.

Weapons of Victory

According to Kalashnikov, Sudayev spent the entire blockade in Leningrad and, together with the inhabitants of the city, worked for the Victory, steadfastly enduring the hardships and hardships that befell the city during the German siege.

With the direct participation of the designer, the mass production of teaching staff was also established.

The brainchild of Sudayev turned out to be an unusually technological product - no special equipment was required for its manufacture.

As stated in the Encyclopedia of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, most of the parts were produced on press and stamping equipment using spot and arc electric welding.

In addition, the production of PPS-42 took three times less time and two times less metal than the production of PPSh.

  • Submachine gun Sudayev in the park "Patriot"

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

In 1943, more than 46 thousand submachine guns of the 1942 model were produced.

Subsequently, the pace of production of Sudaev weapons increased manifold.

In total, the industry of the USSR supplied the Red Army with more than 760 thousand teaching staff of both modifications.

Nevertheless, the PPS did not become a replacement for the PPSh, the production volume of which by the time the Sudaev weapons appeared had already exceeded several million units.

At the height of the war, the Soviet leadership considered it unjustified to transfer production facilities to the manufacture of a new, more efficient submachine gun.

“Despite a number of advantages over the PPSh, the Sudayev submachine gun still went as an addition to the Shpagin system samples,” the encyclopedia of the Russian Ministry of Defense explains.

In the Soviet army, PPS was in service until the mid-1950s.

Basically, the submachine gun was used by parts of the Airborne Forces, the Marine Corps and the crews of armored vehicles.

At the same time, copies of Sudaev weapons were widely used abroad.

For example, Poland, under a Soviet license, produced a WZ 43/52 submachine gun with a wooden butt.

Other countries actively copied teaching staff without the permission of Moscow.

So, back in 1944, Finland remade the Soviet submachine gun chambered for 9 × 19 mm Parabellum and began to produce it under the name M-44.

And in the 1950s, on the basis of Finnish weapons, the German industry manufactured the DUX 53/59 submachine gun for the needs of the gendarmerie and border troops.

Until the 1980s, the actual copies of the teaching staff were in service with the Armed Forces of Spain, Norway, Bulgaria, North Korea and China.

As an expert of the Russian Military Historical Society Nikita Buranov said in an interview with RT, the design genius of Alexei Sudaev embodied in the teaching staff almost all the requirements of military personnel for a compact and at the same time quite powerful firearms.

“In the most difficult conditions of the blockade, Sudayev created a simple, lightweight, technologically advanced and very convenient submachine gun.

At first, it was used on the Leningrad Front, and after the blockade was broken, it was massively sent to the troops to equip paratroopers, reconnaissance officers, and crews of armored vehicles.

Without any doubt, the PPS is the weapon with which the Red Army forged the Victory over Nazism, ”summed up Buranov.