PPSh-41

The PPSh-41 is a Soviet submachine gun designed by Georgy Shpagin and adopted by the Red Army in 1941, a simple, largely stamped-steel weapon designed for rapid mass production to arm Soviet infantry with high volumes of close-range automatic firepower during the Second World War. Most commonly issued with a 71-round drum magazine adapted from the earlier PPD-40, though later production increasingly used a simpler 35-round box magazine, the PPSh-41 was produced in the millions, and entire Soviet infantry units were at times equipped predominantly or entirely with submachine guns rather than rifles, emphasizing high close-range volume of fire over the accuracy and range of a bolt-action rifle, a doctrine well suited to the close urban combat of battles such as Stalingrad. Simple and rugged enough to be manufactured even in improvised wartime factories, the PPSh-41 remained in Soviet and allied service after the war and was widely distributed to Soviet-aligned and Communist forces during the Korean War and other Cold War-era conflicts.