Shpagin Submachine Gun (PPSh), Made in 1941

The PPSh is the 7.62 mm submachine gun, model 1941, designed by Georgy Shpagin, one of the most popular small arms of the Red Army. This example was made in 1941 in Vyatskiye Polyany, Kirov Oblast. It has a wooden stock, a barrel jacket with elongated slots, a drum magazine and a sling.

The weapon was conceived to be as simple and cheap as possible and was made by stamping and welding. The PPSh was adopted on 21 December 1940. Production began in the summer of 1941 at a plant in Zagorsk; in the autumn the plant was evacuated to Vyatskiye Polyany, and the first PPShs from there went to the front at the end of November 1941. This submachine gun thus belongs to the first months of the plant's work at its new site.

The drum magazine held 71 rounds but was heavy and costly, and in 1942 a curved box magazine for 35 rounds appeared. The PPSh fires about 1000 rounds per minute and weighs 3.5 kg without a magazine. Millions were produced during the war.