It's no secret that the legendary PPSh - the Shpagin submachine gun - was called and continues to be called the “weapon of victory”. But Sudayev’s submachine gun is rightly considered a weapon that created the prerequisite for victory, that is, a weapon that helped the Soviet troops break through the blockade of Leningrad. There is another aspect regarding this weapon. Sudayev's submachine gun is called the most effective weapon of World War II from the corresponding weapons category.
Introduction
It is very interesting that the development of weapons was carried out precisely in Leningrad surrounded by fascist occupiers. In the process of developing a submachine gun, the Sestroretsk Tool Plant took part. It is no less remarkable that all this was carried out under conditions that, to put it mildly, did not favor the creation of new weapons. The thing is that all the exact equipment was previously taken out of the Urals. There were no qualified personnel specialists who could speed up the process.
Sudaeva submachine gun was released after testing at the same factory. The Leningrad townsfolk, who found themselves in a blockade and who were able to survive the terrible years, really had to study the device of the remaining equipment and master it. As you know, the situation was very tense with food in Leningrad, and workers fainted here, right behind their equipment, behind their jobs.
The conditions were simply terrifying. But our people have always been strong in spirit: that during the war with Napoleon, that during the bloody war with Hitler and his multinational fascist army. And an ordinary Russian inventor in such conditions was able to create a weapon, thanks to which in many ways it was possible to break through the blockade ring, inside of which Leningrad was located. In fairness, it should be noted that these weapons are manufactured in factories to this day.
A brief biography of the designer
Sudaev Alexey Ivanoch himself was born in the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in the city of Alatyr. His father was a postal employee. He graduated from the vocational school Sudaev in 1929. From that moment he got a job as a locksmith. Later, the brilliant weapons engineer finished Gorky railway equipment, and then ended up in the office under the name Soyuztransstroy. There he took up the post of technician who overseen the railway section entrusted to him. His inventive talent began to appear at this particular time.
The first inventions of Sudaev
It was a "Gas Meter." Another Sudayev’s invention was materials on the subject of automatic firing using infrared rays from a machine gun. Sudayev’s submachine gun was perhaps the crown of his weapons career as an engineer, while he was awarded the first copyright certificate for developing a pneumatic tipper designed for use on self-unloading platforms.
He received the second testimony while serving in the army. Recall that then he developed a device called “Anti-theft”. Already serving in the railway troops, the designer began to actively engage in the repair of weapons and the development of weapons.
Anti-aircraft gun design
PPS (Sudaev's submachine gun) was developed some time after the engineer presented the design of the anti-aircraft gun to government officials . The background to this event is as follows. As mentioned earlier, Sudaev entered the Gorky Industrial Institute in 1936. But in parallel (and this happened two years later), he entered the artillery academy. And immediately to the 3rd course. An engineer graduated in 1941, successfully defending a diploma. By the way, his topic was an automatic pistol, the design of which Sudaev developed himself. In the same year, a brilliant designer convened a military commission, which introduced his own developments in the field of anti-aircraft weapons.
Prerequisites for Creating PPP
The military situation that took place in 1942 required decisive action to create a new automatic small arms weapon, which was intended for use by scouts, tank crews and paratroopers. Then the PCA already existed. But many representatives of these categories of troops complained that the submachine gun had a sufficiently large mass, large size, and the high rate of fire created problems in the field of transportation of ammunition.
That is why a corresponding competition was announced, the result of which was the invention of faculty. The weapon had to have tactical and technical characteristics that would be identical to the PPSh. But at the same time, the new software should have been much more convenient and less massive.
Very famous designers took part in the development. It was Degtyarev, Shpagin, Rukavishnikov, Korovin and Sudayev himself. But, unfortunately, life in the blockade was one of the reasons that greatly shook the health of the great gunsmith, and he died in 1946, in the prime of his life.
Weapons PPS-43 is just one instance from the entire model list. There were seven in total. For example, the initial option is PPS-42. The next model differed from its predecessor in the best combat qualities, as well as improved manufacturability.
The weapon of victory. PPP
There are some interesting facts related to this weapon. It’s probably no secret that the Germans altered captured Soviet weapons under their patron. For example, quite often this was done with captured PCA. But they never did this with faculty. Firstly, the reason for this was that the bullets in the Sudaev submachine gun were very, very rarely skewed. Secondly, by the end of the war, the German invaders had enough Soviet-style ammunition, and they needed to be put somewhere, used.