Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin (April 17, 1897, Klyushnikovo village, now Kovrovsky district of the Vladimir region - February 6, 1952, Moscow) - Soviet designer of small arms, Hero of Socialist Labor (1945).

The future designer was born in the village of Klyushnikovo into a peasant family.

Graduated from a three-year school. During the First World War, in 1916, Shpagin was drafted into the army and ended up in the regimental weapons workshop, where he got acquainted in detail with various domestic and foreign weapons. After the October Revolution, he worked as a gunsmith in one of the rifle regiments of the Red Army.

In 1920, after demobilization from the army, Georgy Shpagin entered the experimental workshop of the Kovrov weapons and machine gun factory, where V. G. Fedorov and V. A. Degtyarev worked at that time. Since 1922, he actively participated in the creation of new types of weapons.

One of the significant works of the designer was the modernization of the 12.7-mm Degtyarev heavy machine gun (DK), which was discontinued due to identified shortcomings. After Shpagin developed a belt feed module for the recreation center, in 1939 the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun of the 1938 model of the year - DShK". The mass production of the DShK began in 1940-41, and during the years of World War II, about 8 thousand machine guns were produced.

The creation of the 1941 model submachine gun (PPSh) brought the greatest fame to the designer. Developed as a replacement for the more expensive and difficult to manufacture PPD, the PPSh became the most massive automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War (in total, approximately 6,141,000 pieces were produced during the war years) and was in service until 1951. This "machine gun", as it was usually called, is one of the symbols of the Victory over fascist aggression and is repeatedly immortalized in works of art - sculptures, paintings, etc.

During the war, Shpagin worked on organizing the mass production of submachine guns of his system at the Vyatka-Polyansky machine-building plant in the Kirov region, where he was transferred at the beginning of 1941, improving their design and production technology. In addition, in 1943, Georgy Semyonovich developed the SPSh signal pistol.

Submachine guns appeared at the end of the First World War. Due to the lack of ideas about the most profitable tactics for using a new type of weapon, the shape of submachine guns gravitated towards magazine rifles - the same clumsy stock and wooden stock, and the weight and dimensions, especially when using high-capacity drum magazines, did not imply that maneuverability, which submachine guns acquired subsequently.

The idea of ​​a submachine gun is to use a pistol cartridge in an individual weapon for automatic firing. The low power of the cartridge, in comparison with the rifle, allows you to implement the simplest principle of operation of automation - the return of a massive free shutter. This opens up the possibility of making the weapon exceptionally simple, both structurally and technologically.

By the time the PPSh was created, a number of fairly advanced and reliable models of submachine guns already existed and were distributed. These are the Finnish Suomi submachine gun of the A.I. Lahti system, and the Austrian Steyer-Soloturn C I-100 designed by L. Shtange, and the German Bergman MP-18 / I and MP-28 / II designed by H. Schmeisser, the American pistol- Thompson machine gun and our Soviet PPD-40 submachine gun (and its early modifications), produced in small quantities.

With an eye on the foreign policy of the USSR and the international situation, it is clear that the need to have a modern model of a submachine gun in service, albeit with some delay, is also ripe in the USSR.

But our requirements for weapons have always differed (and will differ) from the requirements for weapons in the armies of other countries. This is the maximum simplicity and manufacturability, high reliability and non-failure operation in the most difficult conditions, and all this while maintaining the highest combat qualities.

The PPSh submachine gun was developed by designer G.S. Shpagin in 1940 and was tested along with other types of submachine guns. According to the test results, the PPSh submachine gun was recognized as the most satisfying of the set requirements and recommended for adoption. Under the name "7.62-mm submachine gun G.S. Shpagin arr. 1941" it was put into service at the end of December 1940. As D.N. Bolotin ("The History of Soviet Small Arms") points out, the survivability of the model designed by Shpagin was tested with 30,000 shots, after which the PP showed satisfactory accuracy of fire and good condition of parts. The reliability of automation was tested by shooting at elevation and declination angles of 85 degrees, with an artificially dusty mechanism, in the absence of lubrication (all parts were washed with kerosene and wiped dry with rags), by shooting 5000 rounds without cleaning the weapon. All this makes it possible to judge the exceptional reliability and non-failure operation of the weapon along with high combat qualities.

At the time of the creation of the PPSh submachine gun, methods and technologies for stamping and cold working of metals were not yet widespread. However, a significant percentage of PPSh parts, including the main ones, were designed for cold forging, and some parts for hot forging. So Shpagin successfully implemented the innovative idea of ​​​​creating a stamp-welded machine. The PPSh-41 submachine gun consisted of 87 factory parts, while the machine had only two threaded places, the thread was a simple fastener. For the processing of parts, it was required with a gross output of 5.6 machine-hours. (The data are given from the table of technological evaluation of submachine guns, placed in the book by D.N. Bolotin "History of Soviet small arms").

The design of the PPSh submachine gun did not contain scarce materials, there were not a large number of parts requiring complex processing, seamless pipes were not used. Its production could be carried out not only at military factories, but also at any enterprises with simple press and stamping equipment. This was the result of that simple principle of operation, which allows the implementation of a submachine gun, on the one hand, and a rational design solution, on the other.

Structurally, the PPSh submachine gun consists of a receiver and bolt boxes connected by a hinge, and in the assembled machine gun they are locked by a latch located in the rear of the receiver, a trigger box located in the stock, under the bolt box, and a wooden stock with a butt.

A barrel is placed in the receiver, the muzzle of which goes into the barrel guide hole in the front of the receiver, and the breech part goes into the liner hole, where it is cottered with the hinge axis. The receiver is also a barrel casing, and is equipped with rectangular cutouts for air circulation, which cools the barrel during firing. In front of the oblique section of the casing is covered with a diaphragm with a hole for the passage of a bullet. Such a device of the front part of the casing serves as a muzzle brake-compensator. Powder gases, acting on the inclined surface of the diaphragm and flowing up and to the sides through the cutouts of the casing, reduce recoil and reduce the upward drift of the barrel.

Shutter box PPSh-41

The barrel of the PPSh submachine gun is removable and can be separated when completely disassembled and replaced with another one. A massive bolt is placed in the bolt box, preloaded with a reciprocating mainspring. In the rear part of the bolt box there is a fiber shock absorber, which softens the blow of the bolt when firing in the rearmost position. A simple safety device is mounted on the bolt handle, which is a slider that moves along the handle, which can enter the front or rear cutouts of the receiver and, accordingly, close the bolt in the forward (stowed) or rear (cocked) position.

The trigger box contains the trigger mechanism and the release mechanism. The button for switching types of fire is displayed in front of the trigger and can occupy the extreme forward position, corresponding to single firing, and the extreme rear position, corresponding to automatic firing. When moving, the button removes the uncoupler lever from the trigger grip, or interacts with it. When the trigger is pressed, the bolt, released from the cocking, moving forward, deflects the uncoupler lever down, and the latter, if engaged with the trigger yoke, depresses it and thereby releases the trigger lever, which returns to its original position.

Initially, a drum magazine with a capacity of 71 cartridges was adopted for the PPSh submachine gun. The magazine consists of a magazine box with a lid, a drum with a spring and a feeder, and a rotating disk with a spiral comb - a snail. On the side of the body of the store there is an eyelet that serves to carry stores on the belt in the absence of bags. Cartridges in the store are placed in two streams, on the outer and inner sides of the spiral ridge of the snail. When feeding cartridges from an external stream, the snail rotates together with the cartridges under the action of a spring-loaded feeder. At the same time, the cartridges are removed by the box fold, located at the receiver, and output to the receiver, to the chambering line. After the cartridges of the outer stream are used up, the rotation of the snail is stopped by the stopper, while the exit of the inner stream is aligned with the receiver window, and the cartridges are squeezed out of the inner stream by the feeder, which, without stopping its movement, now begins to move relative to the stationary snail.

PPSh-41 modification with a night vision device

To fill the drum magazine with cartridges, it was necessary to remove the magazine cover, start the drum with the feeder two turns and fill the snail with cartridges - 32 rounds in the inner stream and 39 in the outer one. Then release the locked drum and close the magazine with a lid. There was also a simple device for accelerating the equipment of the store. But all the same, as can be seen from the description, the equipment of the magazine, in itself not difficult, was a long and complicated matter in comparison with the equipment of the box magazines that are now widespread. In addition, with a drum magazine, the weapon was quite heavy and bulky. Therefore, during the war, along with the drum, a much simpler and more compact box-shaped sector magazine with a capacity of 35 rounds was adopted for the PPSh submachine gun.

Initially, the PPSh submachine gun was equipped with a sector sight designed for shooting at a distance of up to 500 m, cut into every 50 meters. During the war, the sector sight was replaced by a simpler cross-over whole sight with two slots for firing at 100 and 200 m. The experience of combat operations showed that such a distance is quite sufficient for a submachine gun and such a sight, simpler in design and technologically, does not reduce combat weapon qualities.

PPSh-41, modification with a curved barrel and a box magazine for 35 rounds

In general, during the war, in conditions of mass production, with the release of tens of thousands of PCA every month, a number of changes were consistently introduced into the design of weapons aimed at simplifying the production technology and greater rationality in the design of some components and parts. In addition to changing the sight, the design of the hinge was also improved, where the cotter pin was replaced with a split spring tube, which simplified the mounting and replacement of the barrel. The magazine latch has been changed to reduce the chance of accidentally pressing it and losing the magazine.

The PPSh submachine gun proved itself so well on the battlefields that the Germans, who generally widely practiced the use of captured weapons, from rifles to howitzers, willingly used the Soviet machine gun, and it happened that German soldiers preferred the PPSh to the German MP-40. The PPSh-41 submachine gun, which was used without design changes, had the designation MP717 (r) ("r" in brackets stands for "russ" - "Russian", and was used in relation to all captured samples of Soviet weapons).

Drum magazine for 71 rounds
Drum magazine for 71 rounds disassembled

The PPSh-41 submachine gun, converted to fire 9x19 Parabellum cartridges using standard MP magazines, was designated MP41(r). The conversion of the PPSh, due to the fact that the cartridges 9x19 "Parabellum" and 7.62 x 25 TT (7.63 x 25 Mauser) were created on the basis of one sleeve and the diameters of the bases of the cartridge cases are completely identical, consisted only in replacing the 7.62 mm 9 mm barrel and installation of an adapter for German stores in the receiving window. In this case, both the adapter and the barrel could be removed and the machine could be turned back into a 7.62 mm sample.

The PPSh-41 submachine gun, having become the second consumer of pistol cartridges after the TT pistol, required not only an immeasurably larger production of these cartridges, but also the creation of cartridges with special types of bullets that are not required for a pistol, but are necessary for a submachine gun, and not police, and military sample. Along with the cartridge with an ordinary bullet with a lead core (P), cartridges with armor-piercing incendiary (P-41) and tracer (PT) bullets were developed and put into service, along with the cartridge developed earlier for the TT pistol. In addition, at the end of the war, a cartridge with a bullet with a steel stamped core (Pst) was developed and mastered in production. The use of a steel core, along with the savings in lead, increased the penetration of the bullet.

Due to the acute shortage of non-ferrous metals and bimetal (steel clad with tombac) and the growing needs of the active army in cartridges, during the war the production of cartridges with a bimetallic, and then completely steel, without any additional coating, was launched. Bullets were produced mainly with a bimetallic jacket, but also with an uncoated steel jacket. The brass sleeve has the designation "hl", bimetallic - "gzh", steel - "gs". (Currently, in relation to submachine gun and rifle-machine-gun cartridges, the abbreviation "gs" denotes a steel lacquered cartridge case. This is a different type of cartridge case.) Full designation of cartridges: "7.62Pgl", "7.62Pgzh", etc.

PPSh-41 with drum magazine for 71 rounds
PPSh-41 with 35-round box magazine

CHARACTERISTICS
Caliber - 7.62 mm
The weight:
without magazine - 3.5 kg
with equipment. disk store - 5.3 kg
with equipment. box magazine - 4.1 kg
Length - 842 mm
Magazine capacity (disk / box) - 71 / 35 rounds
Rate of fire about 1000 h / min
Rate of fire:
single - 30 high / min
box bursts - 70 h / min
long lines - 100 h / min
Muzzle velocity - 500 m/s
Sighting range - 500/200 m
Used cartridges - 7.62x22 mm (TT)

ADVANTAGES
Significant muzzle energy (665 J), high lethal and penetrating effect of the bullet. The high initial velocity of the bullet provides a good flatness of the trajectory of its flight, which facilitates the choice of the aiming point. A long aiming line, the presence of a recoil compensator and a wooden stock, which provides ease of aiming and holding density, contribute to good shooting accuracy, especially with single shots. In addition, a wooden butt can be used in hand-to-hand combat.
The casing of the bolt and barrel reliably protects the shooter's hands from burns. The fuse of the front sight completely closes it, reliably protecting it from shock and displacement. The translator of the type of fire near the trigger is convenient to switch.
The large capacity of the disk magazine ensures the density of fire. The presence of a double volute in the design of the disk magazine increases its resistance to impacts: the appearance of small dents does not cause delays when firing, as is often the case with PPDs. Reinforcement ribs on the side walls of the box magazine also increase its mechanical strength.
The submachine gun can be easily disassembled for cleaning and lubrication. In terms of effective firing range, the submachine gun is 1.2–1.4 times superior to the German MP-38/40.

DEFINITIONS OF THE DESIGN
A high rate of automatic fire leads to an increased consumption of cartridges and a spread of bullets. A large mass of weapons, especially with a disk store, makes it difficult to handle (maneuverability, carrying, etc.). The large mass of the shutter causes increased vibration of the weapon due to strong blows to the breech when moving forward and to the damper of the shutter when moving backward, which reduces the accuracy of bursts of fire, especially from unstable positions.
The low reliability of the fuse is the cause of accidental shots when the weapon is dropped and hit with the butt. It is more difficult to equip a disk store than a carob one.
The design of the fire mode translator is not entirely successful. In the event of a breakage or weakening of the translator's spring, spontaneous switching to automatic fire occurs.
A fixed striker causes delays in firing when the bolt cup is contaminated with soot or dust gets on thickened grease. Weakening of the magazine spring or even slight bending of the magazine bends often results in the cartridges sticking into the breech. The shutter can only be cocked with the right hand.

17.04.1897 – 06.02.1952

Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin- Soviet designer of small arms, Hero of Socialist Labor (1945).

Biography

The future designer was born in the village of Klyushnikovo into a peasant family.

Graduated from a three-year school. During the First World War, in 1916, Shpagin was drafted into the army and ended up in the regimental weapons workshop, where he got acquainted in detail with various domestic and foreign weapons. After the October Revolution, he worked as a gunsmith in one of the rifle regiments of the Red Army.

In 1920, after demobilization from the army, Georgy Shpagin entered the experimental workshop of the Kovrov Arms and Machine Gun Plant, where V. G. Fedorov and V. A. Degtyarev worked as a mechanic. Since 1922, he actively participated in the creation of new types of weapons.

One of the significant works of the designer was the modernization of the 12.7-mm Degtyarev heavy machine gun (DK), which was discontinued due to identified shortcomings. After Shpagin developed a belt feed module for the recreation center, in 1939 the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun of the 1938 model of the year - DShK." The mass production of DShK was started in 1940-41, and during the years of World War II, about 8 thousand machine guns were produced.

The creation of the submachine gun of the 1941 model of the year (PPSh) brought the greatest fame to the designer. Developed as a replacement for the more expensive and difficult to manufacture PPSh, the PPSh became the most massive automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War (in total, approximately 6,141,000 units were produced during the war years) and was in service until 1951. This "machine gun", as it was usually called, is one of the symbols of the Victory over fascist aggression and is repeatedly immortalized in works of art - sculptures, paintings, etc.

During the war, Shpagin worked on organizing the mass production of submachine guns of his system at the Vyatka-Polyansky machine-building plant in the Kirov region, where he was transferred at the beginning of 1941, improving their design and production technology. In addition, in 1943, Georgy Semyonovich developed the SPSh signal pistol.

Private bussiness

Georgy Semenovich Shpagin (1897-1952) was born in the village of Klyushnikovo, Vladimir province, into a peasant family. From the age of twelve he worked in a carpenter's artel, then he was a driver.

In 1916 he was drafted into the army, got into the regimental weapons workshop. After the revolution in 1918-1920 he worked as a gunsmith in one of the rifle regiments of the Red Army, served in the Vladimir garrison.

In 1920 he was demobilized, he entered the experimental workshop of the weapons and machine-gun factory in Kovrov, where the gunsmiths Vladimir Fedorov and Vasily Degtyarev worked at that time.

Since 1922, he participated in the creation of new models of small arms. In 1931, together with Degtyarev, he developed the DK-32 heavy machine gun, proposing an original belt feed module. The machine gun entered service in 1938, it was especially widely used in the air defense forces.

In 1939-1940, he designed the PPSh-41 submachine gun, which became the main automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Due to the simplicity of the design, the production of PPSh-41 could be organized at any, including non-specialized machine-building enterprises.

During the evacuation to the Kirov region, he was appointed chief designer of the Molot machine-building plant in the city of Vyatskiye Polyany. The plant was built in the fall of 1941 on the basis of a production facility near Moscow that produced drum magazines for PPSh. Soon it became the main enterprise for the manufacture of PPSh for the Soviet army.

During the war years, Shpagin made a number of changes to the design of the PPSh, which made it possible to reduce their cost from 500 rubles in 1941 to 142 rubles in 1943, and also to improve performance in difficult operating conditions.

In addition, Shpagin designed the 26-mm OPSh-1 signal pistol, which was put into service in 1943, at the same time his modified version of the SPSh-2 entered the army, and in 1944 - a 40-mm rocket launcher for recognizing aircraft in the air.

In September 1945, the designer was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

In 1946-1950 Shpagin was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Then the gunsmith was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Georgy Shpagin died on February 6, 1952, and was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery. The designer is survived by his wife and four daughters.

What is famous

The pinnacle of Georgy Shpagin's design thought is the PPSh-41 submachine gun he created in 1940. For the first time, a sample of small arms was created, in which most of the metal parts were made by cold stamping using spot and arc electric welding. Only the barrel was subjected to careful refinement on metalworking machines. Shpagin's design also had a minimum of threaded connections.

PPSh-41 was simple and reliable, available for mass production by low-skilled workers. 13.9 kilograms of metal and from 5.6 to 7.8 machine hours were spent on the manufacture of the Shpagin submachine gun (depending on the production capacity).

What you need to know

Georgy Shpagin

After World War II, the PPSh-41 was discontinued in the USSR, giving way to the Kalashnikov assault rifle. At the same time, PPSh was supplied to socialist countries for a long time. In China, the assault rifle was called the "Top 50" and became the main small arms of the infantry during the Korean War.

In the early 1960s, the PPSh was in service with the Vietnamese People's Army and was used at the beginning of the war with the armies of South Vietnam and the United States. Until 1980, the machine was in service with the Afghan army. Until 1985, the PPSh was in service with the Nicaraguan People's Militia.

These days, the PPSh has been used by some separatists in eastern Ukraine, sourced from a World War II military arsenal.

Direct speech:

From the biographical article by Sergei Borisov "Word to Comrade Shpagin »: “Competitive tests were conducted without regard to the authorities. A strict commission sifted one sample after another. The modernized PPD Degtyarev also left the race. But Vasily Alekseevich did not leave in his hearts back to Kovrov, but remained to support his student. Because as it should: Shpagin only outwardly looked imperturbable, but in fact he was like a stretched string: a little bit - and it will break.

The tests were completed. Of the two submachine guns had to choose one.

Which one will win? Stamping or machine tool?

And who will win? Georgy Shpagin, a mechanic-designer of the Kovrov plant, or Boris Shpitalny, head of the Moscow OKB-15?

— Comrades! - the representative of the commission announced to the designers. - It was decided to complete the competition by testing samples not with 50, but with 70 thousand shots.

The nurse turned pale. Shpagin was also uneasy: he was shivering, and his eyes seemed to be sprinkled with ashes. He got up and went to the forest, which encircled the landfill. There he sat down on the ground and… lost consciousness.

- Georgy Semenovich, Georgy Semenovich ...

Someone was pushing him. Shpagin opened his eyes.

- What's wrong with you? the test shooter asked anxiously.

— Yes fell asleep something.

“Well, you have nerves, too,” the gunslinger admired. - And your machine has withstood everything!

- That's good.

The commission's verdict was wordy: according to the results of field tests... and also taking into account the fact that the replacement of castings and forgings of the most labor-intensive parts with stamp-welded structures made of cheap metal, mainly 2-5 mm thick, gives a great saving of metal and allows to reduce the cost by several times... and also taking into account that in the production of the labor intensity of the Shpagin submachine gun is 5.6 machine hours, while the labor intensity of the Shpitalny submachine gun is 25.3 machine hours ... considering all of the above, the commission recommends ...

By a decree of the Soviet government of December 21, 1940, the Shpagin submachine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the name "7.62-mm Shpagin submachine gun model 1941 (PPSh-41)" ".

Shpagin about PPSh:“I set myself the goal that the new automatic weapons be extremely simple and uncomplicated to manufacture. If we really arm the huge Red Army with machine guns, I thought, and try to do this on the basis of the complex and labor-intensive technology adopted earlier, then what an incredible fleet of machine tools must be loaded, what a huge mass of people must be assigned to these machines. So I came up with the idea of ​​a stamp-welded design.”

5 facts about Georgy Shpagin:

• The Shpagin submachine gun was immediately nicknamed "daddy" by the soldiers.
• In the city of Vyatskiye Polyany there is a memorial house-museum of Shpagin, and a street in this city also bears his name. “The museum contains a lot of things that belonged to the Shpagin family, many of the exhibits were donated by the relatives of the designer. This buffet, table, chairs, dressing table, wardrobe. Personal belongings of Georgy Semenovich - a leather coat, a desk, books. Everything is very simple and modest,” writes Sergey Borisov, Shpagin’s biographer.
• The largest number of PPSh-41s was produced in Vyatskiye Polyany (about 2 million). In total, these weapons were produced in the USSR at 19 enterprises.
• According to some reports, during World War II, the Nazis used captured Shpagin submachine guns called Maschinenpistole 717. They were armed with units of the SS, the Wehrmacht and other military formations of Germany and its allies.
• For merits in the design of weapons, Shpagin was awarded three Orders of Lenin, Orders of Suvorov of the second degree and the Red Star, as well as medals.

Materials about George Shpagin:

PPSh-41 during the Great Patriotic War was the most popular and famous submachine gun in the USSR. The creator of this legendary weapon, which the soldiers lovingly called "daddy", was the gunsmith Georgy Shpagin.

Armory workshop

In 1916, during the First World War, Shpagin served in a weapons workshop, where he qualified as a gunsmith. Under the guidance of the Tula master Dedilov, Shpagin gained initial experience. Later, he himself recalled: “I ended up in an environment that I could only dream of. In the workshop, I spent hours getting acquainted with various models of domestic and foreign weapons. An interesting section of artillery equipment opened before me, at the sight of which I felt about the same as dying of thirst in front of a spring of spring water.

DShK

Georgy Semenovich made a significant contribution to the creation of 12.7 mm. heavy machine gun DShK. Created by Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev, the machine gun had a rate of fire of about 300 rounds per minute, which was very small for a weapon that was supposed to be used as an anti-aircraft machine gun. Shpagin developed metal machine-gun belts for the DShK and designed a cartridge receiver, which made it possible to increase the rate of fire to 600 rounds per minute. During the war years, the DShK proved to be quite good as an anti-aircraft machine gun and a weapon for combating lightly armored targets. Until now, in a number of countries, the modernized version of the DShK is in service with the army and navy.

When did PPSh appear

Often in films, monumental sculpture and painting, PPSh has been shown by Soviet soldiers from the first days of the war. However, in reality, the submachine gun that became a legend appeared in the army a little later. Officially, the Shpagin submachine gun of the 1941 model was put into service on December 21, 1940. Production was originally supposed to be established at the hardware plant in Zagorsk, since neither Tula nor Izhevsk had the necessary powerful press equipment. Until the autumn of 1941, about 3 thousand PPSh were produced, which subsequently went to the front. The documents mention the presence of PPSh in October 1941 in the battle of Moscow. At the same time, production began to improve at a number of Moscow enterprises, whose products began to enter the army in the late autumn of 1941. True, the number of PPSh at the end of 1941 was still extremely small.

PPSh 2

In the summer of 1942, another Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh-2) passed field tests. Like its predecessor, it was distinguished by its simplicity and reliability. The weapon was supplied with a detachable wooden butt. Food came from a sector magazine for 35 rounds. Here Shpagin managed to eliminate one of the shortcomings of the previous model - the rather large weight of the weapon. However, it was not possible to achieve high accuracy of fire. As a result, it was noted that the PPSh-2 does not have significant advantages over existing submachine guns, and this model was not officially adopted for service. Apparently, an experimental batch of several hundred units was made, which were later sent to the rear. Whether there were PPSh-2 at the front is a question that is waiting for its researcher and requires serious painstaking work that can give the most unexpected result.

How many PPSh were issued

The question of the number of Shpagin submachine guns produced in the USSR is still open. Researchers give a very approximate figure of about 5 million units - this is the most massive submachine gun and a model of automatic weapons of the Second World War. There will always be a discrepancy in the estimates, since not all samples released by the enterprise were accepted by military acceptance. The part was rejected and returned to the factory, and the rejected submachine gun could completely pass at the enterprise twice as a released unit at different times. Until now, there is no complete list of enterprises that were engaged in the production of PPSh. There are 19 manufacturers known to have produced any large batches, but there were a number of enterprises whose production lasted an extremely short time and it is extremely difficult to identify them. The largest number of PCA was produced in Vyatskiye Polyany (about 2 million) and somewhat less in Moscow, at the ZIS and the plant of calculating machines.

PCA in the world

In addition to the Red Army, the PPSh was actively used in a number of other countries, including opponents of the USSR. It is known that the Germans re-barreled 11 thousand captured PPSh under their 9 mm parabellum cartridge, noting: “In the attack of the MP-40; in defense - PPSh. In the post-war period, it was produced in North Korea. One of the first Korean PPSh (variant with a disk magazine) was presented to Stalin in 1949 for his 70th birthday.

Confession

Shpagin's activities were awarded in 1945 with the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. For the creation of a number of models of small arms, Shpagin was awarded the commander's order of Suvorov, 2nd degree, three orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star. In addition to the PPSh, Shpagin in 1943-1945 created two samples of a signal pistol, which were put into service. Georgy Semenovich also took part in the competition for the creation of an automatic weapon - a weapon under an intermediate cartridge. In the post-war period, due to the development of stomach cancer, Georgy Semenovich was forced to retire from design activities. The creator of the legendary PPSh passed away on February 6, 1952 at the age of 54. In Vyatskiye Polyany, where more than 2 million PPSh-41s were produced during the war years, a gunsmith museum was opened.

The famous Soviet gunsmith, designer, creator of the famous PPSh assault rifle Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin was born on April 17 (April 29, according to the new style), 1897 in the village of Klyushnikovo, now the Kovrovsky district of the Vladimir region, into a peasant family. He graduated from a three-year school. From the age of 12 he worked in a carpentry artel in the city of Kovrov.

In 1916, Georgy Shpagin was drafted into the Russian army and sent to the regimental weapons workshop, where he got acquainted in detail with various domestic and foreign weapons. In 1917, the well-established master was transferred to artillery workshops.

During the years of the Civil War, from 1918 to 1920, he was a gunsmith in a rifle regiment of the Red Army, served in the Vladimir garrison. In 1920, after demobilization from the army, G.S. Shpagin enters as a mechanic in the experimental workshop of the Kovrov weapons and machine gun factory, where V.G. worked at that time. Fedorov and V.A. Degtyarev.

Shpagin's first innovative work was to improve the design of the magazine for light machine guns, which greatly facilitated their manufacture without compromising combat performance.

Already in 1922, Georgy Shpagin completed independent design work: a ball mount for a coaxial 6.5-mm Fedorov-Ivanov tank machine gun.

Since 1922, Shpagin participated in the design of new models of small arms (7.62 mm DT tank machine gun and light machine gun - both together with V.A. Degtyarev). He created another ball mount for mounting a 7.62 mm DT tank machine gun in tanks, armored vehicles, armored platforms, as well as a tank version of this machine gun with a retractable butt.

A talented nugget, thanks to hard work, has grown into an outstanding weapons designer.

In 1931, Degtyarev attracted Shpagin to work on the design of his DK-32 heavy machine gun. In this work, G.S. Shpagin was no longer only an assistant to his teacher, but also a co-author. He proposed an original power supply system, which consisted of a drum-type receiver and a metal cartridge non-loose feed tape. The machine gun was put into service in 1938 under the name "12.7-mm large-caliber machine gun Degtyarev-Shpagin model 1938". It was especially widely used in the air defense forces.

In 1939-1940, Shpagin created a new submachine gun PPSh-41, which glorified the name of its creator and became the main automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.

This submachine gun impressed with the simplicity and elementary design, an abundance of new design solutions, and good performance. Of particular importance, especially during the war years, were the exceptionally high production and economic indicators of the new weapons. First of all, this concerned a significant reduction in labor costs for its production. The manufacture of the Shpagin submachine gun consumed 13.9 kg of metal and from 5.6 to 7.3-7.8 (depending on production capacity) machine hours. Only the barrel of the weapon was subjected to careful refinement on metalworking machines, the rest of the metal parts were made by cold stamping using spot and arc electric welding. In the design of the Shpagin submachine gun, exact press fits were almost completely absent and there were much fewer threaded connections. In general, the weapon turned out to be so simple that its production could be mastered at any, including non-specialized machine-building plants with press-forging equipment with a capacity of no more than 70-80 tons. In terms of its reliability, the PPSh was in no way inferior to similar models of weapons of other warring armies.

During the Great Patriotic War, G.S. Shpagin was evacuated to the city of Vyatskiye Polyany, Kirov Region, and was appointed chief designer of the Vyatka-Polyansky Molot machine-building plant. The plant was built in the autumn of 1941 on the basis of an unfinished factory and a plant evacuated from the Moscow region village of Lopasnya, which produced drum magazines for PPSh. Thanks to the labor heroism of the workers, as well as the hard work of the chief designer Shpagin, the plant became the main enterprise for the manufacture of PPSh for the Red Army. Of the 5.3 million PPSh that entered the troops during the war years, gunsmiths from Vyatskiye Polyany produced more than two million.

Simultaneously with the organization of mass production of submachine guns G.S. Shpagin was constantly working on improving the design of PPSh and the technology of their production. He made some changes to the PPSh design, due to both the accumulated combat experience and the modernization of mass production in-line. As a result, it was possible not only to reduce the already amazingly low cost of PPSh (from 500 rubles in 1941 to 142 rubles in 1943), but also to improve the functioning of the automation system in the most difficult operating conditions.

Shortly after the war, the PPSh-41 was withdrawn from service with the Soviet Army, but it was widely exported to pro-Soviet developing countries, and it could be seen in Africa even in the 80s of the twentieth century.

G.S. continued. Shpagin and design work. They created: the 26-mm signal (lighting) gun Shpagin OPSh-1, adopted for service in 1943, its significantly modernized version SPSh-2 (1943); aviation 40 mm rocket launcher (1944).

For the creation of new models of weapons that raise the combat power of the Red Army, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 16, 1945, Shpagin Georgy Semyonovich was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

Member of the CPSU (b) since 1944. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd convocation (1946-1950).

After the war G.S. Shpagin fell seriously ill and was forced to stop design activities. Lived in the hero city of Moscow.

Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin died on February 6, 1952. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot 4).

He was awarded three orders of Lenin (1941, 1943, 1945), orders of Suvorov 2nd degree (1945), Red Star (1938), medals. Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the USSR (1941).

In the city of Vyatskiye Polyany, a memorial house-museum of G.S. Shpagin, a street in this city bears his name. A memorial plaque was installed on the building of the Molot machine-building plant in honor of the designer. Monuments of G.S. Shpagin are installed in two centers of arms production in Russia - the city of Vyatskiye Polyany, Kirov Region, and the city of Kovrov, Vladimir Region.