Shpagin's submachine gun was able to become what is called the "Weapon of Victory". Today, for residents of the former Soviet republics, it is the most recognizable submachine gun of the Second World War. At the same time, many forget that the USSR had far from one single PP. Right in the midst of the confrontation on the eastern front, Aleksey Ivanovich Sudaev proposed his own design, and in the end it turned out to be no less successful.
Today PPS-43 is almost completely forgotten. There is nothing surprising in this, because even in the photographs of the times of the Great Patriotic War, this weapon flickers much less often than the PPSh or the famous "Trilinear". Nevertheless, in the Red Army, the PPS was quite common. During the war years, these submachine guns were produced at least 500 thousand copies. For comparison, the legendary PPSh-41 over the war years came out with a circulation of more than 5 million copies.
The development of a new submachine gun for the Red Army began within the walls of the Sestroretsk Arms Factory in 1942. From the very beginning, it was conceived as an alternative to the PPSh. There was no talk of a complete replacement of the infantry PP. The question was that the PPSh-41, which had already managed to show itself well and recommend itself, in addition to its many advantages, still had specific disadvantages. "Shpagin" was suitable for the infantry, but poorly suited because of its weight and size for the role of weapons of scouts, paratroopers, truck drivers and crews of military vehicles.
The PPS-42 turned out to be a lightweight, compact and generally more reliable weapon in comparison with the repeatedly mentioned PPSh-41. Both machines used the same cartridges - 7.62x25 mm TT. At the same time, a more advanced sector store was used in the PPS-43, which was superior to the analogue for the PPSh in terms of reliability and equipment speed. The aiming range for both sub-units was about 200 meters. But the rate of fire varied greatly. "Shpagin" bypassed "Sudaev" by 300-400 rounds per minute. The infantry highly appreciated the PPSh precisely for the possibility of organizing a real lead shower.
The equipped PPSh, although it turned out almost 1 kg lighter than the equipped PPSh (and when equipping the latter with a sector store - by 2 kg). Thus, the Sudaev assault rifle saved about 5% of the load carried by the fighter. The assault rifle was much more ergonomic: it was more convenient to use it, the PPS reloaded almost a third faster, in addition, the assault rifle required a lower skill level from the shooter. The new weapon had only two problems. First, PPP was almost twice as difficult to manufacture as PCA. Secondly, they collected them for most of the war during the blockade. They made machines in Leningrad, and therefore, until the ring was completely removed in 1944, no more than 60 thousand of these were produced in the city.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then read about what is self-loading pistol "Boa constrictor".