29 April 1897 - 06 February 1952
Soviet small arms designer, Hero of Socialist Labor
Biography
The future designer was born in the village of Klyushnikovo into a peasant family.
Graduated from 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 became familiar with various domestic and foreign samples 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 as a mechanic, 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 designer’s significant works was the modernization of the 12.7 mm Degtyarev heavy machine gun (DK), which was discontinued due to identified deficiencies. After Shpagin developed a belt power module for the recreation center, in 1939 the improved machine gun was adopted by the Red Army under the designation “12.7 mm heavy machine gun Degtyareva - Shpagina model 1938 - DShK." Mass production of the DShK began in 1940-41, and during the Great Patriotic War, about 8 thousand machine guns were produced.
The greatest fame for the designer was brought to him by the creation of the 1941 model submachine gun (PPSh). Developed as a replacement for the more expensive and difficult to produce PPD, the PPSh became the most popular automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War (in total, approximately 6,141,000 units were produced during the war) and was in service until 1951. This “machine gun,” as it was usually called, is one of the symbols of Victory over fascist aggression and has been immortalized many times in works of art- sculptures, paintings, etc.
During the war, Shpagin worked on organizing mass production of submachine guns of his system at the Vyatsko-Polyansky Machine-Building Plant in Kirov region, where he was transferred at the beginning of 1941, improving their design and production technology. In addition, in 1943, Georgy Semenovich developed the SPS signal pistol.
He joined the CPSU(b) in 1944 and was a deputy. Supreme Council USSR II convocation (1946-1950).
Awards
- For the creation of new types of weapons, Shpagin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1945), and was awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1941).
- He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of Suvorov II degree, the Order of the Red Star and medals.
Memory
- A memorial house-museum of G. S. Shpagin was opened in the city of Vyatskie Polyany; a street in this city bears his name.
- On the building of the Molot machine-building plant in the city of Vyatskie Polyany, in honor of the designer, a memorial plaque was installed.
- Monuments to G.S. Shpagin were erected in two centers of arms production in Russia - the city of Vyatskie Polyany in the Kirov region and the city of Kovrov in the Vladimir region.
Shpagin submachine guns, along with the famous Grabin ZIS-3 guns, the famous Koshkin T-34 tanks and the legendary Katyushas, were the most popular and beloved weapons of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.
Georgy Semenovich Shpagin was born April 29 in 1897 in the village Klyuchnikovo, Kovrov district, Vladimir province, in a peasant family. At the age of 12, Yegorka Shpagin, having graduated from a three-year parochial school, went with his father to Kovrov to earn money. Here he acquired the carpentry profession, but injured his tendon with a chisel. index finger right hand. Therefore, when Shpagin was drafted into the army in 1916, he did not end up in combat units, but was assigned as a gunsmith to an infantry regiment. Being inquisitive, Shpagin quickly studied the Nagan revolver, the Mosin three-line rifle, and heavy machine gun“Maxim”, and light machine guns of foreign systems. Skillful hands, the ingenuity and initiative of the young gunsmith contributed to the fact that within a year he was transferred to army artillery workshops.
During the Civil War, Shpagin served in the Red Army as a gunsmith in the Vladimir garrison.
In 1920, after demobilization, Georgy Semenovich went to work as a mechanic in the exemplary workshop of the Kovrov Machine Gun Plant. The first thing Shpagin started working in the workshop with was assembling magazines for Fedorov assault rifles arr. 1916. Soon he proposes to simplify the assembly of the magazine by reducing the number of rivets and placing them so that the strength of the magazine box does not decrease, but the weight is reduced.
Creativity in work, the ingenuity of Georgy Semenovich attracted attention close attention plant director engineer Fedorov and head of the experimental workshop Degtyarev. He was allowed to work on the machines himself, and then young workers were assigned for training.
Successes inspired the young designer and strengthened his faith in his own abilities. His first developments include the design of a ball installation for coaxial 6.5-mm tank machine gun Fedorov - Ivanov. This work served as the basis for Shpagin’s subsequent creation of a ball mount for mounting a 7.62 mm DT tank machine gun in tanks, armored vehicles, and armored platforms. In 1924 - 1926 Shpagin actively worked together with Degtyarev on the creation of a light machine gun. Since that time, Shpagin has been entrusted with the development of critical components and new automatic systems. small arms.
In 1931, Degtyarev invited Shpagin to work on the design of his heavy machine gun DK-32. This work became one of the most important stages in the development of Georgy Semenovich as a weapons designer. He acted not only as an assistant to his teacher, but also as a co-author. For Degtyarev's 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, Shpagin proposed an original power supply system, consisting of a drum-type receiver and a metal cartridge non-scattered power supply belt. Red Army and Navy received into service in 1938, truly effective and very effective remedy military air defense under the name “12.7-mm heavy machine gun Degtyarev-Shpagin model 1938.” New machine gun I immediately received an excellent rating from the troops. Georgy Semenovich for success in creating new types of weapons and military equipment he is awarded first state award- Order of the Red Star.
After this, Shpagin decided to switch to independent creative work. Soon he created the famous PPSh submachine gun, which became a symbol of Soviet weapons during the Great Patriotic War. Shpagin subsequently wrote about his decision as follows: “From the very beginning, I set myself the goal that the new automatic weapon was extremely simple and uncomplicated to manufacture... So, I came up with the idea of a stamped-welded design. “To tell the truth, even experts in weapons production did not believe in the possibility of creating a stamp-welding machine.” However, Georgy Semenovich was not afraid to take a new path, taking advantage of the latest achievements engineering industry.
In September 1940, Shpagin presented an original submachine gun to the Artkom GAU, which amazed with the simplicity and elementary nature of its design. This submachine gun used new design solutions that greatly improved its performance characteristics. Along with this, Shpagin managed to achieve exceptionally high production and economic indicators of the new weapon. First of all, this concerned a significant reduction in labor costs for its production. The production of the Shpagin submachine gun required 13.9 kg of metal and from 5.6 to 7.3-7.8 (depending on production capacity) machine hours.
And only the barrel, in particular its channel, was subjected to careful finishing on metalworking machines; the remaining metal parts were made by cold stamping from a steel sheet 2-5 mm thick, using spot and electric arc welding. The design of the Shpagin submachine gun almost completely lacked precision press fits and had far fewer threaded connections. The progressive technology of its manufacture provided significant savings in metal, reducing labor intensity, and the use of cheap and non-scarce materials made it possible to reduce the cost several times. 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 and stamping equipment with a capacity of no more than 70-80 tons.
The high reliability of this submachine gun in any, including the most difficult conditions, is achieved by the simplicity of its design. He was not afraid of frost, snow, rain, sand, or dust. During testing, the PPSh showed record survivability - 70,000 rounds were fired from it without any breakdowns. The Shpagin submachine gun was disassembled into only five parts, which ensured its rapid study and mastery by the Red Army soldiers. To a large extent, this explains the good service and operational qualities of the submachine gun, which included: ease of loading and unloading weapons, elimination of delays, etc. “The experimental Shpagin submachine gun presented for testing,” the commission noted in its decision, “at large quantities parts made by stamping showed good results both with single and continuous fire.” This was a colossal success for the Kovrov gunsmith designer. The unpretentious weapon of the Shpagin system, having won a convincing victory over its competitors at a competition held in the fall of 1940, was adopted by the Red Army on December 21 of the same year under the name “7.62 mm Shpagin submachine gun model 1941 (PPSh-41)”.
Thus, on the very eve of the Great Patriotic War, the famous PPSh was created, which became a powerful weapon in the hands of the soldiers of the Red Army. Subsequently, Shpagin himself admitted: “I wanted the fighter to fall in love with my machine gun and believe in it. This was my dream, this is what I was striving for...” The exceptional simplicity of the design of his submachine gun made it possible in the very first months of the war to connect many factories to production, including those that had never been involved in the production of weapons. The first production of PPSh in July 1941 was mastered by the NKV USSR plant in Zagorsk, Moscow region, originally intended for the production of PPSh. The first batch of Shpagin submachine guns was tested at the front directly in battle. The results exceeded all expectations. Enthusiastic reviews came from the headquarters of units and formations; commanders asked to establish mass production of PPSh.
In October of the same year, due to the rapid advance of German troops towards the capital, the arms factory was evacuated to the city of Vyatskie Polyany, Kirov region, where a new production was organized on the basis of an unfinished bobbin factory. Another plant that produced drum magazines for PPSh was also evacuated here from the village of Lopasnya near Moscow. Shpagin was appointed chief designer of this plant, which became the head plant for the production of PPSh for the Red Army. The Vyatsko-Polyansky Machine-Building Plant worked very closely in cooperation with the Izhevsk metallurgical and machine-building plants, which provided it with metal, barrel blanks, significant amount necessary tools, equipment, etc. During the war, gunsmiths from Vyatskiye Polyany produced more than two million PPSh.
Significant needs of the Red Army for this powerful weapon served as the main reason that many non-specialized machine-building plants began its mass production, including in Voroshilovgrad, Zlatoust, Kovrov, and Tbilisi. However, Moscow became the second main center for the production of PPSh during the war. If in November the workers of the capital gave the front the first 400 PPSh, then in December at the height of the battle for Moscow soviet soldiers received 14,000 Shpagin submachine guns. During the war, Muscovites produced more than 3.5 million submachine guns designed by Shpagin. In just four years of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet defense industry produced 5.4 million PPSh model 1941
It is impossible not to mention international cooperation in the production of small arms for the Red Army. It's about about the Tehran Machine Gun Factory. In 1942, after the signing of an intergovernmental agreement, the Iranians were given all the technical documentation necessary equipment and equipment for the manufacture of PPSh submachine guns under Soviet license. During the war, our soldiers received several tens of thousands of Iranian-made PPSh.
Shpagin's submachine guns deprived the fascist invaders of their advantage over the Red Army in automatic small arms. Georgy Semenovich was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for the creation of a submachine gun, and he was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Already during the war, the design of the PPSh underwent some changes, due to both accumulated combat experience and the modernization of mass production. As a result, it was possible not only to reduce the cost of PPSh from 500 rubles. in 1941 to 142 rubles. in 1943, i.e. 3.5 times, and simplify its production, but also improve the functioning of the automation system in the most difficult operating conditions.
Thousands of Red Army soldiers and commanders thanked the designer for his excellent weapon. For example, in 1945 from active army Georgy Semenovich received a letter: “Dear comrade Shpagin! I sincerely thank you for the wonderful weapon - the PPSh assault rifle. I have been fighting with him for four years, and he has never refused me a fight. I walked with him from Moscow to Silesia and I’m thinking of going to Berlin. With soldier's greetings, Private Ivan Petrov".
The state appreciated the colossal work done by the designer to modernize his weapons. Shpagin was awarded one of the highest military leadership awards - the Order of Suvorov, second degree.
Along with the creation of submachine guns, Shpagin during the war years was also involved in the design of signal pistols (rocket launchers) of simplified designs, created using the latest technologies of the time - stamping and welding. In 1943, it was adopted by the Red Army 26-mm signal (lighting) pistol Shpagin (OPSH-1), designed for launching lighting and signal cartridges. In the same year, its design was significantly modernized, and the Red Army soldiers received a new, more effective 26-mm Shpagin signal pistol (SPSh-2). Later, on its basis, an aviation version of a 40-mm rocket launcher was created, which was used to send signals from an aircraft for the purpose of recognizing “friend or foe.” SPS signal pistols of a surprisingly simple and reliable design and to this day, 58 years after being put into service, still continue to faithfully serve, not only in the Russian Armed Forces and the armies of the CIS member states, but also in the armies of former countries - members of the Warsaw Pact, as well as many third world countries. For the creation of the signal pistol, Shpagin was awarded the second Order of Lenin.
Weapons created by G.S. Shpagin, was successfully used by Soviet soldiers on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Reliable fire weapon air defense and the fight against mechanized enemy units, the DShK heavy machine gun has proven itself.
The Shpagin submachine gun became the most popular automatic infantry weapon; with it, Soviet machine gunners fought in many countries of Europe and Asia. The rocket launcher designed by Shpagin is still used in our army to this day. The merits of Georgy Semenovich were highly appreciated by the state - in 1945 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
After the war, the seriously ill Shpagin retired from active design work. The famous Soviet gunsmith died in 1952 at the fifty-sixth year of his life. His ashes rest in the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. In the memory of millions Soviet soldiers He remained as the creator of the most popular domestic submachine gun during the Great Patriotic War, and in the history of the arms industry - as the designer who was the first to widely use stamped and welded parts and assemblies in his model of automatic weapons.
Source: “Brother” magazine, Sergey Monetchikov.
In Vyatskie Polyany the memory of the legendary small arms designer is honored. In 1982, machine builders opened a memorial house-museum. It is an ordinary wooden hut, standing on a high cliff in the old part of the city. In the same city, one of the streets is named after him.
A memorial plaque was installed on the building of the Molot machine-building plant in honor of the designer. Monuments to G.S. Shpagin were erected in two centers of arms production in Russia - the city of Vyatskie Polyany in the Kirov region and the city of Kovrov in the Vladimir region.
Born October 2, 1924. Ivanovka, Ivanovsky district, Amur region. Start labor activity on the collective farm it was established since school age. And in 1939 he was accepted into the staff of the Truzhenik collective farm in the Ivanovo region. A participant in the Great Patriotic War took part in combat operations - sergeant, rifleman, reconnaissance officer, observer, commander of the reconnaissance department of the 637th anti-tank fighter battery of the 358th separate battalion Marine Corps 232nd mountain rifle regiment Suchansky coastal defense sector of the Pacific Fleet. In the following years after serving in the army, he was in Soviet, party and leadership work: political officer of the Pervomaiskaya MTS, chairman of the collective farms named after Sverdlov, named after Drogoshevsky, chairman of the village council, ... He established himself as an initiative organizer, capable of solving any tasks assigned to him. In all areas of work he showed a high consciousness of duty and the responsibility assigned to him. Georgy Semyonovich has the ability to work with people and mobilize them. He is an active participant and organizer of all public events held in the village, district and region. Georgy Semyonovich Us enjoys well-deserved authority and respect from the residents of the region. For more than 25 years he served as chairman of the district council of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation. Thanks to his initiative and perseverance, the district center acquired its current appearance - green and well-maintained. For fourteen years, Georgy Semenovich was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Ivanovo village council, and from December 1991 to 2009 - head municipality Ivanovo village council. Awards: Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, Red Banner of Labor (1976), Friendship of Peoples (1994), medal "For Military Merit", small Golden medal All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, eleven medals, the badge “For achievements in culture” (1998), “Excellence in public education of the RSFSR” (1995), the honorary badge “For services to Amur region"No. 1 (2014), award badge "Small Amulet" (2005) and others. The name of Georgy Semyonovich Us is included in the book “ The best people Russia" (2005). Titles awarded: Honorable Sir village Ivanovka" (1999), "Honorary citizen of the village Bolsheozerka" (2007), Honorary citizen of the Ivanovsky district" (2001).
Material from the Wiki-Polyany encyclopedia
Creator of "Weapon of Victory"
Georgy Semenovich went down in Russian history domestic weapons as the creator of the famous PPSh. He belongs to the category of people who continue to live after their death. The history of the Vyatskopolyansk Machine-Building Plant, born during the harsh war years as the main supplier of PPSh, is connected with his name. Georgy Semenovich Shpagin is a special pride of the factory workers and residents of the city of Vyatskie Polyany.
The creator of the PPSh came to Vyatskie Polyany together with the factory team from the Moscow region. Shpagin devoted all his strength and knowledge to the rebirth of the enterprise in a new place and therefore deserves special attention.
Biography
Georgy Semenovich Shpagin was born on April 17 (April 29), 1897 in the village of Klyushnikovo, Kovrov district, Vladimir province, into a peasant family. Spring was already raging outside: the willow tree was blooming across the river, the delicate aroma of the delicate foliage of birches and poplars was emanating, and spring chores were already beginning in the fields and vegetable gardens and for the first time the cattle were being driven out to pasture. The newborn was named in honor of the holy warrior-great martyr, fearless people's intercessor Victorious George. And there was certainly a sign of God in this, for all my future life Georgy Semenovich Shpagin put it on the altar of Victory, for the sake of protecting the Fatherland from an uninvited enemy.
Both parents are from the village of Klyushnikovo: father, retired Semyon Venediktovich Shpagin (died December 30, 1933) and his legal wife Akulina Ivanovna (died May 17, 1950 in Kovrov). The family had four children: Fedor, Anna, Georgy and Elena.
For eight years, George was sent to a rural parochial school, three classes of which he graduated with a certificate of merit. Semyon Venediktovich looked at the certificate of commendation, and carefully rolling it into a tube, put it behind the icon, saying: “Well, Yegorka, well done! I’ve finished my studies now, let’s think about business.” As a teenager, Yegor Shpagin had to master the skills of a variety of jobs - metal, woodworking, laying stoves with his grandfather, carpentry with his father, shepherding. Clever and inquisitive, Georgy sought to know everything, learn everything, and make something on his own. One day, a sharp chisel broke and cut the tendons of the index finger of his right hand, which remained inactive for the rest of his life.
In 1910, his father sent Georgy as a “boy” to Andreev’s store in the city of Rylsk, Kursk province.
The owner sent Yegor to his farm for agricultural work. Georgy ran away from his owner from back-breaking agricultural work on a farm. He worked in the village as an agricultural worker, hired by stronger peasants, and in winters at glass factories, transporting fuel and sand.
In May 1916, Georgy Shpagin was drafted ahead of schedule into the tsarist army, served at the front (western front) in the 14th Georgian Grenadier Regiment in a weapons workshop, where he qualified as a gunsmith. Due to a damaged index finger, he did not get into the active army, because... the finger did not bend and therefore he could not shoot. The armory workshop was led by an experienced Tula craftsman, Yakov Vasilievich Dedilov.
Later, recalling this period of his life, Shpagin says: “I found myself in an environment that I could only dream of. In the workshop, I spent hours getting acquainted with various types of weapons, domestic and foreign. A most interesting section opened before me artillery equipment, at the sight of which I felt about the same as someone dying of thirst in front of a spring of spring water.”
At first, Georgy Shpagin worked as an assistant. Gradually he learned one operation after another, learned how to repair rifles, but he was not allowed to use machine guns. Now his dream was to study a machine gun...
Having made acquaintance with the craftsmen of the machine gun shop, Yegor soon became well versed in heavy machine guns. Soon he was transferred from assistants to machine shop workers.
Yakov Vasilyevich Dedilov, who became his first teacher, convinced Shpagin of his ability and argued that he should become a master gunsmith.
“You have a weapon-specific surname – Shpagin, Shpaga, you need to understand this,” he told Georgy Semenovich more than once and strenuously invited him to his place in Tula after the war.
Staying in the weapons workshop had a beneficial effect on the future of the designer. He easily navigated small arms, learned how to fix them, and most importantly, passionately fell in love with weapons.
The year 1918 was approaching. The decay has begun tsarist army. Georgy Semenovich was demobilized and left for his native village. Here he married his fellow villager Evdokia Pavlovna. He began to establish his own economy, but was drafted into the Red Army. The Civil War began. He was appointed gunsmith of the 8th Infantry Regiment in the city of Vladimir. With great enthusiasm, he set about establishing the regimental economy of the Vladimir garrison and received gratitude from the command for his work.
In 1920, he was demobilized and entered the experimental workshop of the Kovrov plant as a mechanic, the technical director of which was the creator of the world's first machine gun (model 1916), V.G. Fedorov. Vladimir Grigorievich, designer and scientist, became the founder of the domestic school of automatic small arms. The design bureau for the development of automatic weapons that he created at the Kovrov plant was headed by the outstanding Russian gunsmith Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev. Fedorov and Degtyarev trained a whole galaxy of gunsmith designers. Among them G.S. Shpagin, S.G. Simonov, P.M. Goryunov.
The time Georgy Semenovich worked in the workshop was the period of growth of his knowledge and skill as a gunsmith, the period of formation of Shpagin the designer. The young worker brought elements of creativity even into the most mundane work. When Shpagin was tasked with assembling magazines for Fedorov’s machine guns, he proposed making fewer rivets and positioning them in such a way that this did not affect the strength of the structure and speeded up the production of magazines.
In 1922 V.G. Fedorov together with G.S. Shpagin created a 6.5 mm coaxial light machine gun, consisting of two Fedorov machine guns mounted with the bolts down.
Two years later, designer D.D. Ivanov, based on the 6.5 mm coaxial light machine gun of the Fedorov-Shpagin system, developed a project for installing coaxial machine guns in a tank. It was made in the form of a frame with a ball turret. But the model turned out to be very complex and cumbersome. G.S. undertook to simplify it. Shpagin. Georgy Semenovich exceeded all the expectations of his fellow designers. He removed 42 parts and completely changed the entire ball and socket system.
In 1929, Shpagin, together with Degtyarev, created a ball mount for the DT infantry machine gun of the Degtyarev system in a tank.
Later G.S. Shpagin developed an original belt-fed drum-type receiver for the DK machine gun. Without resorting to significant modifications to the machine gun itself, he managed to obtain a trouble-free cartridge supply system and increase its rate of fire. This decision was considered so significant that the new machine gun was given the name of both designers and called DShK - “DEGTYAREV and SHPAGIN LARGE-CALIBER.” In 1938, this truly effective and very effective means of military air defense was adopted by the Red Army and Navy.
The machine gun has good armor penetration (at a distance of 500 meters at an angle of 90° it penetrates 15 mm thick armor). At the end of the war, the DShK was modernized and turned out to be a long-lived model - it still remains in service. Along with this, under the leadership of V.A. Degtyarev, he created several designs of tripod machines for experimental DS machine guns, worked on various components and mechanisms of these weapons. The pinnacle of G.S. Shpagin’s design activity is rightly considered to be the submachine gun (PPSh) he created in 1940. He was the first to create a model of small arms, in which almost all metal parts were made by cold stamping, and wooden parts had a simple configuration.
On December 21, 1940, by decree of the Defense Committee, the 7.62 mm Shpagin system submachine gun of the 1941 model, PPSh-41, was adopted into service with the Red Army.
New design solutions were used in the Shpagin submachine gun, which greatly improved its performance characteristics, and along with this, the designer managed to achieve exceptionally high production and economic indicators of the new weapon. First of all, this concerned a significant reduction in labor costs for its production. From the very beginning G.S. Shpagin set himself the goal that the new automatic weapon would be extremely simple and uncomplicated to produce. If we really arm the Red Army with machine guns, thought Georgy Semenovich, and try to do this on the basis of the previously adopted complex and labor-intensive technology, then what an incredible fleet of machine tools would need to be loaded, what a huge mass of people would need to be assigned to the machines. So he came up with the idea of a stamped-welded design. PPSh became the first model of small arms in which stamping, arc and spot welding were used for the first time, which significantly reduced the time machining. Only the barrel, in particular its channel, was subjected to careful processing on metalworking machines; the remaining metal parts were made by cold stamping from a steel sheet using spot and electric arc welding; the wooden parts had a very simple configuration. Replacing castings and forgings for the production of the most labor-intensive weapon parts with stamp-welded structures made of sheet metal 2-5 mm thick provided particularly large savings in metal. Perhaps one of the most expensive and complex components in the design of the submachine gun was the drum magazine with a capacity of 71 rounds, taken without any changes from the PPD-40. The design of the submachine gun was almost entirely devoid of precision press fits and had far fewer threaded connections. Since the PPSh did not have threaded connections, no tools were required when disassembling and assembling it. The production of PPSh required three times less time than the Degtyarev machine gun. The trigger mechanism allowed both single and automatic fire. The German MP-40 could only fire in bursts, which led to excessive consumption of ammunition, the firing range was 200 m, the magazine was double, with a capacity of 64 rounds, the most common being 32 rounds. PPSh is convenient, lighter than other machines. It fired 1000 rounds per minute, when during the same time only 3 aimed shots could be fired from a rifle. The PPSh fire range is 500 m.
To protect the shooter's hands from heat when shooting, a casing with oval windows was placed on the barrel for better ventilation and cooling. The performance of the submachine gun designed by Shpagin was also enhanced by simple design The receiver cover hinged upward, unlike the PPD, where the receiver had a buttplate on a threaded connection. The high reliability of this submachine gun in any conditions, including the most difficult ones, is achieved by the simplicity of its design. It was disassembled into only 5 parts, which ensured its rapid study and mastery by the Red Army soldiers. To a large extent, this explains the good service and operational qualities of the submachine gun, which included: ease of loading and unloading weapons, eliminating delays, and so on.
It must be said that even experts in weapons production did not believe in the possibility of creating a stamping and welding machine.
Thus, on the very eve of the Great Patriotic War, the famous PPSh was created, which became an indispensable weapon in the hands of soldiers of the Red Army.
In March 1941, the Stalin Prizes were awarded for the first time, and among the first laureates were V.A. Degtyarev (for the creation of a small arms complex) and Shpagin (for the PPSh-41). In the same month, Shpagin was transferred to plant No. 367 in the Moscow region as head of the design bureau.
The simplicity of the PPSh design, the absence of the need to use alloy steels and special tools made it possible to organize its production at many, including non-specialized, machine-building plants.
Shpagin arrived in Vyatskie Polyany with his family and the factory team evacuated from the Moscow region in November 1941. People were placed in Vyatskie Polyany and nearby villages - Toima, Ershovka, Matveevo and others. The Shpagin family settled in a house on Lenin Street No. 1 and lived in it for almost 10 years.
Already during the war, the design of the Shpagin submachine gun underwent some changes, which were introduced as a result of accumulated combat experience, and modernization of mass flow production. Thus, the most common complaint among the troops was the drum magazine, which was heavy and inconvenient to wear, equip, and change on the weapon, especially since with the simplified workmanship characteristic of the production of wartime weapons, these magazines required individual adjustment to each PPSh. The labor intensity of their production at some stages (in the winter of 1941) delayed the overall release of PPSh. In addition, the troops often made complaints about a not entirely successful fuse. There have been numerous cases of spontaneous shots when hitting the ground with the butt or other hard objects. Constructor in shortest time eliminated these shortcomings. Already in February 1942, a sector magazine with 35 rounds, made of steel sheet 0.5 mm thick, was accepted for Shpagin submachine guns. However, their combat use showed that, despite all positive qualities new stores are not strong enough and are often subject to deformation. In 1943, magazines began to be produced more durable - from steel sheet 1 mm thick, which ensured their reliability under any operating conditions. In 1942, the design of the PPSh was once again completely revised in order to simplify and reduce the cost of production. Instead of the sector sight, the PPSh received a simplified reversible sight for 100 and 200 m, which made it possible to abandon the production of 7 parts at once. The spring fuse for the front sight was replaced with a welded fuse design, the bolt box holder was strengthened, and a more reliable magazine lock was installed. Chrome plating of the barrel made it possible to increase its survivability and facilitate the operation of the weapon.
In 1943-45 Soviet designers continued to work on improving submachine guns, including G.S. Shpagin, who in 1945 created a new model based on the PPSh-41 and PPSh-42.
The Shpagin submachine gun of the 1945 model was an all-metal version with an inserted compound butt. The receiver had an easy-to-manufacture rectangular shape. Unlike the previous ones, the new PPSh had a more thoughtful fuse design. For more safe handling with the weapon, along with the fuse located in the reloading handle, there was now another one in the form of a lever secured under a longitudinal groove in the receiver for the reloading handle. This lever, when raised, reliably fixed the bolt in the stowed position. Food was supplied from a sector magazine with a capacity of 35 rounds. The 1945 PPSh again received a sector sight, designed for a distance of up to 500 meters.
In the same year, Shpagin developed another original version of his PPSh-41 - with a curved bore. This weapon was a response to German machine guns with a “crooked barrel”, which were created specifically for tank crews to fight enemy infantrymen and grenade launchers in “dead” zones that cannot be fired from tanks at a distance of up to 15-20 meters. However, the curvature of the barrel led, in addition to a significant reduction in the initial speed of the bullets, to a very high dispersion when firing - at a distance of 50 meters, a target measuring 1x2 meters remained practically unhit.
These samples of Shpagin's weapons, however, like many submachine guns of other gunsmith designers, remained only in prototypes. The creation in 1943 of a 7.62 mm intermediate cartridge of the 1943 model made it possible to begin designing a new type of individual automatic weapon - machine guns (in the West - more corresponding to the class of automatic carbines or assault rifles). Along with other Soviet gunsmiths G.S. Shpagin began at the beginning of 1944 the development of a machine gun under intermediate cartridge. In the first design of his sample of a new weapon, Shpagin used the blowback recoil principle, which has proven itself in submachine guns, to operate the automation. In general, in terms of layout and disassembly and assembly techniques, the Shpagin assault rifle of the 1944 model was similar to the PPSh-41: the same hinged connection of the barrel casing, which at the same time served as a guide for the moving system with the trigger box. The trigger mechanism was striker-fired, allowing for single and continuous types of fire. The return mechanism is also similar to PPSh-41. Feeding from a sector magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds. However, Shpagin's attempt to use the old design of submachine guns with inertial locking of the bolt in an assault rifle designed for an intermediate cartridge failed due to the fact that the components and mechanisms of the weapon did not correspond to the significantly greater power of the new cartridge. The price to pay for this was the weight of the weapon with an unloaded magazine - 5.4 kg, with the weight of the bolt - 1.23 kg.
Along with the creation of submachine guns G.S. During the war, Shpagin was engaged in the design of signal pistols (rocket launchers) of simplified designs, created using the latest stamping and welding technologies of that time. Already in 1943, the 25 mm Shpagin signal pistol was adopted by the Red Army. In the same year, its design was significantly modernized and the Red Army soldiers received a new 26 mm Shpagin signal pistol (SPSh-2). SPS flare pistols had a surprisingly simple and reliable design. For the creation of the signal pistol, Shpagin was awarded the second Order of Lenin.
I want to talk about the man whom not everyone knows anymore. He has a house in Polyany Vyatskiye, in which, however, he does not live. An old house with lilacs and a bench, Looking into the bend of the river from the coastal slopes, The designer of the famous machine guns once lived here with his family. Here is his room, not a cunning way of life, And sometimes it seems incomprehensible - After all, he was terribly famous then, And he lived like everyone else - modestly and obsessively. I want to say about that man, About whom, it seemed, a lot has been said. He came from the factory to this house and smoked tobacco wearily at the window. And peering into the mirror of the river, he thought about something that short night, Perhaps he was worried about trifles, Perhaps he was worried about his daughters. Perhaps he was thinking about the factory, Perhaps about the hard times of war, In Mailbox the postman will throw my poems on the eve of my one hundred and twentieth birthday. I want to tell you about the man who looks sadly from the pedestal. Years later he came here in the tight grip of granite and cement. And Komsomolsky Square is littered with leaves Like letters from the fronts, now forgotten: “Comrade Shpagin, for the fact that I am alive I am obliged to your fiery machine,” “Comrade Shpagin, you saved our platoon.” “Comrade Shpagin, you are the blacksmith of Victory”... And he lives on Novodevichy and talks with the soldiers there. I want to talk about a man whom I didn’t know and he doesn’t know me. His old house stands in Polyany, In which the spirit of the era lives.
Soldiers of various units were armed with Shpagin submachine guns. For trouble-free operation in any conditions, PPSh was used great love Soviet soldiers and officers. Songs and ditties were composed about PPSh:
“As soon as I take aim with a PPSh, the Fritz will lose his soul!”
“I found a friend at the front, His name is simply PPSh. I go with him in snowstorms and blizzards, And my soul lives freely with him.” Georgy Semenovich was keenly interested in the fate of his brainchild. Despite being tired of
sleepless nights
, he corresponded with many front-line soldiers. Sergeant Grigory Shukhov, assessing the merits of the PPSh, wrote from the front to Shpagin: “Dear Georgy Semenovich, your machine guns work perfectly. We have already repulsed several fascist attacks with our company, And although they are vile, they keep pushing and turning - soon they will be dead! We stood to the death at the walls of Moscow.”
As a person, Shpagin was modest and sociable. Not only plant managers, shop managers, foremen, engineers, but also workers knew and loved him. And he himself knew almost everyone; he managed to talk with people not only about production matters, but also about their families and children. Georgy Semenovich wore a paramilitary cut jacket made of thick woolen “diagonal”, the same riding pants and chrome boots, and a leather coat.
He had a hobby - hunting. Shpagin was a typical Central Russian city hunter: hares and hounds in winter, ducks in spring and autumn. A friendly group of hunters has formed at the plant. We went most often on duck flights. Georgy Semenovich, when he went hunting, stood out in the general dialect for his Kovrov-Vladimir emphasis on the “o”. During the hunt, Shpagin became animated, took on the functions of the main person responsible for cooking the hunting duck stew, and after dinner he led the singing around the fire, singing simple Russian: “He’s walking along the Don” or “I’ll cover your sleigh with carpets...”
Selfless work brought Shpagin well-deserved honor and respect. For invention PPSh Shpagin in 1941 he was awarded the title of Stalin Prize Laureate, awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, medals, and was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Georgy Semenovich loved the city, the Vyatka nature, considered Vyatskie Polyany his second homeland and thought of staying here forever. But fate decreed otherwise. February 6, 1952 at 7:30 a.m. G.S. Shpagin died of stomach cancer.
He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 4), in Moscow. A delegation from the city of Vyatskie Polyany was sent to participate in the funeral ceremony. The coffin with the body of the late Georgy Semenovich was installed in the Marble Hall of the Ministry of Defense for farewell. Shpagin's funeral was organized with great honors. According to plant veteran Maria Filimonicheva, there was a sea of flowers.
Awards
- Title of laureate of the Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (1941)
- Order of Lenin - three times
- Order of the Red Star
- Order of Suvorov 2nd class
- Title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1945)
- Medals
Memory
In honor of the gunsmith designer, a monument was erected at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, a monument in Kovrov, not far from Victory Square.
The memory of the talented inventor-gunsmith is immortalized on Vyatka land.
A bronze bust of the inventor of the PPSh was installed in Komsomolsky Square (now G.S. Shpagin Square) in the city of Vyatskie Polyany (August 6, 1982).
And here stands up to his bust, cast in bronze, a private soldier of war and home front, worthy of both poetry and prose - Georgy Shpagin - the son of his native land.
A. Agalakova
A factory prize and scholarship named after G.S. was established. Shpagin in the year of the 100th anniversary of the designer-inventor (April 1997).
- Video
- Amateur film “And I Move On” from the Eureka film studio of the Vyatskopolyansky Machine Building Plant.
- Film by Gennady Antakov, dedicated to the designer-inventor G.S. Shpagin. Vyatskie Polyany, 2015 Movie " Legendary weapons . The history of the creation of PPSh". Film studio of the Molot-Weapon plant, together with Vyatskopolyansky historical museum
. Vyatskie Polyany, 2019
Photo gallery The creator of the most common type of weapon during the Great Patriotic War, the PPSh assault rifle, was born in 1897 in the village of Klyushnikovo, now Kovrovsky district, Vladimir region, into a poor peasant family. Graduated from three-year school. In 1916, Shpagin was drafted into the army and ended up in the regimental weapons workshop, where he became familiar with various domestic and foreign weapons in detail. After the revolution of 1917, he worked in a weapons workshop in one of the rifle regiments of the Red Army. In 1920, after demobilization from the army, Shpagin entered the experimental workshop of the Kovrov arms repair plant as a mechanic, where V. G. Fedorov, the inventor of the first Russian machine gun and the creator of machine guns and
PPD machine gun - V. A. Degtyarev. Since 1922 Shpagin began to participate in the creation of new weapons. Later, he modernized a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, called DShK. During the Great Patriotic War, Shpagin established mass production
Highly appreciating Degtyarev's weapons, at the beginning of 1940 Georgy Shpagin began developing his own submachine gun. Shpagin was neither an engineer nor a specialist in metal processing. He could only confirm the calculations with his imagination. Logic told him that technology was developing by leaps and bounds. And it’s unlikely that the Germans continue to produce machine guns based on the models of 1918 and 1920. Naturally, they have new products that may be more perfect weapon than those in service at that time Soviet army machine guns Degtyareva PPD. In the Degtyarev assault rifle, as in foreign systems, Shpagin saw one, but very large, drawback - the complexity of manufacturing. Observing in the workshops how PPDs were made, he calculated that at this rate it would take almost ten years to equip the army with machine guns!
What is needed is a new, extremely simple design of a machine gun that will ensure that weapons can be produced and equipped with them in the army within ten months, not ten years. Shpagin began working on a new machine design. He, of course, could attract draftsmen and transfer all the work to the design bureau. But he was not yet sure that his plan would be crowned with success. Therefore, he worked only at home, secretly from everyone... Shpagin wanted to do the same as once designer V.A. Degtyarev, who showed the head of the weapons workshop V.G. Fedorov a rough model of his famous DP machine gun. V. A. Degtyarev was Shpagin’s teacher and friend. In the twenty years that they knew each other, Shpagin did not remember a time when Degtyarev betrayed his soul. If automatic new system it will be better - Degtyarev will say so, no matter how much it hurts him. Degtyarev had long suspected that Shpagin was working on some kind of weapon.
But what is he developing: automatic rifle, carbine, machine gun or machine gun - it was difficult to guess. The idea of transferring the main parts of the machine gun to stamping seemed to Shpagin to be a real find. After all, if this could be achieved, then the production cycle would be reduced several times and short term factories could be set up mass release automatic weapons. When designing the submachine gun, Shpagin set himself the task of maintaining the high tactical and technical data of the Degtyarev submachine gun and achieving maximum simplification of the system and reducing the labor intensity of its manufacture. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Army was armed with four modifications of the Degtyarev submachine gun: PPD model 1934 with a sector magazine for 25 rounds without a guide clip for the magazine; PPD model 1934/1938 with a sector magazine for 25 rounds and a guide clip to reduce magazine swing; PPD model 1934/1938 with a disk magazine with a neck; bolt without firing pin, with a fixed striker; PPD model 1940 with a disc magazine without a neck; the box has front and rear magazine stops; bolt with a movable striker. “From the very beginning,” Shpagin later recalled, “I set myself the goal that the new automatic weapon would be extremely simple and uncomplicated to produce. If for real arm the huge Red Army with machine guns, I thought, and try to do this on the basis of the previously adopted complex and labor-intensive technology, then what an incredible fleet of machines must be loaded, what a huge mass of people must be assigned to these machines. “I must tell the truth, even experts in weapons production did not believe in the possibility of creating a stamp-welding machine... But I was convinced that my idea was correct.”
Shpagin often said that what is difficult to do is very simple. But to do it simply is very difficult. In September 1940 he produced the first prototype his submachine gun, which belongs to weapon systems with blowback recoil. Impact mechanism striker type. The trigger mechanism is designed for both single and continuous fire. Extraction and reflection of the spent cartridge case is carried out using an ejector located on the bolt and a reflector rigidly fixed to the bottom of the bolt box. The cartridges are fed from a detachable drum magazine with 71 cartridges. Sector sight with ten divisions corresponding to distances from 50 to 500 m.
In his system, Shpagin used a number of original design solutions. By introducing a shock absorber to absorb the shock of the bolt during movement to the rearmost position, an increase in the service life of the bolt and bolt box was achieved. The compact design of the trigger mechanism and a simpler bolt cover system, which can be easily folded up, simplified the assembly and disassembly of the submachine gun and eliminated a number of parts with threaded connections. The successful design of the muzzle brake, which also served as a compensator, improved the stability of the submachine gun when firing and increased its accuracy. On August 26, 1940, the Shpagin submachine gun was subjected to factory tests. “The experimental Shpagin submachine gun presented for testing,” the commission noted, “with a large number of parts made by stamping, showed good performance results both with single and continuous fire.
When shooting at different conditions The PPSh mechanisms worked satisfactorily.” At the same time as Shpagin, B. G. Shpitalny presented a submachine gun of his design. On October 4, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution to release a series of Shpagin and Shpitalny submachine guns for comparative tests. 25 Shpagin submachine guns and 15 Shpitalny submachine guns were manufactured. At the end of November 1940 they began field testing submachine guns of the Degtyarev (mass-produced), Shpagin and Shpitalny systems. Chief of the Main artillery control G.I. Kulik, reporting on the test results on December 3, 1940 to the Party Central Committee, wrote: “The experienced submachine gun of the Shpagin system passed the test in terms of the operation of automation and the reliability (durability) of parts and can be recommended for service with the Red Army instead of the PPD. Shpitalny’s submachine gun needs to be improved in terms of strengthening parts and reducing weight, since the principle of automation of a submachine gun is of interest and deserves attention.” To make a final decision on the adoption of a new type of submachine gun, by order of the People's Commissar of Armament B.L. Vannikorov, a special commission carried out a technological assessment of the tested samples on December 14, 1940. (The results of this assessment are presented in the table.) From the table it can be seen that the Shpagin submachine gun compares favorably with other systems in the ease of processing of the main parts and their availability for mass production.
The Shpagin submachine gun was the first type of small arms in which stamping and welding of parts were widely used.
The main parts were manufactured by cold stamping using spot and electric arc welding, which required minimum quantity machine hours for machining. Threaded connections and press fits were almost completely absent. New technology manufacturing provided great savings in metal, significantly shortened the production cycle and reduced labor intensity, while maintaining the high combat qualities of the weapon. On December 21, 1940, the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the adoption of the Shpagin submachine gun for service in the Soviet Army. It was given the name “Submachine gun of the Shpagin system mod. 1941" Thus, six months before the war, the famous PPSh was born. In the initial period of hostilities, the Soviet Army experienced an acute shortage of submachine guns. At that time, their distribution, as well as the distribution anti-tank rifles, worked personally Supreme Commander J.V. Stalin.
If in 1941 98,644 submachine guns were manufactured, including 5,868 units of Degtyarev systems, then in 1942, 1,499,269 submachine guns were already manufactured, that is, 16 times more. The following data gives an idea of the increase in the number of submachine guns in the Soviet Army during the war. By January 1, 1942, there were 55,147 submachine guns in the active army, by July 1, 1942 - 298,276, by January 1, 1943 - 678,068, by January 1, 1944 - 1,427,085. Shpagin for the creation PPSh was awarded the State Prize and he was awarded the Order of Lenin. From his teacher and older friend, Shpagin received a telegram with the following content: “I heartily congratulate you on your remarkable success, I give you a friendly hug, and I wish you new creative success. Degtyarev." “I am happy,” Shpagin later wrote, “that I was able to develop the design of the domestic PPSh submachine gun. Simple in design, convenient to use combat use, the machine gun soon received high praise from the front and, in its combat qualities and reliability in shooting, surpassed in many ways German machine guns...”
But Shpagin was already harboring thoughts about creating an even simpler and better machine design. From letters from front-line soldiers about the remarkable qualities of his machine gun, from conversations with gunsmiths, from his own observations, Shpagin gleaned a lot of material that convinced him that the machine gun could and should be improved, made even lighter and simpler, large quantity parts for stamping. After preliminary tests of the PPSh-2, which showed excellent results, the plant where Shpagin worked was instructed to produce 1000 pieces for testing. At the same time as Shpagin, several other designers were working on new models of machine guns, including the talented engineer A. Sudaev. The Sudayev assault rifle was also ordered for testing. In 1942, both machines were considered government commission. And although the Shpagin PPSh-2 assault rifle showed excellent qualities and its production costs compared to the PPSh-1 were reduced from 7 hours to 1 hour 55 minutes, preference was given to the Sudayev assault rifle - it turned out to be lighter and more trouble-free in shooting. But it was accepted for service Georgy Shpagin's new invention - a rocket pistol, for which the designer and inventor was awarded the second Order of Lenin and the Order of Suvorov, II degree. The creator of the PPSh assault rifle, Hero of Socialist Labor Georgy Semenovich Shpagin died on February 6, 1952 and was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
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