PPSh-41 or PPSh wz.41 (colloquially: pepesh or pepecha) is a Soviet submachine gun cal. 7.62 mm from the period of World War II and the Cold War. The first prototypes of this weapon were made in 1940, and serial production continued in 1941-1948. In its course, over 5.5 million pieces of this weapon were created. The initial velocity of the projectile fired from this submachine gun was up to 550 m / s, and the theoretical rate of fire - up to 900 rounds per minute. The length of the weapon was about 83 centimeters, and the weight with a full drum magazine reached 5.4 kilograms. It is assumed that the effective shot range was around 125-150 meters. The PPSh-41 was developed for the needs of the Red Army by Georgy Shpagin, one of the best Soviet designers of small arms in the 20th century. The new weapon was to replace the too complicated PPD-40 submachine gun in the line. Compared to its predecessor, the new weapon had a very similar size and weight, but a slightly better theoretical rate of fire. On the other hand, it definitely dominated the ease of use, reliability and much lower production costs, which made it very suitable for mass production. Due to its advantages, the PPSh-41 quickly became the basic machine gun of the Red Army, used throughout the war with the Third Reich (1941-1945). It also entered the service of the Polish Army formed in the USSR. The presented submachine gun was also (after 1945) produced or exported in many countries around the world, including: Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary.
In the 1920s and - especially - in the 1930s, the Red Army underwent a rapid development in terms of increasing its posts, as well as increasing saturation with technical weapons, primarily armored weapons. Still, the infantry was the primary and numerically largest element of the Red Army. The intensive quantitative development of this type of weapon began at the turn of 1929/1930. In 1939, even before the aggression against Poland, the Soviet infantry was formed into 173 divisions (so-called rifle divisions), most of which were grouped in 43 corps. It is worth adding that after the September campaign in 1939, this number increased even more. The Soviet rifle division in 1941 consisted of three rifle regiments (three battalions each), an artillery regiment, after an anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery division, as well as reconnaissance and communication battalions. In total, it numbered about 14,500 people. However, by 1945 this position underwent significant changes, leading to a division of approximately 11,500-12,000 people, consisting of three infantry regiments, an artillery brigade consisting of three regiments, a self-propelled artillery squadron and many support units, including anti-tank, anti-aircraft weapons or communications. The saturation of infantry units with machine weapons has also increased significantly - for example with the submachine guns APsZ 41, and later APsZ 43.