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The impetus for the development of the PPSh came partly from the Winter War against Finland, where the Finnish Army employed the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun as a highly effective tool for close-quarter fighting in forests and built-up urban areas.
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According to the 2002 edition of the Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, the PPSh remained in use with irregular militaries. In the form of the Chinese Type 50 (licensed copy), it continued in use with the Viet Cong as late as 1970. It became one of the major infantry weapons of the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II, with about six million PPSh-41s manufactured in this period, making it the most-produced submachine gun of the war. The PPSh saw extensive combat use during World War II and the Korean War in Eastern Bloc countries, monuments celebrating the actions of the Red Army commonly feature a PPSh-41. Made largely of stamped steel, it can be loaded with either a box or drum magazine and fires the 7.62×25mm Tokarev pistol round. The PPSh is a magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun using an open bolt, blowback action. A common Russian nickname for the weapon is " papasha" ( папа́ша), meaning "daddy", and it was sometimes called the "burp gun" because of its high fire-rate. 'Shpagin's machine-pistol') is a Soviet submachine gun designed by Georgy Shpagin as a cheap, reliable, and simplified alternative to the PPD-40. 35-round box magazine or 71-round drum magazineģ2-round box magazine (Captured German versions)
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