Georgy Shpagin
| Georgy Shpagin | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin |
| Born |
April 17, 1897 Vladimir Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died |
February 6, 1952 (aged 54) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Buried at | Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow |
| Allegiance |
 Soviet Union
|
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |
Hero of the Socialist Labour Order of Suvorov Order of Lenin x 3 Order of the Red Star |
Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin (Russian: Георгий Семёнович Шпагин; April 17, 1897 – February 6, 1952) was a Russian weapons designer. He is best known as the creator of the famous PPSh-41 submachine gun, as well as working with Vasily Degtyaryov on the DShK heavy machine gun.
Shpagin was born in 1897 to a peasant family in Klyushnikovo close to Kovrovo, in what was then the Russian Empire. He attended school for three years, before becoming a carpenter at the age of 12 (in 1909). He was drafted into the Russian Army in 1916 to fight on the Eastern Front. He was assigned to repair artillery the following year.
During the Russian Revolution, he became a member of the Red Army, and worked as a gunsmith in Vladimir Oblast. After 1920, he worked in a workshop designing weapons in the same area, working with Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov and Vasily Degtyaryov.
After a decade and a half of unsuccessful attempts, in 1938 his workshop released the DShK heavy machine gun. It is still in widespread use as an anti-personnel gun, an anti-aircraft gun, and a light anti-tank weapon. About 8,000 of them were made during the Second World War. In 1940, he came up with his most accredited design, the PPSh-41 sub-machine gun, which was the staple automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Second World War. It was cheap to produce and easy to maintain. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1944.
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