Sergeant M. Katasonov scout 372nd Infantry Division, wielding a PPSh-41 sub-machine gun – one of the approximately 1.5 million produced by the Soviet Union during WWII.
The PPSh-41 is a classic example of a design adapted for mass production (other examples of such wartime design are the M3 submachine gun, MP40, PPS, and the Sten). Aside from the barrel, its parts could be made by a relatively unskilled workforce with simple equipment available in an auto repair garage or tin shop, freeing more skilled workers for other tasks. The PPSh-41 uses 87 components and could be manufactured with an estimated 7.3 machining hours.
Barrel production was often simplified by using barrels for the 7.62mm M1891 Mosin–Nagant rifle, cut in half and two PPSh barrels were made from it after machining the chamber for the 7.62mm Soviet submachine gun cartridge.