Aleksey Ivanovich Sudaev (August 23, 1912, Alatyr, Simbirsk Governorate — August 17, 1946, Moscow) was a Soviet firearms designer, engineer-major, and recipient of the Stalin Prize, Second Class (1946).[1] He is best known for creating the PPS submachine gun, one of the finest weapons of its class of the Second World War.[2] Sudaev's Nizhny Novgorod connection: from 1936 to 1938 he studied at the Gorky Industrial Institute (now Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University).[2]

Biography and Education

Aleksey's father, Ivan Nilovich Sudaev, worked as a telegraph mechanic for the postal and telegraph district in Kazan and died in 1924, leaving twelve-year-old Aleksey and his two sisters dependent on their mother.[2] In 1929 Sudaev graduated from a vocational school and began work as a fitter.[2] In 1932 he received a diploma from the Gorky Construction Technical School in industrial transport and was assigned as a site technician to Soyuztransstroy in the village of Rudnichnoye in the Satka District of the Ural Region.[1] It was then, in 1933–1934, that his first inventions appeared: "Automatic Machine-Gun Fire by Means of Infrared Rays" and the "Gasoline Gauge."[2]

In the autumn of 1934 Sudaev was drafted into the Red Army and served in the railway troops, where he developed an interest in weapons design.[2] After the army he enrolled at the Gorky Industrial Institute, where he studied from 1936 to 1938 and showed pronounced inventive talent.[1] Thanks to this talent he was transferred to the F. E. Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy, which ran a school for firearms designers that recruited students from the country's technical universities.[2] In the spring of 1941 Sudaev defended his diploma project, a 7.62 mm light machine gun, with top marks, and did so in German.[3] On graduating from the academy he was awarded the rank of military engineer 3rd class, and in 1944 that of engineer-major.[4]

Weapons Design Career

After the academy, Sudaev was assigned to NIPSVO (the Scientific Research Proving Ground for Small Arms). His first practical assignment was to develop a simplified anti-aircraft mount that could be built at Moscow factories from available materials. The mount proved reliable and simple in design; production was established at the start of the war, and it distinguished itself during the defense of Moscow in the autumn of 1941.[1]

In 1942, Sudayev submitted a submachine gun of his own design for range trials. In combat qualities it was not inferior to the PPD and PPSh, but with a loaded magazine it was 1.7–1.8 kg lighter, required half as much metal, and took one-third the labor to manufacture.[2] On July 28, 1942, the weapon was adopted into service under the designation PPS-42, and after refinement as the PPS-43.[2] Production of the PPS was set up in besieged Leningrad: from late 1942 until June 1943, Sudayev personally supervised the manufacture of the guns and simplified the design as production went on. During 1943, 46,572 units were produced. The designer repeatedly traveled to front-line units on the Karelian Isthmus and the Oranienbaum bridgehead, collected soldiers' comments, and made changes to the design.[2] The PPS-43 subsequently came to be regarded, by a number of assessments, as the best submachine gun of the Second World War; licensed and unlicensed variants of it were produced in Hungary, Poland, Finland, Korea, and West Germany, and remained in service with a number of armies until the 1980s.[2]

In the last years of his life, Sudayev worked on an assault rifle chambered for the 7.62×39 mm intermediate cartridge. In 1944–1945 the AS-44 model was created, and a trial batch was produced by the Tula Arms Plant in the spring of 1945; however, following trials the weapon was judged too heavy and insufficiently accurate in grouping.[5] A number of the AS-44's design solutions — in particular, the placement of the bolt group above with increased clearances and the contact interaction of moving parts over small surface areas — were later used in the Kalashnikov rifle.[2]

Nizhny Novgorod Connection

In 1936–1938, Sudayev studied at the Gorky Industrial Institute — an educational institution that continues to operate today as the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R. E. Alekseev. It was here that his inventive abilities emerged, owing to which he was selected for transfer to the Artillery Academy.[1]

Final Years and Legacy

Aleksey Ivanovich Sudayev died on August 17, 1946, at the Kremlin Hospital at the age of 33 from a peptic ulcer, continuing to work on improving his assault rifle until his last days.[5] That same year he was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize, Second Class.[1] Sudayev was born in Alatyr — a town that is today part of the Chuvash Republic; his name is entered in the regional register of the area's famous natives.[4]

Sources

  1. cyclowiki.org — Sudayev, Aleksey Ivanovich — Cyclopedia
  2. землякичувашии.рф — Sudayev Aleksey Ivanovich
  3. proza.ru — Sudayev Aleksey Ivanovich. Weapons Designer (Sofia Khomich) / Proza.ru
  4. наследиечувашии.рф — Heritage of Chuvashia.rf: Sudayev, Aleksey Ivanovich (designer; 08/23/1912–08/17/1946)
  5. life.ru — Could a Better Assault Rifle Than the Kalashnikov Have Appeared? The Legend of Designer Sudayev