The Soviet policy in WWII was to
concentrate rigidly on one model for each type of
weapon, but during the siege of Leningrad the
supply of PPSh41s
fell very low. A prototype was hurriedly
developed in a local factory in a design suitable
for the equipment available. Quite naturally, it
was simple in the extreme, but proved to be quite
effective and was subsequently developed into the
PPS43. Unusual for a Soviet weapon, the PPS43
used only the 35 round box magazine.
The Chinese used this model
extensively in Korea, as well as a home-made version of the
PPSh41, although at first they had far more
weapons of other types: Japanese, Chinese Nationalist, US, British, and others. The light
weight, both of the basic weapon and the box
magazine, together with the foldable stock, were
attractive to the Chinese army, which was
essentially infantry, operating on Guerilla
principles of moving large distances in short
times, on foot.