Twenty years after it entered production in Russia, North Vietnam began producing its own K-50M sub-machineguns. These were PPsHs with a shortened cooling jacket, a pistol grip, and a telescoping wire stock. These were used in the Vietnam War against South Vietnamese and American forces. In fact, the PPsH dispersed so widely across the globe that several were captured from insurgents by U.S. forces in Iraq in the twenty-first century.

While more flexible assault rifles have mostly superseded weapons like the PPsH on the frontline, the submachine gun remains a symbol of the Soviet struggle in World War II, a deadly tool that allowed Communist troops to overwhelm their enemies in close-quarter combat.

Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. (This first appeared in 2017.)

Image: Reuters.