A submachine gun, abbreviated SMG, is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with markedly less firepower than a machine gun.
The Makarov pistol or PM is a Soviet semi-automatic pistol. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it became the Soviet Union's standard military and Militsya side arm in 1951.
The 7.62×25mm Tokarev cartridge is a Russian rimless bottlenecked pistol cartridge widely used in former Soviet states and in China, among other countries. The cartridge has since been replaced in most capacities by the 9×18mm Makarov in Russian service.
Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gas created by the ignition of the propellant charge.
The Škorpion vz. 61 is a Czechoslovak machine pistol developed in 1959 by Miroslav Rybář (1924–1970) and produced under the official designation Samopal vzor 61 by the Česká zbrojovka arms factory in Uherský Brod from 1963 to 1979.
The PM-63 RAK is a Polish 9×18mm submachine gun, designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc in cooperation with Tadeusz Bednarski, Grzegorz Czubak and Marian Wakalski. The RAK combines the characteristics of a self-loading pistol and a fully automatic submachine gun.
The Fedorov Avtomat or FA was a select-fire, crew-served automatic rifle and also one of the world's first operational automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and later in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A total of 3,200 Fedorov rifles were manufactured between 1915 and 1924 in the city of Kovrov; the vast majority of them were made after 1920. The weapon saw limited combat in World War I, but was used more substantially in the Russian Civil War and in the Winter War. Some consider it to be an "early predecessor" or "ancestor" to the modern assault rifle.
The CZ Model 25 was perhaps the best known of a series of Czechoslovak designed submachine guns introduced in 1948. There were four generally very similar submachine guns in this series: the Sa 23, Sa 24, Sa 25, and Sa 26. The primary designer was Jaroslav Holeček (1923–1977), chief engineer of the Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod arms factory.
The Jatimatic is a Finnish 9 mm submachine gun developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Jali Timari. The submachine gun made its debut in 1983. The Jatimatic was manufactured in very limited numbers initially by Tampereen Asepaja Oy of Tampere and later—Oy Golden Gun Ltd. The firearm was designed primarily for police, security forces and armored vehicle crews. It was never adopted into service by the Finnish Defence Forces, although the later GG-95 PDW version was tested by the FDF in the 1990s.
The PPD is a submachine gun originally designed in 1934 by Vasily Degtyaryov. The PPD had a conventional wooden stock, fired from an open bolt, and was capable of selective fire. It was replaced by the PPSh-41.
The PPSh-41 is a Soviet submachine gun designed by Georgy Shpagin as a cheap, reliable, and simplified alternative to the PPD-40. A common Russian nickname for the weapon is "papasha" (папа́ша), meaning "daddy", and it was sometimes called the "burp gun" because of its high fire rate.
The PP-90 is a Russian 9 mm folding submachine gun, developed by the KBP Instrument Design Bureau in Tula for use with special units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). It is designed for close quarters combat, particularly engagements that require the weapon to be deployed rapidly in unusual circumstances.
The PP-2000 is a submachine gun/machine pistol made by the KBP Instrument Design Bureau. It was first publicly displayed at the Interpolytech-2004 exhibition in Moscow even though its patent was filed in 2001 and issued in 2003.
The Stechkin automatic pistol or APS is a Soviet selective fire machine pistol chambered in 9×18mm Makarov and 9x19mm Parabellum introduced into service in 1951 for use with artillery and mortar crews, tank crews and aircraft personnel, where a cumbersome assault rifle was deemed unnecessary. Seeing service in a number of wars such as the Vietnam war, War in Donbass, and Syrian Civil War. The APS was praised for its innovative concept and good controllability for its size. However, the high cost of the weapon, complex and time-consuming machining, combined with a limited effective range, large size and weight for a pistol, and fragile buttstock have been mentioned as a reason to phase it out of active service in favour of an Assault rifle such as the AKS-74U. The pistol bears the name of its developer, Igor Stechkin.
The Korovin pistol is regarded as the first Soviet semi-automatic pistol.
The SR-2 "Veresk" is a Russian submachine gun designed to fire the 9×21mm Gyurza pistol cartridge.
The Sudayev AS-44 was an early Soviet assault rifle that was designed in 1944 by Alexey Sudayev. It was produced in limited numbers and tested during 1945, but its development ended in 1946 due to the death of its designer.
The PPS is a family of Soviet submachine guns chambered in 7.62×25mm Tokarev, developed by Alexei Sudayev as a low-cost personal defense weapon for reconnaissance units, vehicle crews and support service personnel.
The 7.63×25mm Mauser round was the original cartridge for the Mauser C96 service pistol. This cartridge headspaces on the shoulder of the case. It later served as the basis for the 7.62mm Tokarev cartridge commonly used in Soviet and Eastern Bloc weapons.
The PP-19 Vityaz is a 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun developed in 2004 by Izhmash. It is based on the AK-74 and offers a high degree of parts commonality with the AK-74. The gun is directly developed from the PP-19 Bizon. It is the standard submachine gun for all branches of the Russian military and police forces. "Vityaz" (витязь) is Russian for "knight".
